El Cid

An epic set in medieval Spain. The peninsula is divided. Christian kingdoms on one side, Muslim emirates on the other, and constant war between them. Rodrigo Díaz is a young knight. He takes two emirs prisoner in a raid. He does not kill them. He sets them free and takes an oath in return. For this he is declared a traitor. His father is insulted at court. Rodrigo duels the man who insulted him and kills him. The man he kills is Chimene's father. She swears an oath to him: she will have revenge. From there the film runs the two together. Rodrigo and Chimene marry and she does not forgive him for years. The king changes. The new king does not like Rodrigo and sends him into exile. He raises his own army. In exile he becomes a power and earns the respect of both sides. He is given a name: El Cid. An army comes from North Africa. This time the threat is common to both sides. What the narrative is interested in is not war but a word given: its idea is that the man keeps his word in all circumstances, and that this consistency keeps harming him and everyone around him. The last section is the siege of Valencia. Rodrigo is wounded and refuses treatment. The army has to see him. They strap his dead body in armour to a horse and ride him out of the city. That scene is the film's best known. The production is enormous. Thousands of extras, real castles, and exteriors shot in Spain. The narrative does not draw either side as a single type; there are both allies and enemies among the Muslim characters. The music is by Miklós Rózsa. Charlton Heston, Sophia Loren, Raf Vallone, Geneviève Page and Herbert Lom are in the cast. Anthony Mann directed. Who it is for: anyone who likes 1960s historical epics and large-scale production. Who it is not for: anyone who cannot sit through three hours; the narrative is slow and the middle section stretches with court intrigue.