El Cid (1961), another Samuel Bronston epic.

[Neville]

Plot: Based on the ancient (XIIth century) Spanish epic poem, the film tells the story of el Cid (Charlton Heston), a nobleman torn apart between his love for Jimena (Sophia Loren) and his duties as a warrior, which include serving an inept king and defending his country against the Muslim invaders.

Where to start? The epic poem is quite known to any Spaniard, since it was of capital importance in the development of our language and literature. In other times, it was also considered an example of patriotism, and its reading made compulsory for any infant. It's a long, three part poem that turns the real figure of Rodrigo Díaz into a mesianic, legendary figure, respected both by christians and muslims.

The movie, for taking such a difficult source material as an inspiration, does a fantastic work. Many of the most attractive passages of the epic poem are kept, and its more controversial aspects (antisemitism, sexism), are erradicated. As El Cid Charlton Heston does a superb job, portraying well enough the hero's fortes (he's a natural born leader, a faithful subject of the king, a more than capable warrior) and his weakneses, such as his pride (he humiliates the king without realising the consequences, he is more observant to personal honor than to his orders), and Loren makes a great Jimena.

Anthony Mann, in consequence to this portrait of El Cid, tries to keep the film centered in El Cid's dilemmas and how they affect both him and Jimena. The late Anthony Mann was by far the best director who ever worked with Bronston, and it certainly shows here. Despite the mandatory crowd scenes (it's actually difficult to find any momment where Heston is not surrounded by at laest a hundred extras), he does his best to keep the movie as an intimate portrait of ther hero, and he mostly succeeds. It's already two hours into the movie, for instance, that we see our first battle, and Mann tries really hard to avoid epic films' conventions.

Not everything in the film is that good, however. For instance, the historical background of Spain at the time is greatly distorted, making it look as an all-white, Christian kingdom besieged by blood thristy Arabs. It was not. There was no such a thing as Spain at the time, but a small group of Christian kingdoms that had slowly started to re-conquer from the North a territory that had been taken by the Arabs as early as the VIIIth century, and that wouldn't become Spain until the XVth century, with the defeat of the last muslim kingdom in spain (Granada) and the marriage between the monarchs of the last two remaining Christian kingdoms. Meanwhile, the Arab domination was mostly pacific, as the territory surrendered rather quickly to the occupation, and the invaders were quite tolerant with Christians living under their dominions. They even left an influence in our culture and our language that is still noticeable.

Well, the movie tosses all this out of the window and instead elaborates one of the stupidest movie villains in movie history, Ben Yusuf, perpetually dressed in black clothes and insisting that Allah wants the Arabs to conquer the whole world. It doesn't help matters than in the three hours of the film's running time, he is reduced to only three or four appearences scattered throughout the film. But what the Hell, the film is good enough to withstand that, and between crowd scene and crowd scene his appearences give the movie its only instances of unwanted comic relief.




Let the fury of Cthulu fall over those Spaniard dogs!

[Scott]

I really like this film Neville. The only part I didn't like was  a small part where Heston cuts off some horsemen on a trail. This was the only poorly shot scene.

The rest of the film is very good like the battle of Valencia, the costumes, Sophia Loren, the muslim leader. Neat ending with El Cid riding through the horde of muslims.

[Shadowphile]

The ending is based on historical fact....

[Neville]

Shadowphile Wrote:
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> The ending is based on historical fact....

To be honest, I couldn't say, as I was watching the film, if El Cid was even real or not. I had to check it out later to find out that he had in fact existed. It's been so many years since  I studied the epic at school...

However, when cheking WikiPedia I noticed that while it mentions El Cid being tied up to his horse after death and the enemy retreating, it doesn't mention in which battle this took place. Certainly, it couldn't be Valencia, like in the film, as he lived not only to conquer that city but also to rule it for five years.

Another funny fact: for the film, the coastal city of Peñiscola was used as Valencia, and I once read that Bronston's crew had rebuilt part of the city fortress. The work was so good the city council decided to keep it as they left it when the film was finished.

[Scott]

The film must be pretty good if it helped you brush up on your history Neville. You've been watching some good films lately.

You also saw a bunch of Hammer films on the big screen last year didn't you Neville? I think you were the one.

[Neville]

Yeah, that's right. A theatre in my hometown was doing a Hammer revival. I missed "Brides of Dracula", but I was lucky enough to catch the entire Frankenstein saga.

[BoyScoutKevin]

Bronston is credited with producing eleven films. I've seen seven of them, and of the seven, this is the only one I did not enjoy.

If I can remember correctly, Heston also had a couple of complaints about the film. One was, while the film progressed in time, and he got older and grayer, Sophia Loren apparently never aged. She looking the same at the end of the film,  as she did at the beginning of the film.

And two, he would have liked Anthony Mann and William Wyler to have swtiched directing jobs. Apparently, he'd have liked William Wyler to direct this film, and Anthony Mann to have directed "Ben Hur."

I would also suggest, that while probably out of print, look for the novelization of the screenplay, as it provides alot of background story about El Cid, before he became El Cid.