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El Cid (1961)

History | 182 minutes
3,29 187 votes

Genre: History / Romance

Duration: 182 minuten

Country: United States / Italy

Directed by: Anthony Mann

Stars: Charlton Heston, Sophia Loren and Geneviève Page

IMDb score: 7,2 (17.008)

Releasedate: 24 October 1961

US
UK

This movie is not available on US streaming services.

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El Cid plot

"The GREATEST ROMANCE and ADVENTURE in a THOUSAND YEARS!"

Spain is almost completely in the hands of the Moors, when the young Rodrigo Diaz de Vivar, called El Cid by the Moors, wants to marry the stunning Jimena in the second half of the 11th century. His desire to establish peace between Muslims and Christians leads him to release some captive emirs. However, this act is considered treason to King Ferdinand. One of his fiercest opponents is Don Garcia Ordoñez. He acts out of self-interest, because he too is madly in love with Jimena. When Jimena's father is killed in a duel with Rodrigo, the girl finds herself torn between love and hate.

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Guest

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avatar van Brix

Brix

  • 19675 messages
  • 5112 votes

After a long time I watched the film again, this time via the excellent German Blu-ray release.
Not as impressive as when I saw it on the big screen in the cinema, of course, but this certainly holds up.
It remains a mega spectacle, especially because of the impressive settings, decors, and beautiful panoramic photography.
The number of extras is astonishingly large.
This is depicted in a strikingly strong way, especially towards the end of the film.

Heston is perfect for these types of epic films, although here again he fails to really make me sympathetic.
Loren is Loren, and I'm a fan of hers, I'll leave it at that.

I think the best role is that of Douglas Wilmer (de Moor Moutamin).

The big time jumps in the story are disturbing to me.

The most impressive and haunting scene is the one in which the dead El Cid, tied to his horse, gallops towards the enemy at the head of his soldiers. Even more beautiful that he drives further and further and alone along the beach through the panicked enemy lines. That is a captivating sight.

Certainly not a perfect film, but a great spectacle, and refreshing to see again after all the soulless digital CGI stuff we get these days.

dutch flagTranslated from Dutch · View original

avatar van scorsese

scorsese

  • 13155 messages
  • 11068 votes

Beautiful film about the Spanish knight who gives freedom to a few captured Moors. A large-scale historical epic. The story is told in a fairly compelling way (certainly thanks to the beautiful music) and the romance is also less predictable than usual. Most of the spectacle is saved for last and Charlton Heston is of course perfectly cast in the title role.

dutch flagTranslated from Dutch · View original

avatar van Lovelyboy

Lovelyboy

  • 3906 messages
  • 2920 votes

An adventure film by Anthony Mann and therefore a director who has dealt with this task before. I was not particularly interested in this film, but the average rating on MovieMeter convinced me despite the presence of Charlton Heston.

And actually we can keep it short about this El Cid because it radiates from all sides that this is a hero and adventure epic of the old style with beautiful sets and locations, battles, rejected heroes, a grand design with many extras and characters, appropriate music and of course all the other ingredients in the form of love, drama, betrayal and of course a modest hero, a role Heston has played before.

But does this three-hour epic interest me? No, unfortunately not really, while it is certainly not bad. El Cid actually has all the ingredients and yet it doesn't really want to catch on. Maybe it's personal, maybe it's Heston that I really hate or the film is just dated. Anyway, the film doesn't get a failing grade because the quality is certainly there, but it certainly didn't do anything for me.

dutch flagTranslated from Dutch · View original