Solemplex To me, this movie is perfection.

Smartorhypo Highly Overrated But Still Good

TaryBiggBall It was OK. I don't see why everyone loves it so much. It wasn't very smart or deep or well-directed.

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

bkoganbing In the tradition of Becket comes The Royal Hunt Of The Sun, a piece of important history reduced to a personal struggle between two men. Only these two, Conquistador Francisco Pizarro and Emperor Atahualpa of the Incas have far more in common than they think.The Royal Hunt Of The Sun was a successful play on Broadway running for 261 performances, written by Peter Shaffer. It won a Tony Award for young David Carradine playing Atahualpa. But in the film version Robert Shaw plays Pizarro and Christopher Plummer who was Pizarro on stage plays Atahualpa. I'm guessing that Plummer's Pizarro was a bit less rough around the edges than Shaw is in the film.He's certainly a fascinating Atahualpa who like the early emperors of the Roman Empire took divinity unto himself. The problem is that when you're supposed to be a god, you have to occasionally do something really spectacular to prove your claim. That's what kind of undoes Plummer in the end.As for Pizarro, he never claimed he was anything, not even a gentleman. He was a soldier by profession, an illegitimate kid who raised pigs as a young man and left to join the Spanish army of Emperor Charles V. Atahualpa was also born on the wrong side of the blanket and defeated his brother in a civil war for the Inca Empire. That's a most human act and Pizarro is quick to notice.He also is a shrewd judge of the Inca psychology. When in that famous event he tricks Atahualpa into captivity, Pizarro realizes the empire built on a godhead emperor can't function without him. The Incas are paralyzed with the fact they're whole belief system is being put to the test and failing badly. Of course in theological discussions with Father Andrew Keir of the expedition, Atahualpa's not doing too bad himself. But these are only academic exercises.This is not a faithful adaption. The whole scene at Charles V's court with James Donald as the Emperor is written for the screen. A whole lot of peripheral characters have been changed as well. Still the spirit of what author Shaffer was trying to say is realized.The Royal Hunt Of The Sun is both entertaining and intellectually stimulating.

Hans C. Frederick Judging by the comments written previously,it seems that very few of the critics have sen this show done on the stage.Indeed,the only production that I have seen was at Ohio State University in May,1973.And it's the staging,and the transformations that occur on the stage,that makes it magical.The play looks at cultural clash between 2 totalitarian cultures;The Europeans,who place an emphasis on choice and free will;and the Incas,who live in a rigid,regimented society where everyone does as he is told,and are consequently taken care of.It's the ultimate in welfare states.Pizarro,in real life,was a brutal,bloodthirsty,cruel cutthroat,with the sensitivity of a mack truck.While lacking in true intelligence,he was nonetheless crafty and calculating,and an able conqueror,and later Spanish Viceroy of Peru.And in this story,we have this hard bitten adventurer going through an existential,"mid-life" crisis,searching for spiritual values,and a meaning for a more virtuous life.OK,so we've got an interpretation,and not a true historical drama.We can live with that.The real Atualpha was probably a naive dupe,trusting to the honor of the Spaniards,and paying,in the end,with his life.But Plummer gives the most off-the -wall performance of his career.While lunatics have had an accepted role in primitive cultures,it's usually in some sort of shaman role,not as the ruler.The real magic,alluded to earlier in this review,is in taking the story,as it develops,and giving a highly stylized rendition of the narrated event.The scaling of the Andes Mountains;the massacre and capture of the Inca;the retaliation and surrounding by the Indians;and the trial and strangulation of the Inca;are all seen as a symbolic representation on the stage.By showing it literally,as they do in this film,would require an epic budget.And,consequently,it just doesn't come across.We need a huge production,and this isn't it.Pizarro is a man,disillusioned with his own culture,and looking for redemption and a salvation,of sorts.He hopes to find it in the Inca society,something to give meaning to his own lonely,empty existence.He hopes,against hope,that Atualpha will resurrect from his execution,and validates Pizarro's hopes.And the failure of this revival leaves the old freebooter shattered.There should have been a greater emphasis on THIS,and not on a cut-rate epic.

Poseidon-3 Peter Shaffer's play receives a spotty film treatment in this talky drama. At first glance, the film seems to suggest that it will be an epic, but inescapably, based on the source, it is a drama and a rather static one at that. What may have been interesting and riveting on the stage (or maybe not!) is oppressively constricted here. A huge portion of the film takes place in a stone room. Shaw is famed Spanish explorer Pizarro, headed to Peru to capture gold for himself and his country. None of the voyage is shown. He is accompanied by Davenport (as DeSoto), Craig, Whiting, two priests, and a band of armed men. They come upon a Peruvian "God" and hold him hostage for gold (after slaughtering all of his followers who were present at the time.) This part is portrayed by Plummer in a very controversial performance. His exceedingly unique and dedicated performance is either hailed as brilliant or dismissed as bizarre and indulgent. It is certainly unusual in either case. He flits around half naked (displaying a startlingly fit body for a 42-year-old man, four years AFTER Captain Von Trapp!) with feathered headdress, long fingernails and a long black wig. He looks a tad like Rita Coolidge or Grace Slick. His speech is almost unintelligible and is very birdlike and sing-song like East Indians speak. Catch the scene in which he first encounters a Bible and uses all five senses to understand it. He stares at it, smells it, feels it, licks it, puts his ear to it and eventually tosses it away! There is an epic feel at times, but not an epic budget. Only one real battle scene occurs and it is effective to a degree even though the scoring is completely bizarre! The music in this film is all unusual. A soloist is featured occasionally who has a voice like a tea kettle about to explode. History buffs may want to give it a look and fans of Shaw should enjoy seeing him in a featured role. It's a rare chance to see Whiting before he fell off the radar and everyone needs to at least glimpse Plummer in his get up, if only to recognize how versatile the man is! Most viewers are going to be bored stiff by it.

Bob-45 Producer Phillip Yordan had some pretty tough days in the early 1970s. Yordan was charged with tax evasion, I believe as part of his relationship with Samuel Bronston and Pierre DuPont. Bronston had allegedly comingled Dupont's money on several of his productions (most notably EL CID and FALL OF THE ROMAN EMPIRE). Bronston was finished by the late 1960s and Yordan would fall later, which may explain the erratic production values of BAD MAN'S RIVER and ROYAL HUNT OF THE SUN.SUN remains, a tattered quasi-masterpiece, despite Christopher Plummer's rather eccentric performance. One wonders what might have been. No matter, what is on display is good enough for the cheap price of the the DVD. Nevertheless, the quality of the DVD leaves much to be desired. The DVD uses a distracting "baby or royal blue" rather than black for its letterboxing. The interlacing is so bad in some sequences, the film is hardly viewable. The sound is uniformly underrecorded. Surely the masters weren't in THIS bad a shape.Worth a look for students of history AND of good drama.