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El Cid [1961]


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Historically Incorrect
Review date: 2007-10-04 Rating: 2 out of 10

I'm afraid this movie was a bit of a pain for me. Too slow moving, wooden dialogue and historically incorrect.
However, having lusted after Sophia Loren from an early age, anything with her in it can't be all bad!
The Moors were not driven from Spain in 1099 as the movie suggests, but Moorish Kingdoms like Granada flourished until being expelled in 1492 (the year before Colon/Columbus "discovered" America )
The last Moors left in 1502.
There's nothing really wrong with the movie, but for me, not a lot is right.

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Reviews


As pure spectacle, a feast for the eyes...
Review date: 2007-05-11 Rating: 10 out of 10

Like Mann's other well-known feature, "Fall of the Roman Empire," El Cid has a lot going for it: breathtaking Spanish scenery and fabulously authentic set pieces, two very competent and attractive leads with Heston and Loren, and an interesting protagonist whose story is steeped more in myth than reality.

Although this DVD has not yet been released, this film, like "Fall of the Roman Empire," is worthy of a "special edition" replete with interviews, extras, a behind-the-scenes documentary, deleted scenes, and the like--should they even exist. The film was released almost 45 years ago. (I am reviewing a Region 2 encoded disc from Amazon UK which has been expertly restored to widescreen format but alas, no special features to speak of.)

While not as opulent as "Fall" that would be released three years later, the love story between Rodrigo Diaz de Vivar (El Cid) and Chimene, his wife is a more interesting one--as interesting as the story of the Cid himself.

These are characters one feels emotionally attached to unlike those of Livius and Drusilla in Mann's 'Fall," which resembles yet an additional prop to the sets to Mann's $16 million dollar epic, but Mann got off relatively cheap with "El Cid," utilizing many of the existing medieval castles that dot the coastlines of sunny Spain.

Chimene loves Rodrigo who is to be her husband, than hates him for killing her father who insults Rodrigo's father and his family name. She marries Rodrigo out of spite at the request of King Ferdinand, and Chimene colludes to kill Rodrigo with a fellow conspirator who also loves her. Later, she ultimately learns to love this selfless knight who shows mercy to his enemies, earns their respect, and defends a brat of a king who is nothing more than a spoiled tyrant--wonderfully played by popular 60's British mod, John Fraser who would later win a coveted supporting role in Roman Polanski's "Repulsion."

The movie gets 4 stars because the battle scenes seem rather brief and could have been better orchestrated on a slightly more lavish scale. Mann's "Fall" clearly has an edge here; what we see in "El Cid" for the majority of the film are really skirmishes of no more than 15 to 20 men at a time. The Miklos Rosza score, obviously influenced by the achingly beautiful coda in Tchaikovsky's Symphony 4, and like all of his splendid soundtracks, will compel an exhaustive search for the compact disc at your local retailer. Clearly, this is music to be savored like a fine Castillian wine.

This was a role Heston was born to play: physical, larger than life, and majestic in scope. In a death-scene that is perhaps one of the longest, most touchingly portrayed, and perhaps Heston's finest in an epic like this, will move you as will the story of this heroic 11th Century knight who attempted to unite his divided Spain.



Has aged very badly, but has a handful of scenes that are still superb.
Review date: 2006-09-21 Rating: 4 out of 10

Bad points: 1) the DVD ratio is not correct, 2) the dialogue may have been the standard 'Hollywood Epic' brand for its time, but now sounds almost entirely wooden and very stilted, 3) the Sophia Loren 'love-interest' scenes are mostly tedious, her character is under-developed, and there's little real chemistry between her and Heston, 4) indoor lighting is consistently far too bright and flat (there's almost never any feeling that we're inside a castle), 5) the music is too often over-strident and cliched, 6) there is no attempts whatsoever at accents or period mannerisms, 7) the bad-guys are just 'cartoons'.

The good points. 1) some superb location scenes in ravishing epic vistas, and around the edges of real castles 2) strong costuming, 3) epic battle scenes (but often marred by editing that cuts between camera-work that tries to convince us it's night/moonlight one moment, then apparently day in the the next), 4) good casting, 5) strong sound recording, sound FX's and editing.

Overall, this has aged very badly. Many films don't require a re-make, but get one anyway. El Cid does need a re-make, but sadly it won't get one because the moment has now past (what with the relative failures of similar huge epics such as Troy and Alexander).


