Overrated

Great movie. Not sure what people expected but I found it highly entertaining.

The first must-see film of the year.

Each character in this movie — down to the smallest one — is an individual rather than a type, prone to spontaneous changes of mood and sometimes amusing outbursts of pettiness or ill humor.

The teardrop of Sofia Loren is the hallmark of the movie. No man uses Agua Brava aftershave anymore but boy it was OK then. In our post post era we could take this away from the movie that good storytelling will never be outdated. A role model pur sang for people that have need for deepness in their lives.

1950 to 1970 was without doubt the best time to epic films, had The Ten Commandments, Ben-Hur, Lawrence of Arabia, Spartacus for example, and between them had El Cid, that even if you lower the 4 movies that I quoted, it is a good movie, the cast is good, especially the great Charlton Heston who in my opinion is the actor of the epic, he simply did Moses in the Ten Commandments, Judah Ben- Hur in Ben-Hur, and Rodrigo de Bivar in El Cid, and in this movie he makes a good performance, since Charlton Heston's just a good actor, the direction of Anthony Mann is good (I've always been interested in how it would be Spartacus if it had not been removed), the picture is beautiful the film beautiful moments, such as the scene El Cid the leper pro water in the desert, the action scenes are competent, and the script is also competent, even movie making historical errors (more Braveheart is full of errors, more it is nevertheless to be my favorite movie), El Cid is a good movie, not enough to be the best epic of all, more is a recommended film for the epic lovers. Note 7.6

Don Rodrigo (Charlton Heston) captures two of the Emirs of Valencia. He releases them and they proclaim him El Cid. Don Rodrigo is accused of treason which leads to a duel with Jimena (Sophia Loren)'s father Count Gormaz. This leads to revenge and backstabbing. King Ferdinand dies. The older Prince Sancho ascends to the throne. The younger Prince Alfonso (John Fraser) and Princess Urraca (Geneviève Page) has Sancho assassinated. Alfonso takes over the throne and El Cid is banished joined by Jimena. General Ibn Yusuf (Herbert Lom) of the Almoravid dynasty is landing from North Africa. Rodrigo does not join the king, but allies with friendly Emirs to conquer Valencia from Yusuf's allie Emir Al-Kadir.This is without a doubt an old-fashion Hollywood epic. The sets are massive and the cast number in the thousands. The back and forth with the multitude of characters can get confusing. The political intrigue in the first half drags a bit. The second half has more big epic battles. It does get a bit weird with the Almoravids running in fear of El Cid's dead body.

Charlton Heston's most underrated movie. This is not only a great medieval movie, but a great war movie as well. The story takes place during the tumultuous Reconquista (Reconquest) era in Spain. A civil war has broken out between the Christians and the Moores, and who better to save the day than another epic hero played by Charlton Heston. This time he plays the legendary warrior El Cid, and yes, this is a 3+ hour movie. My only complaint is its length, because the story is superb and action-packed battles abound. There's also a really good one-on-one medieval combat scene that is awesomely choreographed. More people need to see this epic action movie, which is a pretty even mix of "Ben Hur" and "Kingdom of Heaven." It's a shame it has gone under the radar for so long. 3.5 out of 5 action rating