- Speak, Priest. - Yes.
Tell me of the ceremony.
Our religion teaches that we may send messengers to our gods
to offer our prayers, our hopes, to ask for good things for our people.
Black Eagle, you have been chosen to bear our words.
The man thus chosen to look upon our gods is honored before all other men.
He becomes himself a god.
Our people already look on you as more than human.
They offer prayers in your name.
- Prayers? - You'll be taken to the stone of sacrifice,
and thereafter you will live with the gods for all eternity.
You knew.
And lxchel, she knew, too.
The time for the sacrifice has been set for tomorrow.
Until then you may have anything in our power to give.
A child born to you now would have the qualities of a god.
It would grace our people.
Any of our maidens would be blessed if you summoned her to be your bride.
Lxchel.
Send me lxchel.
It is time to prepare to unite Black Eagle with lxchel.
I will not permit it.
Your people trust you, Balam. Do not betray them.
As your king,
I am required to inform you that...
That Black Eagle has summoned you.
Yes, I know.
You must be very honored.
Deeply honored.
Then go.
He might've said one word.
One single word.
He wished Black Eagle had chosen another.
- She went without question, Priest. - What could she question?
She might have said that she'd wished she'd not been so...
So honored.
You did not try to stop her?
No.
You are a king, Balam.
The last time you came here you brought me a cape of many feathers.
I held you in my arms and asked you to be my wife.
Now you come here as my bride
but not the way I asked.
My bride,
until tomorrow,
when your priests will come to kill me.
Honor?
Slaughtered.
- Slaughtered for superstition. - No.
But father a god for you first,
then make your crops grow with my blood and be honored.
It is being honored. It's our religion.
It is not the dying,
it is the manner of it.
You robbed me of a warrior's death.
You brought me back to life.
You allowed me to believe I was returning to my people.
You let me love you.
Father a god!
But I don't want a son who is a god.
I only want a son who will be brave as a child
leading buffalo around by the nose.
Then why did you ask for me?
I wanted you to feel my hate,
as I once wanted you to feel my love.
You sent her away.
I want nothing
from any of you.
- The time has come. - AH ZOK: He refuses to wear this.
Soon you will be a Mayan god. It is fitting that you dress as one.
If the spirits in your heavens can change me into a god,
they can change my clothes as well.
You will carry this petition in the name of our king and of our people.
We ask only peace and the fruits of our labor,
the blessings of the sun and the rain and of the richness of the earth.
Blessings of the sun and the rain.
Richness of the earth.
You are fools.
Look around you, Balam.
The grass has always grown for us
and the trees spread their branches,
the rivers have flowed
and my people have always enjoyed these blessings.
My people are the fiercest on earth.
Our land is red with the blood of our enemies.
But never,
never have we shed one drop of blood in sacrifice.
And never have we groveled in fear.
And I tell you this, Balam.
Never, so long as I breathe one breath of life,
will I ever submit to this.
You will carry our message.
But not to our gods, to your people.
We asked for peace. We still ask for it.
Peace?
That choice will have to lie with my people.
Go to them and carry my words.
I give you your freedom.
Take it.
Balam, I have tried to make you know.
You cannot bring this new life to our people
without first giving a life.
For a thousand years we've been bound by this law.
The gods cannot be cheated.
(CONCH SHELL SOUNDING)
AH HALEB: Barbarians!
Soldiers to your posts. Women to your houses.
- I have set him free. - Release him.
When he rejoins his people, their strength will be doubled.
The king has set him free. Open the gates.
There was something in what he said that made me trust him.
Yet the man who was closest to me on earth is dead,
and the man who swore to destroy us lives.
(SHOUTING AND CHEERING)
For the first time in many days my eyes are happy.
Why did they let you go?
They let me go because their chief wants peace.
They must be cowards! They fear us!
No, they are no cowards. They fear no one but their gods.
You have chosen me to be your chief, not to command but to guide you.
Now, these are my words.
There have been other intruders in our land,
but never people such as these.
They have wisdom that is different from ours.
They have skills, knowledge.
I am thinking we can learn from these people,
if we live at their side in peace.
We have never lived at the side of any intruder.
- I speak for war. - ALL: War! Yes! War!
War! War! War! War! War!
As long as I'm your chief you will listen to my words.
