Que Viva Mexico! evolved during Eisenstein's travels throughout the regions of Mexico. His inspired vision, photographed by Eduard Tisse, one of the greatest cinematographers of his time, achieve scenes of archetypal intensity, and explore the simultaneity of past and present. Eisenstein's filmic language combines the monumental depiction of Mexican life with the power of a historical drama, including pastoral scenes of peace under the shadows of ancient pyramids, and the celebration of the Day of the Dead.

Seen within the oeuvre of Eisenstein's work, Que Viva Mexico! has a special position. It was not intended as a revolutionary montage like his silent films nor was it designed as a historical epos in the reign of his later films Aleksandr Nevsky (1938) or Ivan the Terrible (1945/1948). In its visual conception and complex construction Que Viva Mexico! is a film that evades categorization. One could best describe it as a documentary drama: there are narrative sequences of a complete fictional nature, while others show Mexican celebrations in a heightened documentary form. The contrasts between enactment and transformed reality were in constant dramatic interaction. Eisenstein's strong stylistic sense and formal domination influenced, changed, and structured events, resulting in powerful compositions and scenes.

Nothing like Que Viva Mexico! had existed before in the history of cinema, not even in the director's own work. It took the generation of the 1950's and 1960's, directors such as Godard and Melville, to explore these new areas of filmmaking. Today's generation, which has access to the achievements of the French nouveau vague, has seen the American underground films, and has shot contemporary video experiments, may be the first to fully understand Eisenstein's intentions. He questioned, as every director should do, the conventions of filmmaking and the expectations of cinema audiences. Many film historians are convinced that Que Viva Mexico! is one of Eisenstein's greatest films. Eisenstein's Que Viva Mexico!, for the first time reconstructed as it was meant to be seen, will be of inestimable importance to the understanding of cinema history.