40
1911 isn't propaganda but more a relentless, serious, fiercely nationalistic bit of historical mythmaking.
What are people saying?
What are critics saying?
40
New York Daily News by Joe Neumaier
This drama, as traditional as its subject was epochal, is earnest and studious to a fault. Rarely has a film about upheaval felt more like a textbook.
30
Resulting mish-mash of exposition and speechifying opts to summarize rather than dramatize; one spends nearly as much time reading indigestible lumps of onscreen text as one does listening to the often distractingly post-dubbed dialogue.
38
It swoops, it pans, it noses around. The camerawork is almost as agitated as the editing. The directors seem to be trying to compensate for all the speechifying with as much random motion as possible.
30
Village Voice by Nick Pinkerton
If the success of epic storytelling were determined by the sheer number of unnecessary on-screen name tags, 1911 would be a masterpiece. But the small matters of characterization, audience identification, and scene-making are entirely absent here.
40
The star and co-director appears hopelessly out of place, trapped in a variety of awkward-fitting uniforms while forced to offer up laughably obvious battlefield advice ("Avoid gunfire!").
50
The New York Times by Rachel Saltz
What should be rousing stuff - a republic is born! the chains of feudalism thrown off! - remains a kind of lavishly illustrated history lesson. Even the irrepressible Mr. Chan (this is his 100th film) seems subdued.
50
The Globe and Mail (Toronto) by Stephen Cole
If 1911 doesn't impress as historical spectacle, neither does it rank high as a Jackie Chan film.