The Worst Film Ever

Tells a fascinating and unsettling true story, and does so well, without pretending to have all the answers.

This movie tries so hard to be funny, yet it falls flat every time. Just another example of recycled ideas repackaged with women in an attempt to appeal to a certain audience.

By the time the dramatic fireworks start popping off, each one feels earned.

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.

When I saw this film, I was blown away by Christopher Plummer's portrayal of the Incan leader, Atahualpa. I originally saw the film because of Leonard Whiting (Romeo in the Franco Zefferelli film "Romeo and Juliet," opposite Olivia Hussey as Juliet), who plays a young member of Pizarro's party. Plummer was able to accurately capture the essence of the Incan leader, with great pride and dignity, despite his fatal flaw of trusting the representative of a culture whose only goal was domination and oppression. This story was also brilliantly presented in the Newberry Award-winning children's novel, "The Secret of the Andes," by Ann Nolan Clark, about a young boy who is the last remaining pure Incan, living in the Andes with his spiritual guide and teacher, who goes on a journey of discovery into Cuzco, to find out what contributed to the eradication of his race. Unfortunately, I have been unable to find this film to either rent or buy, but if you are able to obtain a copy, it is well worth watching. The title of the film is tied to the Incans' worship of the sun (their monetary unit is the "sol," which is "sun" in Spanish).

This is really one of the best movies I´ve ever watched in my life! Christopher Plummer is absolutely wonderful as Atahualpa (nice accent, convincing acting) and Robert Shaw is a great Francisco Pizarro (lots of emotion and passion). This movie is about a beautiful culture and empire being ruined within a very short time: the Spanish conquistadors come to Peru in search of gold and to convert the natives. They find an extremely well-organised empire with their own God: Atahualpa. It´s fascinating to watch Pizarro becoming more and more fond of Atahualpa and at the same time it becomes more and more difficult for Pizarro to decide about the Inca´s fate. This is, of course, not a very modern movie: there are no visual or audio effects and at certain points the camera work isn´t perfect (a bit shaky, for instance). However, the story is great, the dialogue is interesting and sometimes thoroughly moving and the actors are doing a terrific job! Full marks for The Royal Hunt Of The Sun and...sorry, but I have to mention it...Plummer doesn´t look bad in this movie...

This dramatic tale of what was arguably the most significant and one sided battle in history should be seen by all. A trivial army of 167 conquistadors lead by Pisarro killed 7000 of the Inca's god king Atahualpa's army of 80,000 in a single battle. The battle was symbolic of Spain's rape of America, but more generally of Europe's domination of the world. The "victory" of the west can be seen as no more than the "good luck" of the bloody thirsty warriors of Western Europe who learned so much from fighting with each other that collectively they could achieve world hegemony. In this battle horsemen, steel, and an ideology of duplicity won the day over a naive other world whose innocence is now virtually unimaginable.