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6.5/10
Senior Film Conservator
A definitive 6.5/10 rating for a film that redefined the boundaries of cult cinema. Juarez and Maximillian remains a cornerstone of transgressive art.
If you like movies that treat history like a stage play where everyone stands in a line and yells, you might find something to love here. Everyone else? You’ll probably be checking your watch by the twenty-minute mark. It’s a very specific kind of old-school cinema that demands a lot of patience.
The whole thing feels like it was filmed inside a giant, drafty library. There’s a lot of talk about crowns and borders, and frankly, I stopped caring about the political nuances about halfway through.
Maximilian’s arrival is treated with such heavy-handed seriousness that you almost want to reach out and tell him to just turn the boat around. He’s walking into a buzzsaw, and the movie knows it, but it just can’t stop itself from dragging out every single tragic beat. It’s exhausting.
The lighting in some of these scenes is weirdly flat, too. Like they just turned on every light in the studio and hoped for the best. It gives the palace scenes this bizarre, stagey look that totally pulls you out of the moment.
There is a scene where someone is staring out a window, and the background painting is so obviously a painting that I spent three minutes trying to find the brushstrokes. It’s a little distracting. Also, the costumes are massive. They look like they weigh fifty pounds each.
Compared to the chaotic, weird energy of a movie like Freaks, this is just so polite. It’s almost boring how well-behaved everyone is, even when they’re about to be executed. Nobody trips, nobody says anything out of place. It’s all very rigid.
It’s not a disaster, but it’s not exactly a thrill ride either. It’s a movie that knows its history books inside and out but maybe forgot to invite a little bit of humanity into the room. If you’re a fan of period pieces, you’ll get your fill, but don’t expect to be moved.
I found myself thinking about The Gigolo Racket for no reason at all while watching this, probably because I wanted something, anything, with a bit more pulse. Sometimes you just want a movie that doesn't feel like it’s grading you on a test.
