El Cid

El Cid is a 1961 epic historical drama film directed by Anthony Mann and produced by Samuel Bronston. It's one of Charlton Heston's lesser known epics that has grown in appreciation with time. Is it as good as Ben-Hur? No. Is it as good as The Ten Commandments? Nope. Is it as good as Khartoum? (a lesser, lesser known Heston epic) Yes, yes it is.I first saw this wide screen spectacle at the Cinerama Dome in Hollywood, CA back in 1993. At that time Martin Scorsese declared El Cid to be "one the greatest epic films of all time." I think he was spot on. Clunky and cheesy at times, El Cid overcomes those weaknesses with spectacular cinematography, an unforgettable film score, sumptuous costumes and a cast of thousands. Literally. No CGI here. This is the real deal. Yes, it's true, you can see some extras wearing wristwatches but I nit pick.The best thing about this particular new French Blu-Ray of El Cid is that it works! It's an all region disc with a darn good transfer. In fact, it's absolutely damn near perfect. This movie was originally released on DVD back in 2008 as a deluxe edition and a collector's edition DVD. But it has never been released on Blu- Ray in the US. I've been scouring Amazon for a long time looking for a foreign Blu-Ray version but unfortunately all of the other countries (Japan, Germany, Spain) only have region B versions of this film. As you might know, Region B Blu Rays don't work on Blu Ray players in the US. But this new French Blu Ray does! This particular transfer looks like it's sourced from the 2008 DVD but this upgrade is way more colorful and detailed. The catch is you have to turn off closed caption which is in French, otherwise this Blu Ray is excellent.If you're a Chuck Heston fan, or an epic film fan this motion fiction is not to be missed!

Finally and at last a quality dvd version of this excellent "knight in shining armour" epic spectacular starring the late Charlton Heston in one of his very best and most memorable roles. And of course the same can be said for the very beautiful Sophia Loren in one of her very best roles. They both give excellent, believable performances in this tale of heroic idealism that was so very typical of the President John F Kennedy era. Indeed it is said that this was one of President Kennedy's favourite films! And yet despite their utterly convincing performances it is also said that Charlton Heston and Sophia Loren privately intensely disliked if not hated each other even though they respected each other's talents. Great acting indeed!This was producer Samuel Bronston's biggest box office success (1961) coming within months of the qualified success of his previous production "King of Kings" with Jeffrey Hunter in 1961 (King of Kings was not as popular as EL CID but still a substantial enough success after a while). EL CID was both a critical and commercial success perfectly encapsulating the idealism of the President Kennedy era in this tale of a chivalrous knight who risks his wife, his position in society and his loyalty to his king by putting his greater loyalty to his country above all else. This was a role perfectly fitting the acting talents of Charlton Heston as he had established a reputation for playing such larger than life characters (eg. Moses, Ben Hur) and he is reported to have very enthusiastically wanted to play the role. Strangely, in his autobiography, he admits that whilst he was very proud of the film he was unhappy with the editing of the finished version stating that the battle scenes weren't edited vigorously enough, the drama tends to drag at times and that Sophia Loren's character does not age like she's supposed to as his character ages throughout the film (maybe part of the actors' reported mutual dislike of each other). He also speculated that EL CID could have been a slightly better film if William Wyler of "Ben Hur" fame had directed El Cid and Anthony Mann (El Cid's director) would have produced a nearly as successful version of "Ben Hur" if Mann had directed "Ben Hur". Heston was a veteran of these epic spectacular films so his opinion is very interesting indeed.However most people regard this film fondly because of its idealistic heroism and its very spectacular settings. I suspect that there is a fond nostalgia for this type of heroic idealism that typifies the President Kennedy era. Producer Bronston wanted absolute accuracy mainly in the locations but there is speculation that most of the scripts for his movies contain historical inaccuracies and EL CID is no exception. He did however strive for geographical & architectural accuracy in most of his productions but this was especially necessary with EL CID as General Franco's government in Spain wanted him to make an epic film in Spain about Spain itself and indeed Spanish characters. He did build large, impressive, architecturally & historically accurate sets in Spain but was also able to use the actual castles of Spain to great effect and shoot on location as these settings were virtual perfect replicas of the original settings where the events took place (eg. the city of Pamplona in Spain was a virtual carbon copy of the medieval city of Valencia where the final sequences of the film are set). Director Anthony Mann was renowned for his directorial technique of integrating his characters into very spectacular natural landscapes and also handling personal relationships sensitively and he was the ideal director for this film.In short, a great, spectacular historical epic with believable, human characters that appeals to most people due to its idealistic hero but perhaps not for all tastes as the idealism of the President Kennedy era has long since vanished. I only give it 4 out of five stars because of some of the story's historical inaccuracies and Sophia Loren's hollywood film star youthful appearance throughout the entire story when her character should have aged somewhat when the story moves forward several years later. These however are only minor criticisms of a truly great film.By the way this film & "The Fall of The Roman Empire" LIMITED COLLECTOR'S EDITION versions are THE DEFINITE VERSIONS to get as all the extras in these LIMITED EDITION versions (lobby cards & reproductions of the original souvenir programs) are sure to be worth much, much more as movie memorabilia once the LIMITED EDITIONS sell out. As the title implies a LIMITED EDITION is limited in the quantities made and once sold out cannot become available again making these limited editions a rarity. A truly great investment at $27.99 If these films sell in sufficient numbers the ultimate blue ray edition is inevitable which will show the magnificence of the set design & cinematography of these films to their fullest extent.

