A truly epic movie with big stars and sets. In fact it is so gigantic and slow-moving that in gets boring quite soon (soon is relative term, with a movie running for 3+ hours). Story is typical rise from foot soldier to godlike symbol of country, with power struggles in royal family and grand love subplot. With things so big subjectivity is lost. And yes, I am not a big fan of big movies.

Great epic scenes.

epic, weak drama!

Remember that Loren was hot (ldo) and that I liked it well enough.

# 906

One of the greatest medieval epics ever.

Passes the time.

Probably the greatest epic film ever made; more palpably arrives at immortalizing its protagonist than any other film in its genre (what an ending!). Loren and Heston give some of their greatest performances, Mann proves he's one of Hollywood's most underrated directors with El Cid's incredible staging and blocking. The morality/religious overtones that permeate the text are also frighteningly poignant now...

Hmm, Mann while trying to establish legendary status leans on religion too many times, uttering the word God/Allah. As a result El Cid succeeds to show how people disguises every personal benefit under false premises. Main coupling of the movie between Heston and Loren drags too much. To be honest I resorted to this movie for Loren's sake. She is depicted more beatiful than most of her homeland movies, but a character actress used as a ragdoll is such a waste. Extremely long.