Stanjaudit 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.

bkoganbing Kings Of The Sun maybe one of the very few films ever done about Pre- Columbian America that will not have a single member of the Eastern Hemisphere in it. It's curious the vision that we white folk bring to such an enterprise.One thing is certain and it's universally certain. The native populace of this hemisphere had its wars and rivalries way before Christopher Columbus, John Cabot or any of their contemporaries ever set a foot in what became North and South America. And romantic rivalries happen every place on the globe.Such a rivalry occurs in Kings Of The Sun where young king George Chakiris leads some of his key people and commandeers a whole tribe more of them because they have the votes to leave the Yucatan area and go miles up the coast. He's got reason to flee, a really nasty and vicious warrior king played by Leo Gordon has learned the use of metal and he's making weapons of mass destruction. Don't kid yourself in those times, the guy who invented that was on top in either hemisphere. Bearing that in mind, Chakiris flees to fight another day.The new hybrid tribe sets up further along the coast and they meet up with Yul Brynner's tribe. They look more like American Indians than the Chakiris crowd of Mayans do. I'm not sure how much farther up the coast of the Gulf of Mexico they went and I think the writers left it purposely vague.Chakiris had to make a bargain that he would marry the chief of the other tribe's daughter in order to put his fleet in operation. She's played by the fetching Shirley Anne Field and Brynner's got the hots for her also. That threatens to rip up a new friendship, especially when Leo Gordon and his crowd comes a calling.Though Kings Of The Sun is an impressive looking film and the players all perform well, I've a feeling it was intended to be far more ambitious than what eventually came out. Certainly people who are more versed Pre-Columbian native cultures could make a far better comment on the authenticity of it.

ccthemovieman-1 One major advance films have made since the "classic era" of the 1960s and before that, is in realism of characters. You don't see white people playing Asians or blacks or Indians anymore. When you do see it, in these old films, it now looks ludicrous and takes away from the seriousness of the movie.Yul Brynner, however, is one guy who could get away with it. Here, he plays Mexican-Indian warrior "Chief Black Eagle" and he's believable. Whether it's his deep, menacing voice or bald head with striking feature, Yul was cool no matter role he played.I can't say the same for the rest of the cast. The co-star, George Chakaris as "Balam (the ninth)" as the same pretty-boy hairstyle right out of the late '50s/early '60s; Richard Basehart ("Ah Min," a Mayan priest) has coloring on his face and wig you have to see to believe! Barry Morse ("Ah Zok") will forever be typecast as "Lt. Girard" the man who harassed for years TV's "The Fugitive." Meanwhile, there is film-TV-tough guy Leo Gordon as "Hunac Kell" and Shirley Anne Field as "Ixchel." Field is beautiful and looks the part, but a British accent in Mayan territory? However, as the film goes on, Field is more and more believable, for some reason.Whatever, there's always the story and a nice widescreen print now out on DVD, which I was fortunate enough to obtain for rent. It was filmed in the Yucatan, so the scenery is real - not some studio back lot.In the story, Balam's Mayans get pushed out of their area by a war-mongering neighbor, led by Kell. There is nowhere to escape except by water over the Gulf of Mexico. This was no easy feat back in these early days. They make it, start to build their new homes and civilization, only to run into the Indians who already reside nearby. They are led by Chief Black Eagle and he's not too friendly.The rest of the film answers two big question: 1 - What will happen between the two groups? Will one annihilate the other, or can they live in peace? 2 - What if the old enemies - Hunac Kell's barbarians - show up? And......of course, the big question: who gets the girl?

vic-232 I haven't seen the trailer for this movie, but I'm sure the words "Cast of Thousands" must have splashed across the screen in giant red letters."Kings of the Sun" is a costume melodrama with all the declaiming, strutting around, and general overacting characteristic of all the other costume melodramas produced in the late fifties and early sixties. The setting in pre-Columbian America doesn't really do all that much to distinguish it from the biblical epics filmed in the same period, and Yul Brynner's portrayal of an Indian chief is pretty much the same as his portrayal of an Egyptian pharaoh.Neither George Chakiris as the Maya king nor love interest Shirley Ann Field bear any resemblance at all to Mayans, of course, but nobody in 1963 would have expected they would. As a matter of fact, Chakiris's hairdo was sufficiently reminiscent of Frankie Avalon's to distract me the whole way through. Still, there's a nice score by the great Elmer Bernstein.Those who enjoy the genre will probably find some satisfaction in "Kings of the Sun," but certainly would be much happier with "The Ten Commandments" or "Spartacus."