Line #2 YMMV/FourteenNinetyTwoConquestOfParadise


1	* AmericansHateTingle: Filmic aspects aside, the movie keeps an ill reputation among Spanish critics as a fist-pumping example of the Spanish Black Legend, in this case to the extent of portraying history exactly backwards and having the Genoese UsefulNotes/ChristopherColumbus, whom even the Spaniards of his time would come to consider a criminal, portrayed as saintly and heroic in stark contrast to the racist and murderous [[UsefulNotes/TheKingdomOfSpain Kingdom of Spain]].
2	* SugarWiki/AwesomeMusic: The score by Music/{{Vangelis}}, particularly the [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GtmlAaybIEs eponymous theme]], is simply unforgettable.
3	* CompleteMonster: [[HistoricalVillainUpgrade Adrián de Moxica]] is imagined as UsefulNotes/ChristopherColumbus's ArchEnemy, a Spanish blackguard who immediately sees it fit to start indiscriminately slaughtering Native tribes the second he has pretext to. Swayed against this by [[HistoricalHeroUpgrade Columbus]], Moxica enslaves the natives instead, lopping off the hand of one who fails to bring him any gold. Moxica attempts to lead a bloody mutiny against Columbus and [[SpitefulSuicide spitefully commits suicide]] when this fails, mocking Columbus over how his dreams of a new Eden have failed.
4	* MemeticMutation: The glum description of Spain given in the prologue, especially the point about men being "persecuted for daring to dream", is sometimes sarcastically quoted by critics of the Black Legend. It was so memorable that popular Spanish historian Javier Rubio Donzé used the quote to promote his book about the topic in 2023, thirty years after the film was released.
5	* QuestionableCasting: The famously French Creator/GerardDepardieu being cast as the famously Italian Columbus raised more than a few eyebrows, though upon release many critics conceded that he did a damn good job in a film which was otherwise mediocre at best.
6	* TheyWastedAPerfectlyGoodPlot: Many have suggested that the film would have worked better as a miniseries than as a theatrical film, thus adding some much-needed depth to the plot and characterization and potentially avoiding the PoliticallyCorrectHistory for which the film has often been criticized.
7	* UncertainAudience: Considering historical colonists are not in vogue anymore, the film clearly didn't appeal to wide audiences, but given that it also gave Columbus a high level of HistoricalHeroUpgrade, it alienated history buffs too -- and given that it ''also'' left Spain with a purple eye by giving them a HistoricalVillainUpgrade blatant even for the usual standards, the film also managed to ruin its safest crowd. It's not hard to see why it failed.
8	* ValuesDissonance: While the film's PoliticallyCorrectHistory made it unpopular in its original release and was undoubtedly a major factor in its failure, as the collective narrative of Columbus and other Spanish/European colonizers being genocidal monsters has since become more widely accepted as a fact rather than interpretation (including among historians), a movie where he's depicted as benevolent to the natives now comes off as outright racist propaganda.

Context YMMV / FourteenNinetyTwoConquestOfParadise