Word: cid
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Dates: during 1960-1969
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...Cid (Samuel Bronston; Allied Artists). Don Rodrigo Diaz de Bivar, Spain's greatest military genius, was born circa 1043 of noble yet obscure descent. Nevertheless, so extraordinary were Don Rodrigo's courage and character that at 28 he became commander in chief of the armies of Castile. Not for long. The able but treacherous King Alfonso VI, jealous of his vassal's victories and virtues, banished him. Undaunted, Don Rodrigo gathered an army of admirers, and off and on for 30 years beat back the Moslem armies. Though generally far outnumbered, he never lost a battle...
Director Huston is in fact at the top of his form as an entertainer in the grandstand manner. Unfortunately, he has tried to be more than an entertainer. The Unforgiven is designed and executed as a heroic poem, a sort of cow-country Cid. Its pace is slow and noble. Its frames are often stark tableaux. Its characters are simplified and enlarged into figures for a legend. But the legend, like most synthetic folklore, fails to come alive. How could it when the sod hut looks like a page from HOUSE & HOME, when the back-country heroine has an elocution...