KINGS OF THE SUN
US, 1963, 108 minutes, Colour.
Yul Brynner, George Chakiris, Shirley Anne Field, Richard Basehart, Brad Dexter, Barry Morse.
Directed by J. Lee Thompson.
Kings of the Sun is a colourful and lavishly produced Saturday matinee style adventure. It is set in ancient Mexico with the kingdom of the Mayans as backgrounds. It provides Yul Brynner with an opportunity to look strong and athletic as a noble leader. There is an interesting supporting cast led by George Chakiris (soon after his Oscar win in West Side Story) as the king. The film has some interest with its setting in pre-Columbus Mexico and Texas. However, the ingredients, characters and situations are fairly predictable. There is a strong typical score by Elmer Bernstein and the film was directed by J. Lee-Thompson?, who had a variable career from the '50s to the '80s with such excellent films as Tiger Bay and The Guns of Navarone - and half a dozen Charles Bronson films in the '70s and '80s.
1. An enjoyable entertainment? Mexican- American background? Impact?
2. Production values: location photography - atmosphere of pre Columbus Mexico and America? Panavision? Decor? Action sequences?
3. The matinee epic style? Cast of thousands, exotic locations, human sacrifice, battles? How seriously was the film meant to be taken?
4. Audience knowledge of Mexico's ancient history, the Mayans, the Indians, the inhabitants of the United States before Columbus?
5. The background of the Mayan culture: the people, organisation, social customs, rulers? The importance of human sacrifice? History, nobility, wisdom? The wise king? The consequence of his death? The attack, the escape, decisions, the flight of the people? The girl, the fight, the pledge, the escape?
6. The migration and the drama of the sailing? An exodus?
7. The drama of the arrival, establishing themselves as a people, building, the question of trust in religion or not? Balam and his leadership, the relationship with Ixchel, the help of her father?
8. The Indians and their ownership of the land, the spy, the land being taken? Black Eagle as leader (and Yul Brynner's style)? His being captured, tied up, injured, healed? The build-up to the human sacrifice? The decision about his death? His being tended by Ixchel and loving her? The Indian attack? The pledges of peace? The film's emphasis on treaties and peace?
9. The possibilities of co-existence, mutual help and learning?
10. The final attack, the collaboration of the Indians with the Mayans, the strategy, heroism, Black Eagle's death?
11. The character of Balam? His youth, relationship with Ixchel, decisions about his people, leadership? The comparison with Black Eagle? Ixchel as heroine, torn between the two men?
12. An enjoyable adventure? A popular picture of a civilisation? Questions of religion, culture, war and peace?
