El Cid
Unrated 2-Disc Box Set
Directed by Anthony Mann
Starring Charlton Heston, Sophia Loren
Available Jan. 29, 2008
The sixties were a funny time”¦ You know, for EVEN MORE than the obvious reasons. It was the decade that the studio system in Hollywood finally fell to corporate ownership. The debate rages to this day on whether or not this was a development for the better.
As Martin Scorsese notes in his liner-note introduction for today’s film, Anthony Mann‘s El Cid “is a picture that marks the passing of an era in American moviemaking.” Quite possibly the last huge epic before corporations. Before Kubrick. Before Hippies. Before Altman.
Watching El Cid in this, its first-ever American DVD release, I was struck by something I was never able to articulate before. Why the hell do these old-school De Mille-style epics seem so much”¦ BIGGER than the epics we make today? Is it the lack of computers? Is it the fact that movie stars were “movie stars” back then and not models with delusions of grandeur? Is it that they were all shot in 70 millimeter while we’re slowly but sure converting to George Lucas’ Godawful digital video in the present? Or is it just that Anthony Mann rules all?
Because El Cid is big with a capital “BIG.” And if there’s anyone who loves them a big-assed movie, it’s me. I’m all for subtlety and character development and all that other horsecrap, but for Christ’s sake, this is the MOVIES! Go big or go home.
Charlton Heston plays Rodrigo Diaz de Vivar in 11th-century Spain. He is dubbed “El Cid” by a Muslim man working to tear-ass in conquest through Europe. He is captured by Rodrigo, but spared. This act of mercy by Rodrigo on behalf of the Muslims gets Rodrigo a treason charge and imperils his marriage to the lovely Jimena (Sophia Loren).
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