El Cid.

Review #1408: El Cid.

Cast: 
Charlton Heston (Don Rodrigo Díaz de Vivar, El Cid), Sophia Loren (Doña Ximena), Herbert Lom (Ben Yusuf), Raf Vallone (García Ordóñez), Geneviève Page (Doña Urraca), John Fraser (Alfonso VI, King of Castile), Douglas Wilmer (Al-Mu'tamin, Emir of Zaragoza), Frank Thring (Al-Kadir, Emir of Valencia), Michael Hordern (Don Diego), Andrew Cruickshank (Count Gormaz), Gary Raymond (Prince Sancho), Ralph Truman (King Ferdinand), and Massimo Serato (Fañez) Directed by Anthony Mann (#947 - He Walked by Night)

Review: 
"I'm not a genius, I'm a worker."

Epic films, when in the right hands, can prove to be entertaining spectacles that make one interested in the subject matter or in its setting. Anthony Mann served to be a good choice to make an epic film, despite having most of his work being film noirs and westerns. Mann found his first calling with the theatre as an actor and eventually as director. After some work in the Theatre Guild and the WPA Federal Theatre Project, he was hired by David O. Selznick to scout talent and serve as casting and screen test director, doing so for films like Gone with the Wind (1939). After a few years of assistant directing, he made his debut as main director in Dr. Broadway (1942). He directed B-movies (mostly noirs and dramas) for numerous studios such as Paramount Pictures, RKO, and Eagle-Lion in his early years, with highlights being T-Men (1947), Raw Deal (1948) and un-credited work on He Walked by Night (1948). He soon added Westerns to his foray with Winchester '73 (1950), which would be the first of his with James Stewart. This was the fourth-to-last film (along with his last major success) of a career that spanned over thirty films in 26 years before suffering a heart attack at the age of 60. This film was produced by Samuel Bronston, who was behind a few historical epics such as John Paul Jones (1959), King of Kings (1961), 55 Days at Peking (1963, also starring Heston) and The Fall of the Roman Empire (1964, also directed by Mann and starring Loren).

It should figure that theatre-turned film star Heston would star in an epic like this, since a selection of his memorable films over a career that spanned six decades and dozens of movies were from epics like The Ten Commandments (1956), The Big Country (1958), and Ben-Hur (1959). Accompanying him is international star Loren, who came from poverty as a child to beauty pageant participant and eventual actress who became the first thespian to win an Academy Award for a non-English language performance with Two Women (1960). When the film isn't spending time on its sets or setting up its battles with bombastic nature, Heston and Loren are present to make a fair couple of passion to look upon a film that spans years and sometimes seems to feel like it too. This is a loose depiction of El Cid, the celebrated national hero of Spain that lived in the eleventh century, which has proven a source for numerous works such as the epic poem El Cantar de Mio Cid, and noted historian Ramón Menéndez Pidal was a consultant on the film. There is plenty of time to spend in three hours with something that wants to depict honor and legend that makes for a diverting time that keeps its conflicts in check without too much confusion or becoming a shell of itself and seeming outdated. It won't win all the credit for complete accuracy to history (such as the actual fate of El Cid), but the legend still presents itself with enough power from this film to inspire further interest regardless. Heston and Loren did not get along too well in making the film, but they still manage to come off together decently, perhaps in part because of that tension that carries over to a good chunk of its first half, and it eventually ekes its way out of seeming wooden on both sides, with Heston being a towering presence and Loren being a timeless figure of devotedness. The rest of the actors fall in line just as well, but the true highlight is undoubtedly the battle sequences. Any time that one gets to see a tremendous execution of horses and knights is a good one to have, with the jousting sequence being a fun one to view especially. The strangest thing is not the fact that Heston was unimpressed by the film (with some of that reason being Mann's insistence on shooting the battles himself), it was the fact that he felt that director best suited for the film was William Wyler, while conversely feeling that Mann would have been the better choice for Ben-Hur (1959). Regardless of that fact, one cannot deny that this is a fair epic to stand for its era, mixing spectacle and romance with a capable director and stars to make it a useful experience to view once as a showing of a tale worth looking into further.

Overall, I give it 8 out of 10 stars.