When French playwright Pierre Corneille wrote El Cid, a fanciful version of the life of 11th-century Spanish hero Rodrigo Diaz de Bivar, aka El Cid, an attempt was made to honor the classic unities and to compress the whole story into a single day! Be assured that the 1961 film version of El Cid is more faithful to the actual .. Read more
| Starring | Charlton Heston, Sophia Loren, Raf Vallone, Genevieve Page |
|---|---|
| Director | Anthony Mann, Anthony Mann |
| Genres | Action/Adventure, Drama, Romance |
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When French playwright Pierre Corneille wrote El Cid, a fanciful version of the life of 11th-century Spanish hero Rodrigo Diaz de Bivar, aka El Cid, an attempt was made to honor the classic unities and to compress the whole story into a single day! Be assured that the 1961 film version of El Cid is more faithful to the actual chronology. Charlton Heston adds one more character to his gallery of historical portrayals as El Cid, the disgraced Spanish knight who rids his country of its Moorish conquerors. The triumphs of El Cid's military life are not matched by his private affairs; he is betrayed by his bride Chimene (Sophia Loren) and is made a political pawn by the avaricious Spanish landowners. El Cid has a climax unique in the annals of movie epics: the final assault against the landgrabbers is led by a dead hero. El Cid established the short but generally profitable reign of producer Samuel Bronston as the King of the Epics; his imprint on the film is much stronger than that of director Anthony Mann.~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
| Starring | Charlton Heston, Sophia Loren, Raf Vallone, Genevieve Page, John Fraser, Gary Raymond, Hurd Hatfield, Herbert Lom, Geneviève Page |
|---|---|
| Director | Anthony Mann, Anthony Mann |
| Studio | ANCHOR BAY HOME ENTERTAINMENT |
| Run time | DVD: 2 hrs 51 mins Blu-ray: 3 hrs |
| Certificate |  |
| Collections | 100 Swords and Sandals Films |
| Genres | Action/Adventure, Drama, Romance |
| Language | DVD: English Blu-ray: English |
| Released | Production year: 1961 To Rent: DVD: not available Blu-ray: 16 May 2011 |
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One of the very finest epics produced by Samuel Bronston, equally impressive in terms of script (by Philip Yordan, who... read more on Time Out
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It's not as good as the usual high calibre of "epic" films.Pity : I generally really like the long epics.
I normally love these epics , especially starring the 'king of the epics' ( Charlton Heston) and I prefer historical sagas compared to the biblical ... read more »
[Highly rated reviewer]
[Highly rated reviewer]
- 30
- 0
It's not as good as the usual high calibre of "epic" films.Pity : I generally really like the long epics.
I normally love these epics , especially starring the 'king of the epics' ( Charlton Heston) and I prefer historical sagas compared to the biblical ... read more »
[Highly rated reviewer]
- 0
- 0
An epic if ever there was!
If ever a film deserved the epithet 'epic', then that film is 'El Cid'. Anthony Mann's sprawling depiction of the struggle of an 11th ... read more »
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- 2
Three hours and thousands of extras!
Good sterling stuff; battles, intrigue, cast of thousands (literally), smouldering Sophia Loren, macho royalist Charlton Heston and both good and bad Muslims. ... read more »
Oscar-winning actor and screen great Charlton Heston died at his home in Beverly Hills on Saturday night, it has been announced. Heston, who the Hollywood Reporter described as having chiselled-granite looks, made his big screen debut in 1941's Peer Gynt, but it was Cecil B de Mille's circus epic The Greatest Show On Earth that launched him to worldwide fame 11 years later. He went on to portray giants of world history in sprawling cinematic epics, including Moses in 1956's The Ten Commandments, Read more
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