Fans of Mel Gibson's Apocalypto may well enjoy J. Lee Thompson's 1963 Kings of the Sun, an exotic, widescreen adventure about the ancient Mayan civilization and its rocky relationship with a nomadic tribe. George Chakiris plays Balam, a young and inexperienced Mayan king who must lead his people from one part of Mexico to another via ships. Arriving at a seemingly uninhabited coast, Balam oversees the construction of a new kingdom, complete with a tall temple upon which an altar for human sacrifice rests. The problem for Balam is that he doesn't believe in the need for sacrificing people, creating a conflict when his own high priest (Richard Basehart) demands that Black Eagle (Yul Brynner), wounded chief of a local Indian tribe, be offered up to the Mayan gods. Complicating Balam's life even more is that his love interest, Ixchel (Shirley Anne Field), falls for Black Eagle while nursing him back to health. Everything leads to a kind of social experiment in coexistence that gets shaky whenever the subject of Ixchel comes up. Screenwriter Elliott Arnold (Broken Arrow) does a fine job of alternating the big picture of conflicting traditions and peoples with intimate moments of passion and disappointment. Thompson wraps the story in a fever-dream intensity, underscored by the undeniable sexuality of Brynner (who moves like a bronze cat) and Chakiris (who looks like a haughty demigod). The characters' lurches toward a more modern view of sacrifice and cooperation are fascinating and make Kings of the Sun as thoughtful as it is bigger-than-life. --Tom KeoghMore...
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