One of my all time favorites.

Good story, Not enough for a whole film

A story that's too fascinating to pass by...

This is one of the few movies I've ever seen where the whole audience broke into spontaneous, loud applause a third of the way in.

"Hercules Against the Sons of the Sun" director Osvaldo Civirani and scenarists Alessandro Ferraù, Roberto Gianviti, and Luciano Trasatti concocted a warrior unlike any other in the annuals of traditional Sword & Sandal films. In some way, Kindar is like Superman, but he isn't an extraterrestrial. Instead, Kindar (Mark Forest) is born into royalty as the son of a sultan, but his birth is singular. He was born during a storm, and lightning struck his mother when he was born and killed her. Meantime, baby Kinder emerges as a man who isn't vulnerable to anything. Like Superman and Kryptonite, Kindar has only one weakness, a red rose. Actually, the red rose here is a metaphor for fire. Nothing but flames can harm Kindar. The Sultan is awestruck by this turn of affairs. Essentially, a villainous rebel leader, Seymuth (Mimmo Palmara), abducts the infant and raises him as his own. He keeps Kindar hidden for some twenty years, and Kindar hasn't the slight clue that Seymuth isn't his real father. When he rides into battle for the first time, Kindar lives up to his name as 'the Invulnerable.' Seymuth plans to use Kindar to lead his army of nomadic warriors into the city. Unfortunately, Seymuth's plan doesn't work out, and Kindar discovers that he is the son of Eman, King of Utor. Eventually, Kindar and Seymuth have a face-off.Civirani, who also served as cinematographer, lensed the action on location in Egypt as well as on the Nile River. The pyramids of Giza, Abusir, and Dahshur are visible in some long shots. The spectacle, Palmara's villainy, and the authentic Egyptian scenery make this Sword & Sandal melodrama tolerable, but it lacks surprises and revelations. Forest furnishes his solemn muscular presence, while Palmara is every inch an audacious dastard. Rosalba Neri and Dea Flowers provide the feminine pulchritude. Only serious Peplum fans should apply. "Kindar the Invulnerable" isn't one of Forest's better epics.

As foretold by the prophets there would one day arise a man who was born of lightning and would be invincible. And that's who Mark Forest plays in Kindar The Invulnerable.Someone must have been reading Superman comics and decided to create a Superman like character for their sword and sandal film. Forest is impervious to all, swords, spears, rocks. There is something in the prophecy also about a red flower being his Kryptonite, but no one can figure that one out.This was the last film made by Mark Forest aka Lou Degni of Brooklyn who went to Italy to study opera and paid his way through the lessons by doing these muscle films. He was the best looking of all the muscle dudes who were glutting the market with these epics in the early Sixties. I sincerely hope he had a good career in opera to make up for some of these films. He certainly had a focus.

The son of a Sultan named Siro, Kindar is born just as his mother is hit and killed by lightning. The strange happenings at his birth make Kindar invulnerable to all human attacks, save one – the mysterious red rose. But soon after his birth, Kindar is kidnapped and taken to grow up as the the son of a desert warrior and bandit named Seymuth. Seymuth's one ambition in life is to destroy Kindar's real father and his city. And with an invulnerable son at his side, no one would dare stand in his way. But before Seymuth's grand day of glory, Kindar learns the truth of his birth. Which side will Kindar choose – Siro or Seymuth? And how will the discovery of the red rose affect the events to come? Something of a rare peplum, Kindar the Invulnerable is also a bit different from the standard fare. Instead of ancient Athens or Rome or Sparta, Kindar the Invulnerable is set in the deserts of North Africa. I'm not sure where the movie was filmed, but it looks wonderfully authentic. The vast, empty deserts, the lush oasis, and the walled city of Uthera – it's a nice change of pace from the normal scenes of coliseums and chariot races. Another plus for me was the acting. While Mark Forest is basically "the body" the role of Kindar calls for, he's as good as any of the muscle-bound would-be actors that populated these peplums. In fact, I was actually a bit impressed with his acting prowess. The rest of the cast includes the always welcome genre favorite Rosalba Neri in a small role and Mimmo Palmara chewing more scenery than one actor has a right to in his role as Seymuth. I must admit that I was also enjoyed the performance of Dea Flowers in her one and only listed credit. I'm amazed she didn't do anything else. Finally, there are a couple of moments in Kindar the Invulnerable that really caught me off guard by how well they were shot. Two of my favorites that I'll mention are Kindar's nighttime trip into the walled city and the film's finale with Kindar back home holding his one true love. That last one may be hokey, but it's a wonderful shot nonetheless. You know, other than a slow patch in the film's second act, I've got no complaints. I'll give Kindar the Invulnerable a strong 6/10. If you're a fan of the genre, this is one worth seeking out for its uniqueness if nothing else.

