The Royal Hunt of the Sun

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.

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.

I'm very lucky: I actually got to view the Scimitar DVD before buying it, and I can't believe how truly awful the product! In my not-so-humble opinion, this is one of the best movies ever made. I know, I know -- pretty talky. But so are many of the best movies ever made. And how this company managed to turn the glorious film I once treasured on BETA format into this scratchy, garbled mess, I have no idea.

So back to my summary: Will anyone ever rescue this fine old film and offer it to us?

Probably not. And that is sad, considering the dreck offered almost on a daily basis.

If, like me, you fell in love with Christopher Plummer while watching The Sound of Music, Royal Hunt of the Sun is a definite must-see! As the Incan ruler Atahualpa, he's wearing very little throughout the movie and his body is absolutely breathtaking! He hasn't played that many "beefcake" roles or done many scenes that show his physical attributes, but this one definitely does! Where was People magazine and their "Sexiest Man Alive" contest when this movie was out??? Christopher Plummer would have won hands-down, no doubt!

All that aside, his acting is excellent, too. This movie re-tells this sad chapter of history very well and very accurately.

This film about the downfall of the Inca empire in sixteenth century Peru manages to be deadly dull for the first 35 minutes; even star Robert Shaw (as Pizarro) manages to be boring and glum.

Then Atahualpa, King of the Incas (Christopher Plummer) appears and Plummer shocks the movie back to life. In the process, he gives a lesson on movie-stealing; hissing, prancing, yowling, sniffing, swooping, shrieking, he effectively makes the film His and everyone else is just annoying background noise. Plummer is in his own Universe and I laughed so hard my stomach hurt.

Even the anti- Vietnam War scene doesn't stop the laughter. It's so badly executed that characters fall before being hit, in two cases without being hit.

As long as Plummer's on screen, this is amusing or, at the very least interesting: without him, it is pretty dull.