The extravagantly filmed story of the conquest of Peru by Francisco Pizarro (played by Robert Shaw) and 167 Spanish Conquistadores. Based on Peter Shaffer's magnificent hit Sixties National Theatre play, this hesitantly realised film charts the friendship between the Conquistador and his captive Inca King, Atahualpa (Christopher Plummer). The trouble with it as a film is that it's basically an intellectual chat between two odd blokes and, as such, it seems very long drawn-out and the immediacy of whatever made it magic on stage is gone. Nevertheless, Shaw and particularly the ever-underestinated Plummer are brilliant. Not a cinema hit, despite the careful work all round, but a decent record of a great play. FACT: Robert Stephens played Atalhualpa on stage.

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