At one point, Max sees witches in the mountains, who tell him that he will become the boss; shortly after this his wife, Mileidi (or Milady), convinces him to kill Durán.

"[2] Henríquez also said at the time of the film's release that he thought the story of "a desperate madman [clumsy] for power" would be accessible in Latin America.

[6] The review mainly sees the attempt at adaptation as bad for the film, saying that it is worse off for this; it does not stay close to the original; is "pretentious"; and will be scrutinized more for tackling such a famous work, thus exposing more failings.

Though accepting there were budget restrictions that caused extras to play living trees, the review criticizes the creative team for being too ambitious within their limits.

[6] Relating to the technological side, the reviewer notes the cinematography is good but also clashes with poorer aspects, and heavily criticizes the sound.

[6] In academic literature, Diana Medina Meléndez wrote that the film began a wave of early-21st-century adaptations made in the country.

[7] In their book, Levenson and Ormsby write that the portrayal of Max veers into folk-heroism, bringing to mind national figures like Simón Bolívar and Hugo Chávez.

They add that the play being a "political tragedy" has been used in the film "at a number of registers [...] to reflect on militaristic authoritarianism in an explicitly Venezuelan guise", also using imagery of the Archangel Michael commanding a heavenly army.