I love this movie, just sad to see that the disk was made in China and poorly packaged.

DVD arrived with a sealed and undamaged case. Played without recording defect.

El Cid is one of those films you enjoy seeing again and again. A lot of little girls I'm sure fell in love 🥰 with him just as they must have when he stared as Ben-Hur.A very heroic man as ever there was once.I still can't believe that he and his co star, Sophia Loren, supposedly hated each other's guts.Well, they had to put their differences aside.When that happened , they hit it out of the ballpark.The Blu-Ray disc had no captions and no bonus features. If it would have, I could have known what the characters said and not. second guess.Wonderful performances, a truly classic 🎥film.Viva Chuck!

Bought as a gift

I saw a few reviews of this release, before I purchased it, that reported problems with image quality or sound quality. That gave me some concerns and hesitation, but I am happy to report that the image and sound quality was very good. I noticed one scene near the end of the movie where a portion of the image was fuzzy for a few seconds.As a movie, this is not the greatest of the big Hollywood spectacles of the 60's. But it is a good movie, beautifully photographed in Spain, with all the stops pulled out for sets, costumes and outdoor scenes. And most importantly if you pay attention to film scores, one of the finest scores ever penned by Miklos Rozsa. El Cid was one of those roles that is hard to imagine anyone other than Heston playing and worth seeing for his performance, and Loren's, as well as for a very well done jousting battle for Calahora. I am not an expert, but overall I think the film suffered a bit from poor direction (Mann had just been fired off of his directing job on Spartacus when he took on El Cid) and editing. But worth seeing.

I just wanted El Cid on DVD for my Dad. Only Amazon seemed to have it, but a search brought up nearly 100 versions! Impossible to know what to get. I went for this one as it was near the top. It's fine I guess. The packaging is in Dutch and the disc defaults to Dutch subtitles, but these can be turned off easily enough. The main audio track is the original one so that's OK. Dad was happy, which is the main thing.

Star rating is for the movie but not the transfer which is hardly better than the DVD. This movie deserves a really proper 8k restoration and transfer from 70mm source material if possible. King of Kings from Bronson got a wonderful transfer. If only somebody would give the same attention to El CID and that other epic THE FALL OF THE ROMAN EMPIRE.

I bought this for my library and because my partner didn’t want to see it, I didn’t get around to playing it until Oct 2022 (having bought it in 2016). I never expected to find I’d bought a dud!

Excellent blue Ray picture and sound quality: easy to switch to English language. Seen this film 20 times and this spectacular Epic never fails to stir the emotions. Costumes and settings are stunning. I’ll watch it many more times.

As the story goes, an 11thC hero drives his enemies out of Spain. Incorporating a love story between Charlton Heston, as the hero, and Sophia Loren, this epic film has lots of action sequences. A huge cast, with Herbert Lom, John Frasier and Michael Hordern.