In 1931, Sergei Eisenstein shot some 50 hours of film in Mexico, designed as a 6-part epic mixing documentary and fiction, including a “Prologue” set in Yucatan; “Fiesta,” set in pre-1910 Mexico under the dictatorship of Diaz; “Sandunga,” a tale of Indians in Tehuantepec; “Maguey,” focusing on colonial peonage; “La Soldarera,” the story of those who made the revolution; and an “Epilogue” set in modern Mexico at the Day of the Dead pageant.

Lack of funds, problems with backers (including novelist Upton Sinclair), and a denied visa sent Eisenstein back to Russia, the project unfinished. Two films were made from the footage: Sol Lesser's Thunder Over Mexico (1933) and Marie Seaton's Time In The Sun (1930), but just what the film would have been if Eisenstein had completed it remained a matter of conjecture for film specialists over the years.

When the Museum of Modern Art presented Russia with five hours of footage, Eisenstein collaborator Grigori Alexandrov proceeded to edit it into a 90-minute film, based on the original Eisenstein conception. Released in 1979, this “definitive” Que Viva Mexico will be of enormous interest to Eisenstein students and, although its overdone music and certain of Alexandrov's editing choices will come as a (perhaps inevitable) disappointment after years of speculation as to what might have been, the brilliant photography of Eduard Tisse coupled with Eisenstein's compositions make it a film of interest to a broader film audience as well.