by Best Film And Video
Sales Rank: 7477
Price: $19.99
Technically ambitious but artistically underwhelming, this 1961 epic by Anthony Mann (<I>Man of the West</I>) stars Charlton Heston as an 11th-century hero who drives the Moors from Spain. The film has been described as "glum," and that is indeed apt for a story that focuses so much on its central character's losses in the face of his simultaneous, mythic approbation. Then again, Mann has always been interested in the hidden weaknesses in prevailing myths, so that's not unusual. What is unusual in <I>El Cid</I> is the degree to which technology takes over his filmmaking, as it does here with so many grandiose and bravura moments with a roving camera that don't add up to anything beyond spectacle. As an achievement of Hollywood's technical advancements in the postwar years, and also as part of the filmographies of Mann and Heston, the film is well worth a look. But it is not the artistic equal of other epics of its day, such as <I>Lawrence of Arabia</I>. <I>--Tom Keogh</I>
Viewer Reviews CHARLTON HESTON IS EXCELLENT IN THIS DRAMATIC PRESENTATION OF A MAN THAT GIVES UP HIS OWN PLEASURES OF A QUIET FAMILY LIFE TO FIGHT A BATTLE FOR JUSTICE.
