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El Cid (1961)
One of the great super-productions of the postwar era, the film explores the lives of Spanish warrior El Cid (Charlton Heston) and his wife (Sophia Loren) in a feudal Spain that was divided into Christian and Muslim kingdoms. Director Anthony Mann and producer Samuel Bronston, who became a studio mogul in Spain, shot the film’s violent action and spectacular pageantry amongst medieval castles and grand landscapes. With a cast of thousands (the Francoist Spanish army in medieval armor), it’s the physical pinnacle of the historical epic that pits heroic nobility against perverse cruelty.
35mm, color, 182 min. Print courtesy of George Eastman Museum. Director: Anthony Mann. Screenwriter: Philip Yordan, Fredric M. Frank, Ben Barzman. Cast: Charlton Heston, Sophia Loren, Raf Vallone, Geneviève Page, John Fraser.
