Stevecorp Don't listen to the negative reviews

Casey Duggan It’s sentimental, ridiculously long and only occasionally funny

Mathilde the Guild Although I seem to have had higher expectations than I thought, the movie is super entertaining.

Philippa All of these films share one commonality, that being a kind of emotional center that humanizes a cast of monsters.

Lipstik 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!

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."

paulfpb My Father was posted to Wellington, New Zealand and remember seeing this movie there. The audience was basically young boys. We screamed and yelled throughout. I doubt if I saw the movie now, would have the same reaction. It is one of the few movies I saw as a young boy still gives me fond memories of a care free childhood. Isn't that what a movie should do? Yul Brynner's part was memorable and it was with sadness that he died at the end. Whenever I saw Richard Basehart I was always reminded of this Movie. The escape through the tunnel was wonderful, and it was with dread that we felt their paradise was short-lived. In the end good triumphed