Word: cid
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...movies tried to tell as it grew bigger and bigger. So that the spectacular biblical epics, for example, could never suggest the dimensions of the Christ story with anything like the power of the modest He Who Must Die. But if, in fact, the old Hollywood is passing, El Cid is as fine a note for it to go out on as one could wish...
...Cid manages, better than any of the other block-busters I have seen, to describe the life of a hero, and the growth of his legend. Perhaps because the great Spanish champion was precisely the sort of popular hero movie stars are today, El Cid is much more than the pile of irritating evasions and distortions that largely made up a Ten Commandments or (gasp) King of Kings...
...also a a sunning display of Technical competence; the color quality is magnificent, and several of the scenes (especially the single combat of the Cid and another king's champion) have all the subtle tints and shadings of a medieval triptych. Moreover, the composition of even the battle scenes was obviously planned, so that they are much more impressive than the usual sand-box pandemonium of the run-of-the-mill spectacular...
...easily the best Charlton Heston has done since he graduated out of circus pictures and into the nether spheres of legend and religion. There is perceptible growth to go along with the increasing use of grey Tintone: and the final scene of the film, in which the dead Cid is propped in his saddle to lead his troops into battle, comes as near as one can expect to the power of real myth. As the lovely Chimene, Sophia Loren is overwhelmingly lovely. Much of the drama of her story has been cut out; unlike the Corneille heroine, the film...
This year's Vanity Fair Citation, "to that actress who most tirelessly champions the cause of womanhood" went to Sophia Loren for "carrying to court her fight to be billed above Charlton Heston for her performance in 'El Cid...