When those words do not reach your hearts,
then it is your right to look among you,
and choose a new chief.
Go back to your house.
They've chosen war.
Load.
Wait.
Balam.
(CHEERING)
My people call themselves, "Wanderers on the Earth,"
but where this large fire burns, it means that Black Eagle is there,
and the wanderers have come to rest.
And where did they get the wood for this fire?
Look at our stockade.
We needed firewood and we took it. We always take what we need.
If we are to live together in peace, there must be no wall between us.
Balam, I will try to make my people understand
that they must change some of their ways and learn some of yours.
And we have much to learn from you.
The last time I saw your village, I was a prisoner.
Now I would like to see it with new eyes.
This is the writing I spoke of.
What is he putting down now?
He is telling how we journeyed across the waters to a new land,
and of the new people we have met.
- About me? - Yes.
Which one is me?
The crops, they grow in this new land.
MAN: The crops, they grow, they grow!
See that they do no damage.
It seems the gods received your message,
even though Black Eagle never delivered it.
The crops grow faster in this new land than they did at home.
And without human blood to nourish them.
Have you forgotten so soon about Ah Min?
That he gave his life for this?
I have not forgotten Ah Min.
But we made this field ready, we planted the seed,
and we brought the water.
This crop grew without sacrifice.
How can you make Ah Min's death seem so worthless?
He loved you.
And I loved him.
And I wish he were here now to see this.
You see how the king denies our religion.
If he is not stopped, he will bring destruction on all of us.
What strange skins.
- Where did they come from? - We hunted them.
We've never seen such animals.
- Aren't they beautiful? - Lf you like them.
If you had hunted these animals yourself, you'd have a higher opinion of them.
I look upon you as one of us, as one of my people.
Remember all those times in my hut when we were alone,
I asked you to be my woman and bear my sons.
But you didn't answer me.
Your lips are not sealed anymore, lxchel.
Say now you will be my bride.
Go to him! Be his woman! Bear his sons!
Before when he summoned you, you went to him willingly.
And now I know it was not for the first time.
Balam, wait.
Balam!
(ALL GASPING)
No!
Our people cannot live together. There is a wall between us.
Being rooted like trees never was meant for us.
I take my people to where we belong,
where there is no roof but the sky,
where there are no walls to the edges of the earth.
I take them to where birds sing for us,
and where we live free like the deer.
I would go with you.
I'd never leave your side except...
Balam.
I'm proud that you would fight for me and grateful.
But I know what I felt when I thought he was going to die.
After his words to you he should have died.
But his words were the first words he ever used to tell me that he loved me.
(CONCH SHELL SOUNDING)
AH HALEB: Hunac Kell.
Balam's old enemy with metal swords has found him.
They will destroy Balam.
- Sound the battle drums. - ISATAl: I thought you wanted him dead.
Until now, so did I.
Our king defies the gods and we are powerless against him.
He is at the root of all our troubles.
But if Balam were dead, you could lead us,
and we could still make our peace with Hunac Kell.
Balam, if you surrender, I will spare your people!
Your life, Balam, for the lives of your people!
If you do not surrender, every man, woman and child will perish!
(SOLDIERS SHOUTING)
BALAM: Pitz!
PITZ: Archers, make way.
Stand!
Balam!
Not even you can heal this.
Speak to your people, Balam.
BALAM: Hunac Kell is dead.
The way to our homeland lies open.
But now, I look upon what we have here.
The grass grows, the trees spread their branches,
and the rivers flow.
And we have not spilled one drop of blood in sacrifice to the gods.
Can it not be that the gods are satisfied
with the sacrifices that each of us must make in his day-to-day life,
that the test of a people is in the living, not the dying,
and living in dignity and decency and respect
is all that the gods require?
As for me, I remain here,
but in Black Eagle's way, I give you your choice.
You may stay or you may go.
But if you choose to stay,
it will be without this.
ALL: Balam, the jaguar, nine times king!
You never taught me to write, and I never taught you to hunt.
And yet there are many things we have learned from each other.
Don't be a fool the rest of your life, Balam.
Lxchel is your woman. She has always been.
And now, more so than ever.
THE END
Kings.of.the.Sun.1963.DVDRip.XviD-TheWretched English SRT Subtitles - UF