Please don't spend money on this.

Overrated and overhyped

Good movie, but best of all time? Hardly . . .

A great movie, one of the best of this year. There was a bit of confusion at one point in the plot, but nothing serious.

. . . during a JUAREZ story carefully crafted to speak as much to America's (then Far) Future as it does to Mexico's Past. Warner is intent here upon contrasting the end of America's Civil War, in which such top Advocates of Treason as Robert E. Lee were awarded lifetimes of Pigging Out in the Public Trough as University Presidents, with the concurrent climax of Mexico's Civil War, which saw Leader JUAREZ gunning down ALL the Traitors, snooty "Royals" and Commoner alike. By 1939, Warner Brass could see that while Mexico had never again slipped under the Thumb of the Blue Blood Plutocrats such as the plugged-full-of-bullets Maximilian Von Habsburg, in stark contrast the USA was frequently suffering under the self-perpetuating Racist Red State KKK Election-Rigging Rabble. Furthermore, Warner feared that Lee and his ilk's Demon Seed could fall prey to putting a Fat Cat One Per Center by birth such as Donald Von Trumpsburg into a position to End America As We Know It by selling us out to a hostile Imperialist Foreign Power such as Red Commie Russia. Obviously, this Warner JUAREZ warning fell upon too many deaf ears. Now that we've lost the opportunity to nip Von Trumpsburg in the bud with minimal bloodshed, JUAREZ can still inspire We True Blue Normal Patriotic Loyal Average Union Label Americans to--in the words of Julia Ward Howe's "Battle Hymn of the Republic"--"trample down the vessels in which the Genes of Wrath are stored."

This movie is an unusual biopic. It is supposed to be about the great Mexican president Benito Juárez, but it ends up focusing more on the story of Emperor Maximilien.The story: In the 1860's, the French Emperor Napoleon III (Claude Rains) sends French forces to occupy Mexico, on the pretext of establishing a North American regime of the French empire. Napoleon sends the Austrian Maximilian of Hapsburg (Brian Aherne) and his wife, Charlotte of Belgium (Bette Davis), to be his puppet Emperor and Empress of Mexico. But Benito Juárez (Paul Muni) organizes the Mexican peasantry to fight back against the French.As usual with biopics, this is the American Hollywood version of Mexican history. As the ill-fated Maximilian, Brian Aherne actually has more screen time than the title character. He gives a good performance of a well-meaning but naive emperor who wants to rule the Mexican people justly, but can't understand the concepts of democracy. The American filmmakers obviously decided that it was better to focus on the romantic European characters than on the Mexicans.Paul Muni, meanwhile, has little to do in his role as Juárez. Oh sure, he occasionally makes grim-faced, wise-and-meaningful speeches about democracy (with a portrait of Abraham Lincoln strategically placed on the wall behind Muni, just to make sure we get the point.) But most of the time, he just stands around dressed in black, looking stern and Lincoln-like. Muni has one great scene, where he walks fearlessly toward a firing squad of Mexican soldiers who have been ordered to shoot him. John Wayne should have had such a walk! Bette Davis lends a fairly good (but not great) supporting performance as the troubled Empress Charlotte, who goes mad after Napoleon withdraws from Mexico and abandons her husband to his fate. John Garfield appears as Porfirio Diaz, and Claude Rains and Gale Sondergaard have brief but well-done scenes as Napoleon and his smarmy French Empress. (This was their second film together, after "Anthony Adverse," where they played the villainous couple. They had it down pat by this time.) But the movie really belongs to Aherne, who dominates the screen with his portrait of a "lost emperor"...who is lost in more ways than one.

The rating is for historical costuming, as the costuming and hairstyle details are excellent. The odd looking period hair styles that are seen in 1860's tintypes are faithfully rendered and lend a very authentic feel. If you are a stickler for such things, you will get a kick out of this one. Noteworthy is the look of Paul Muni's character, (the chameleon like Muni is alway fun to watch) with a dour looking do, as well as the split beard hair comb of the Hapsburg character, with a center comb part that runs right down the back of his head to the neck. Strange to the modern eye, but typical to the period, it takes guts to trot out your talent with such coiffures. Also, I have the hots for Gale Sondergaard, who plays the sultry Empress.

The plot of this film devotes more time to the character of Emperor Maximilian than it does the title character of Juarez. There is no development of the character of Juarez—who he was, where he came from, or how he got to the point where the plot begins.It seems as if this film was planned as an all-star vehicle, ensemble cast, somewhat like more modern films such as "Airport", "Towering Inferno" and "Poseidon Adventure". All members of the cast are reputable, capable well-known actors, each of whom has little tidbits of plot throughout the film.Some other reviewers have said that certain actors were miscast in their roles, but since each part is so small, does it really matter? As for other remarks about the omission of Latino actors in this film, that is incorrect as there were several, most notably Gilbert Roland. Check the IMDb complete cast listing and see for yourself. Keep in mind that the story mostly concerns characters of European descent, so you wouldn't be seeing the typical Mexican in the main roles. As for the comments about the lack of battle scenes, the plot is about intrigue, not the war.I think viewing this movie is a worthwhile expenditure of time, just to see so many good actors in one film.