El Cid (1961)
Directed by Anthony Mann

Film Review

From the mid-1950s to the mid-1960s, cinema increasingly became something of an endurance test for audiences as the rival Hollywood studios (spurred on by the threat of television) indulged in a kind of artistic equivalent of the arms race, frantically trying to outbid one another with grander and longer blockbuster epics.  Some of these stupendous cinematic follies (Lawrence of Arabia) are a rich banquet to be savoured, others (Cleopatra) are likely to leave you with chronic indigestion. El Cid belongs to the latter category, a three hour long ramble through Spanish history that seems to go on forever but never ceases to impress with its stunning panoramic vistas and lavish battle sequences.  The film cost six million dollars to make and every last cent went on the screen, the result being one of the most visually stunning of all the great Hollywood epics.  With a star-studded cast, which includes Charlton Heston and Sophia Loren at their iconic best, and a timeless tale of honour, heroism and frustrated love, it is hard to see just why El Cid fails to have quite the impact and popular appeal of the other great epics.  Impressive the film is; compelling it is not.  Broken down into three one hour chunks, the film is just about digestible; having to watch it in its entirety in one sitting makes it the most expensive substitute to the sleeping tablet ever devised.

The one fatal flaw that El Cid has is that it tries to cram far, far too much into one film.  There is enough story for a substantial ten-part mini-series, but the film's producers and writers evidently felt that a ten week lecture course on Spanish history could easily be compressed into one three-hour long film.  What suffers, inevitably, is the characterisation, so even with some totally inspired casting choices (who but Herbert Lom, Peter Sellers' nemesis in the Pink Panther films, could play the wonderfully villainous Ibn Yusuf?) none of the characters appears to have any depth to them and most are no more substantial than comic book caricatures. 

Consequently, because we find it so hard to engage with Don Rodrigo and his cellophane buddies, the film drags and soon becomes a chore to keep watching.  Were it not for the mindblowing spectacle that director Anthony Mann keeps lobbing into our faces, assisted by his ace cinematographer Robert Krasker, El Cid would be unbearable to sit through.  This is a film that demands our admiration for its sheer cinematic bravado and storytelling ambition, but it is just too insanely bloated to be entirely likeable.  It wasn't long before overweight dinosaurs like this became extinct, wiped out not by a meteor or climate change but by something much more deadly: viewer apathy.

Film Synopsis

In the 11th century, Spain is a divided country.  The wars between the Christians and the Moors have raged for many years but now Spain faces a greater threat, from the Muslim general Ibn Yusuf, who has amassed an army in readiness to invade the country.  Only one man can thwart Ibn Yusuf's ambitions, a brave but modest knight named Don Rodrigo.  After a battle with the Moorish army, Don Rodrigo shows mercy by releasing two powerful Emirs, who express their gratitude by declaring him El Cid and offering him their undying loyalty.  Don Rodrigo's generosity is ill-received by Count Gormaz, the champion of King Ferdinand of Castile, who brands him a traitor.  To reclaim his honour, Don Rodrigo fights a duel with the count, and slays his opponent, but in doing so he makes an enemy of Gormaz's daughter, Doña Jimena, who was to be Don Rodrigo's bride.  Don Rodrigo redeems himself in the king's eyes by winning a jousting tournament to decide the fate of the city of Calahorra.  He claims as his prize the hand in marriage of Jimena, but whilst she consents to the union Jimena swears she will never love him, or forgive him for murdering her father.  After Ferdinand's death, the king's eldest son, Prince Sancho, is appalled when he learns of his father's wishes to divide up his kingdom, allowing his younger brother Prince Alfonso and sister Princess Urraca to each claim a crown.  When Sancho protests, Alfonso has him murdered and banishes Don Rodrigo, ignoring the latter's warnings that he will be the ruler of a divided country.  Sure enough, Spain is weakened by Alfonso's ineffectual leadership and Ibn Yusuf acts to take advantage of the situation.  As his country faces disaster, Alfonso has no choice but to call upon Don Rodrigo's help. Enlisting the support of the Emirs whose lives he once spared, Don Rodrigo succeeds in liberating Valencia from the cruel Emir Al-Kadir.  In the ensuing battle against Ibn Yusuf's armies, Don Rodrigo is struck by an arrow.  With his life in the balance, the knight must decide which is his greater love - that for his country or that for his beloved wife Jimena...