Fabulous film on a worthless DVD
Review date: 2006-05-31 Rating: 8 out of 10

El Cid is one of my favourites from that epic period of American cinema, the 1960s, where every film made seemed to be over three hours long and featured all the stars you could possibly want to see that weren't in the sky. This one also has the distinction of being helmed by one of the great unsung directors, Anthony Mann, whose work with James Stewart in a remarkable and memorable series of westerns in the 1950s deserves to be reappraised. Mann seemed to specialise in films where the hero's mental and phsyical state was always in question (and usually brought to the fore). In El Cid, that inner conflict is dwarfed by the historical conflict, although he later went on to explore the male psyche more dramatically in his last truly great masterpiece, the equally spectacular The Fall of the Roman Empire a few years later.

For those not in the know, El Cid is the legendary Spanish hero who succeeds in driving the Moors from Spain. Charlton Heston (who else?) is the eponymous hero, portraying Cid as a man with a strict sense of honour even when everything and everyone is against him, and the lovely Sophia Loren plays Chimene, his on-off lover. A masked Herbert Lom, however, steals the show in a raving, shouting, wild-eyed performance as the leader of the Moors (he has one of the best and unintentionally funniest deaths in screen history, to boot). Aside from the gigantic battle set-pieces near the end of the film, which are exciting and powerfully shot by the great cinematographer Robert Krasker, the highlights of the film are two ferocious one-on-one fights, the first one a vicious swordfight between El Cid and Chimene's father over their relationship, and the other a trial by combat between El Cid and Don Martin over the the ownership of the city of Calahorra.

Filmed in the widescreen process Super Technirama 70, this brilliant film should have an aspect ratio of roughly 2.20:1. However, this DVD from Universal unwisely crops the image to 1.78:1 after the credit sequence, thereby rendering Mann's exquisite shot composition insignificant. Furthermore, the print used doesn't appear to be the same version so lovingly restored in the early 1990s, exhibiting much more print damage than even the UK TV showing did.

Once again a major distributor shows their contempt for us with this DVD release, so I would recommend getting the new Japanese or French DVDs of this fine film instead, because they're both in the correct anamorphic widescreen ratio.

The perfect knight on a very imperfect DVD
Review date: 2005-10-08 Rating: 4 out of 10

The first of Anthony Mann and Samuel Bronston's ambitious and intelligent epics, El Cid has to boast the most gorgeous use of the widescreen ever - the Cid and Chimene's first meeting makes the most of every inch of the screen, while Robert Krasker's gliding camera is remarkably sympathetic to screen format, architecture and exteriors alike. Indeed, the whole film displays Mann's typically intelligent use of location, here in interiors (often his weak spot) as well - during their bleak wedding feast, he keeps Chimene and the Cid at a distance, the staircase where he killed her father (never a great start to any marriage) prominent between them; and while the good king's court is filled with colour, light and people, once the weak Alfonso assumes power it is a dark, empty hall. Despite some occasional over emphatic Christian imagery - when he's not standing in front of a cross, he's literally carrying one - this spectacular account of Spain's greatest hero uniting Christians and Moors alike against a common enemy, making friends of enemies and teaching his weak king the path to greatness by example manages to put a surprisingly human face on the myth of the perfect knight: the Cid's quest to do the honourable and right thing brings him little joy and much sorrow and even his resolve is nearly broken by his burden.

Charlton Heston when he was still an icon instead of an ass is one of the few actors who could carry off such a part, and he does it very well despite his curious conviction that Mann's superb direction was below par. The pomp and splendour never swamps the drama, and the setpiece duel for Calahora still stands out as one of the most remarkable and remarkably vicious screen swordfights of all time. A great score from Miklos Rozsa and good support from John Fraser and Douglas Wilmer too, although Andrew Cruickshank's portly King's champion implies that there was something seriously amiss in the kingdom long before the warring infantas succeeded to the throne.

Sadly (unlike the 2.35:1 German DVD which has an English soundtrack wit removeable German subtitles), the astonishingly shoddy UK DVD has been cropped from its original ratio to 1.85:1 and is a terrible transfer with no real extras, despite much material being available. To add insult to injury, the overture, intermission, entr'acte and playout music have all been cut from the film.

Product Details/Specifications


Actor(s):
Charlton Heston
Genevieve Page
John Fraser
Sophia Loren
Raf Vallone

Creators:
Charlton Heston (Primary Contributor)
Sophia Loren (Primary Contributor)

Director(s):

Recording label: Universal Pictures UK
Manufacturer: Universal Pictures UK
EAN: 5050582356397
Binding: DVD
Number of items: 1
Format: Full Screen, PAL,
Release date: 2005-10-31
Aspect ratio: 1.33:1
Audience rating: Universal, suitable for all
Region code: 2
Running time: 171 minutes
Theatrical release date: 1961
Language: English (Subtitled)
Language: English (Original Language)

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