...and yet this is probably Mark Forest's best film.I've purchased the WARRIORS DVD pack, which has 50 Sword & Sandal films included in one single package. The quality ranges from execrable to pretty decent action films. Of all the films I've watched up to now, this will probably be the most difficult one to review because part of it is bad but then some part it is pretty decent, in fact, surprisingly good. Because the transfer and image quality on the DVD was almost unwatchable, I cannot give an accurate opinion about the actual production qualities of the movie but needless to say, I have a good eye for these things and here's my rundown of KINDAR THE INVULNERABLE.Let's start with the bad: The acting is pretty bad. Mark Forest will never be mistaken as a great actor but in this movie he gives new meaning to wooden. Actors who played Hercules or Maciste or Goliath were never great actors to begin with and the producers of these movies sometimes compensated for this weakness by hiring dependable actors for the other roles. Not in this movie. Many of the other actors are weak, including the usually dependable Mimmo Palmara, who for some reason here overacts shamelessly.The direction is odd. A lot of scenes shot from faraway. So faraway that the only thing you see are human figures set against the desert with the dubbed voices booming out of nowhere. You know the actors are there somewhere but I couldn't make out who was who. It's like watching "radio".Speaking of voices, the dubbing and dialogue can only be described as all out terrible. The actor who dubbed Mark's dialogue was all wrong and his booming voice didn't match the beefy actor at all. During fights or any moment when characters are huffing or grunting, the dubbing makes it sound like someone is spitting on the microphone. I kid you not. Bad dubbing is not really the fault of the original filmmakers' vision but more the fault of the US distributors. Hopefully, the original Italian dialogue is not this bad.The film has some long moments. Even at 98 minutes, it felt like it lasted over 2 hours. Not a good sign for an action flick. The pacing would be improved considerably with a little editing here and there.Now with the good:Some action scenes are excellent. The fighting scene between Kindar and his brother is the highlight of the film. The location during that scene is amazing. I don't know where this sequence was shot but it was startling.The beginning is also startling. We see and hear a woman giving birth and then a lightning bolt strikes the bed and Kindar is born (and the reason why he's "invulnerable"). This scene is unintentionally funny because of combining a lightning bolt with a birth (!) but it's very surprising to see a woman giving birth to a child, with moans and all, in a kids picture made in 1964.Mark Forest as never been in better shape. He wears tights throughout the movie, which leaves nothing to the imagination. Sexually sensitive Fanboys beware.The sometimes bad acting is compensated by the fact that the cast is uniformly good looking. Mimmo Palmara, Dea Flowers, Howard Ross and most especially Rosalba Neri are all at their prime in regards to their looks. Rosalba is truly gorgeous as Kira. What a screen presence. And lastly, some shots are almost poetic. For instance, the last scene, when Mark and Dea stand against a river, with pyramids on the other side of the river, the reflection of those pyramids can be seen in the water. The effect is cool, subtle and very effective.There's another great moment in KINDAR: when Seymuth (Mimmo) is defeated and returns to his tribe. We see him with his dejected soldiers walking towards the camera in one long static shot. It's a beautiful moment. The music during that scene is excellent.Like I said, KINDAR is wildly inconsistent in regards to its level of quality. Something tells me that a good, clean transfer, with the original widescreen ratio aspect and Italian soundtrack would boost the quality of this Sword & Sandal. The pacing would still be too slow but still a vast improvement over what's currently available on DVD now. For now, this is my favorite Mark Forest S&S flick and one of the most original Peplums out there.