The ancient Mayans of Mexico get a chance to have an alleged history told of their people as they are forced out of their land by a more ferocious tribe, crossing the future gulf of Mexico into modern day Texas where they encounter the natives who have stomped out any undesirable intruders in order to maintain the peace in their land. As the Mayan and Native Texan leaders, Oscar Winners George Chakaris and Yul Brynnur find themselves at odds. Having survived Rita Moreno in both "West Side Story" and "The King and I", they get the soft-spoken British Shirley Ann Field, playing one of Chakaris's people whom Brynnur takes a desire to. Field, an appealing young actress, however, is no Maria Montez, although Chakaris and Brynnur are adequate substitutes for Jon Hall and Sabu. Somehow, however, I found myself laughing at the English spoken by these two actors long before Europeans settled the west, as well as assumptions of the customs, costumes and courtoirs.It is also interesting to note that once Brynnur, being used as a possible sacrifice for the Mayan Gods, is set free and peace seems inevitable, all it takes is the rivalry over a woman to put the two people at war all over again. Fortunately, circumstances erupt which keep that from escalating, but in the final, I had the sudden urge to break into singing "Something Wonderful" from "The King and I" or "Somewhere" from "West Side Story". It makes me wonder if Jerome Robbins did the choreography for the native dances.Overall, I did enjoy the movie in spite of laughing at a lot of it, but in certain segments, it truly is extremely slow and slightly overlong. The sets do seem taken right out of Egyptian biblical epics, or at least some of MGM's recent "Tarzan" films. To add to the campiness, there is the Cecil B. DeMille like narration at the beginning, helping to explain the history of the Mayans and their Godly sacrifices.

Mesoamerica the age of Hunac Ceel a Mayan tyrant who seeks to conquer all other tribes in Mexico. Young king Balam takes his people across the gulf of Mexico to lead his people away from the danger , however upon arrival in what will become North America they are confronted by hostile native Americans who do not want intruders in their land. A lost gem of a movie it features outstanding acting , sets and costumes and the soundtrack is pure genius by Elmer Bernstien. Yul Brynner offers excellent charisma in the role of Chief Black Eagle however for me the real show stealer has to be George Chakiris as king Balam , young and handsome with great charisma and great hair he suits the role of the king perfectly and Shirley Anne Field as his beloved also gives a shining performance. One of the best epics if not the best , right up there with Spartacus and Cleopatra and a great film in general.

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."

I cut class to see this movie and ran into three older girls at the movies. We had to watch it a second time as we became totally involved with each other. So I have great memories of Kings of the Sun. I surprised it's not on VHS or DVD. Kings of the Sun was also a late night TV movie years ago. I keep hoping that it will be released as a DVD or VHS. There are lots of movies out there that don't hold a candle to Kings of the Sun. Believe me I know, as I watch quite a lot movies. This is one that I watch over and over. My copy isn't the greatest in the world. I copied it from TV to VHS and then DVD. It has the commercials and the tracking jumps every now and then but I still love it.