Click here to copy URL

El Cid

1961

Anthony Mann

Charlton Heston, Sophia Loren, Raf Vallone, John Fraser ...

6.7

8,294

Adventure Eleventh-century Spain is divided into Christian kingdoms and Moorish strongholds. The young Rodrigo Diaz de Bivar--dubbed El Cid by his followers--vows to see his country at peace, free from the invader. Vigorously brave and resourceful, the noble knight hates bloodshed and faces treason charges at court for the clemency shown to some emirs. His accuser, Gomez, father of his fiancée, Chimene, dies in the resulting duel. Chimene's ... [+]

	Author	Review
United Kingdom	Alex von Tunzelmann The Guardian	"A flat-out terrific movie."	POS
United States	Fernando F. Croce Slant	"To say that El Cid is the most intelligent of the elephantine epics of the early ‘60s is to damn it with faint praise"	POS
United States	Variety Staff Variety	"The Spanish scenery is magnificent (...) Perhaps the 11th century of art directors Veniero Colasanti and John Moore exceeds reality, but only scholars will complain of that"	POS
United States	James Berardinelli ReelViews	"The transformation of an ordinary man into a legend become almost a mystical experience (...) Beyond the spectacle and pageantry, El Cid's virtues are limited"	NEU
United States	Michael Wilmington Los Angeles Times	"[It] s the kind of super-spectacle they don’t make anymore, maybe can’t make anymore."	POS
United States	Austin Chronicle	"One of the most spectacular mega-productions ever made"	POS
United States	Richard Harrington The Washington Post	"'El Cid' seems more dated than some of its contemporaries. It's overly long and it's overly melodramatic, but it's also a perfect example of the kind of film they just don't make anymore"	POS

Return to movie

We encourage you to check the reviews' original sources. Intellectual property rights of these reviews belong to their authors and/or the correspondent media from which they have been extracted. If you'd like to help us to add more reviews to your favorite movies, just send us a message.