Redundant and unnecessary.

Please don't spend money on this.

Horrible, fascist and poorly acted

Good movie, but best of all time? Hardly . . .

I liked this film very much for the following reasons: Number 1) Yul Brynner. Number 2) Yul Brynner in a loin cloth. Number 3) Yul Brynner's body in a dark, rich suntan. Number 4) Yul Brynner's body glistening with oil. Number 5) Yul Brynner with his suntan oiled limbs stretched out & tied. Number 6) Yul Brynner writhing around on a bed of hay. Number 7) Yul Brynner strutting around like a jaguar. Number 8) Yul Brynner in several seductive poses. Number 9) Yul Brynner's deep sexy man voice whispering sweet nothings, even if it was to goofy blind Ixchel. Yes, blind! I would've run off with Chief Black Eagle immediately but yet she only heals him so he can be a human sacrifice for her people!

Kings of The Sun was more than about one actor Yule Brynner, although he did a terrific job, this movie was about a people a culture that history had proved existed. There are evidence of a culture on the Yucutan Pennisusula. We also know there is evidence of an ancient empire high in the Andies where temples and learned people existed. We also know throughout all of the United States great Indian nations thrived. There is even existences of great mounds of dirt that had been raised up as if for defense. Alas many of those have been knocked down and plowed under for planting grain. One thing implied by this movie was seeing saguaro cactus. That cactus only grows in one place, southern Arizona. Hollywood sure takes liberties to set mood but miss the boat. Black Chiefs tribe were more than likely Commanche as this group of Mayans landed in southern Texas. Continuing on with great Indian Nations Chief Pontiac established a great Federation which included most of the Eastern seaboard. It was highly organized and the various nations and tribes had commerce freely between one another. Kings of The Sun portrayed Mayan human sacrifice as a noble thing. The person being sacrificed was being a messenger to take the message of the nation to the Gods that crops would grow, water flow and whatever else the nation needed to remain strong. However, in Mel Gibson's Apocolypto the Mayans placed no such dignity upon such sacrifices. They raided weaker villages for slaves. The women they sold into slavery and the men they sacrificed.There are two Indian Nations that fought the Ubitrd States to a standstill: the Apache Nation in the west and the Seminoles in Florida. However, with the surrender of Gerinomo the Apache Nation finally were placed on reservations.As can be seen by this movie there's more than good acting, directing, editing and costuming. American history was being portrayed.

This is a wonderful movie that deals with the nature of sacrifice on an elementary and yet entertaining level. The marvel is that the glamor makes it appear as though the film is about everything but this vital issue at the heart of it. George Chakiris plays a Mayan Noble named Balam who inherits a kingdom from his father at a time when his people are being overwhelmed militarily by a rival king known as Hunac Kell, played malevolently by Leo Gordon. Balam wants to stand and fight, but his inner circle advises that he flee on ships with his people across the Gulf of Mexico.The Mayans are presented as a people able to explore higher levels of mind and this is reflected in the state of their culture and their accomplishments. The most glaring drawback to their way of life is their insistence on ritualized human sacrifice to propitiate to the gods. Balam has a strong moral reaction to this ancient practice advocated by the high priests Ah Min as played by Richard Baseheart and Ah Zok as played by Barry Morse, but is loath to speak against it and openly defy or censure this long standing cultural convention.Balam leads his people across the seas to a new land and somehow manages not to completely fulfill a vow he made by failing to observe a small point of etiquette with his intended bride Ixchel, as played by Shirley Field. While he busies his people in establishing their way of life with new structures for survival, he comes under the wary eye of Black Eagle, who has been watching them from afar even as they work to complete their ziggurat and crown it with their sacrificial altar.Yul Brynner captivates the imagination as Black Eagle. He is a nomad warrior hunter king; a natural leader of considerable personal charisma who rules his tribe with the sheer force of his personality. He plays the archetypal, romanticized Noble Savage to the hilt, and often looks like he is standing inside some Fine Art painting about Native Americans. There is a skillful manipulation of shadows and Brynner as a silhouetted figure in scenes that are charged with dramatic tension and the dread mystery of this being from another land, who, to paraphrase Nikki Giovanni, is not to be understood except by his permission. He comes across as someone who, instead of dying to his animal nature in order to be spiritually reborn, is grounded in it and exults in its sensual treasures in a natural way. I think Joseph Campbell would have loved this character! Director J. Lee Thompson and Director of Photography Joseph McDonald created one of many visual treats with Yul Brynner's Black Eagle.Balam and Black Eagle, after testing each other's mettle and skill in combat, seek to create a new bridge of understanding and a cultural exchange that will enrich both their peoples. This process is complicated by the fact that they both develop feelings for Ixchel, the intended bride of Balam, and this love triangle threatens to erect emotional walls that cannot be breached.Meanwhile, Hunac Kell suddenly arrives with a fleet of ships to finish what he started... The climatic battle scene is tinged with irony as most of it is fought around the ziggurat with swords ringing and blood being split over the sacrificial altar. Balam and Black Eagle, who wanted to create a world beyond the need for human sacrifice, seem unaware that their warriors falling for principle are exactly that in another form and yet the ritual of sacrifice that is war goes on to honor its dead.The themes in this film are so engrossing, that they rise above the production values and the fact that most of the Native Americans and Mayans are portrayed by Western actors. I particularly liked the scene where Balam comes up with a novel Mayan way to water the crops in this new land. I think the tail end of the falling action and the resolution could have been more exploratory. The film could have easily been an hour longer and I don't think I would have been bored with the contrasting tensions between these two cultures.

"Kings of the Sun" is the story of a civilization burst into full flower… In their profound desire to win favor from the deities, the Mayans made human sacrifice the keystone of their religion… Keeping the Buddhist monk hairstyle as his trademark, Brynner easily steals the show with his virile personality, distinctive look, speech and mannerism… He is Black Eagle, the barbarian chief who comes to the defense of the Mayans… George Chakiris plays Balam, the jaguar, king and son of kings to the ninth generation… Although in spite of being young and brave and untried, Chakiris lacks the heroic stature with which the role might have been satisfied… Shirley Anne Field is the delicate Ixchel who would never leave Black Eagle except if he ever used to tell her that he loved her… Richard Basehart is the high priest who tried to make the king understand that he cannot bring this new life to his people without giving a life… For a thousand years they've been bound by this law… The gods cannot be cheated… Leo Gordon is the tyrant Hunac Kell… His strength is a sword of metal and the Mayans are powerless against it… Filmed beautifully in Chichén Itzá, Yucatán – Mexico, J. Lee Thompson's motion picture is colorful and highly entertaining