El Cid: Charlton Heston & Sophia Loren Star

I first saw this film on one of the almost nightly television movies of one of the networks (back then only NBC, CBS and ABC) in the late 1960s or earlier 1970s, I would guess, and it was shown in two parts, a common way the networks showed longer movies back then (this one is 3 hours). The thing to remember about this 1961 film is, history and film making don't always go together, and there is "El Cid" the historical figure, and "El Cid" the legendary figure. Unfortunately, many people get their "history" from movies. The best thing to do is, if a history-based movie strikes your fancy, check online or go to your local library and do a little research on the subject. Also remember, actual history is not always riveting, so scriptwriters spice up the story, even at times exchanging historical accuracy for a more interesting story line, so you'll hopefully pay to see the film. Further, stories are used to inspire patriotism or other attributes, and thus they fall more into the category of legends, rather than of actual history. Such is the case with "El Cid," a national hero and legend in Spain. The screenplay for the movie is a mixture of history and "made up stuff," but it is "made up stuff" perhaps necessary for many Spaniards. The movie plays up El Cid's Christianity, but in reality, he was a soldier for hire, and when offered enough money, he fought on the Muslim side against Christians.* The movie is beautifully filmed, with much of it actually shot in Spain. "El Cid" was nominated for three Academy Awards: Best Song, Best Music Score, Best Art Direction.

The film is about 11th Century Spanish hero Rodrigo Díaz De Vivar (played by Charlton Heston), who was dubbed, "El Cid," a Spanish rendering of an Arabic borrowing, and meaning, "the lord." The movie pointedly makes the connection, as after he spares the lives of two captured Moorish emirs (see Word History), one of the men calls Rodrigo by the name "El Cid." The sparing of the lives of these two Moors brings a charge of treason from one of the nobles of King Ferdinand I of León (played by Ralph Truman), Count Ordoñez (played by Raf Vallone). When the king's champion (played by Andrew Cruickshank) makes the charge in front of a large crowd, including the king, this brings a counter charge of "liar" from Rodrigo's father (played by Michael Hordern), a man up in years. This leads the king's champion to challenge the old man in combat. Rodrigo meets the champion alone and tries several times to get him to grant forgiveness to his father, but the king's champion will not give in, leading to a sword fight between the two, with Rodrigo finally killing the king's champion. Not only is the dying man the king's champion, but he is the father of Rodrigo's promised, Ximena (played by Sophia Loren), and she goes to her mortally wounded father who tells her to avenge his death. She is torn between her love of Rodrigo and her respect for her father and his dying request.**

The king promises Rodrigo he can marry Ximena when he returns from an assignment given him by Ferdinand, which is what happens, but on the wedding night, Ximena tells Rodrigo she will never give him her true love, so he he walks out. She goes to a convent.

King Ferdinand dies, bringing squabbling between his sons Sancho (played by Gary Raymond) and Alfonso (played by John Fraser), with the latter being supported and manipulated by their sister, Urraca (played by Genevieve Page). Alfonso tries to kill Sancho, but Sancho overcomes him and sends him off to prison, only to be freed by Rodrigo, who takes him to his sister. Meanwhile, Ben Yusuf (played by Herbert Lom), leader of the Moors in North Africa, wants to keep the Spaniards divided so that he can land an army in Spain and conquer the entire Iberian Peninsula. He has a man kill Sancho, with the idea being that people will blame power hungry Alfonso for instigating the murder. At his coronation, Rodrigo makes Alfonso swear on the Bible that he had nothing to do with killing his brother, which quells the suspicions of the populace. Instead of seeing how the incident has saved his kingship, Alfonso exiles Rodrigo.

When Rodrigo goes into exile, he is followed by Ximena, who tells him she loves him, and so the marriage matters are patched up and she gives birth to twin girls. After a while, nobles and soldiers loyal to the Cid, as they call him, come to ask him to be their leader, which he does. King Alfonso calls for the Cid's help in defeating Ben Yusuf's army, but the Cid wants the king to first capture the city of Valencia, a stronghold of Moors already in Spain, but Alfonso has decided to do battle with Ben Yusuf's army elsewhere, and he is defeated. The Cid, on the other hand, captures Valencia with his own forces, which includes many Moors loyal to him. Instead of keeping the crown of Valencia for himself, he sends it to Alfonso, as the Cid wants Spain united.

Ben Yusuf lands forces to recapture Valencia, so now a great battle is on and the Cid is wounded by an arrow near his heart. Ben Yusuf tells his cheering men the Cid is dead and the story spreads throughout the Cid's soldiers, who are disheartened and fearful. The Cid struggles to his feet and appears before his men and assures them that he will lead their attack the next day to destroy the enemy forces. On his way back to his bed, the Cid collapses. He will not allow anyone to remove the arrow, which will then incapacitate him and prevent him from leading his men into battle. He knows the arrow will likely kill him, but he gets his wife to promise that he will lead the attack, alive or dead. Alfonso arrives with more troops and seeks the Cid's forgiveness. The Cid dies, but in the morning he is mounted on his horse next to King Alfonso, his eyes wide open. The attack starts and the astonished Moors run for their lives from a man they believe has come back from the dead.*** Ben Yusuf is trampled to death.****

* The film portrays Rodrigo as a Christ-like figure, from his carrying a wooden cross from a church burned by the Moors early in the film, to his sparing the lives of people who have done him wrong on a couple of occasions, to his giving water to a leper, to sacrificing his life for his faith, to his "resurrection" to vanquish his enemies in the end.
  
** Historically, Rodrigo did not kill the father of Ximena.

*** The dead Cid propped on his horse leading his army into battle with King Alfonso is pure legend. The Moors had besieged Valencia for quite some time, and the Cid died during the siege in 1099, "seemingly" not from a wound. The Moors captured the city a couple of years later.

**** Ben Yusuf is something of a "made up" character, although certainly based upon Yusuf ibn Tashfin, the head of a ruling family that controlled much of northwestern Africa and part of the Iberian Peninsula during the time of El Cid. The dynasty was centered in what is modern Morocco. The Spanish and some other Europeans referred to the people there as Moors (see Word History below). Yusuf ibn Tashfin was not trampled to death as his army fled a "resurrected" Cid on horseback, but rather, his forces eventually captured the city of Valencia. He died just a few years later at the "tender, young age" of about 96! 

Photo is from the Korean edition DVD, one two-sided disc (it is in English), but there is no date listed. I bought this at a music/video store in the used section perhaps as long ago as ten years. 

 WORD HISTORY:
Moor-The ultimate origin of this word is unknown, but Ancient Greek had the transliterated "mauros," which meant "dark," and then the word was used as a noun for the people of ancient Mauritania, a Berber kingdom of northwestern Africa, where many of the people were indeed of dark skin. The Romans "apparently" borrowed the word from Greek as "Maurus," which then passed into Latin-based Old French as "More." It was borrowed by English in the second half of the 1300s.

The modern nation of Mauritania, in northern/western Africa, still retains the name. The Berbers are a group of people inhabiting a large area of northern Africa from the Atlantic clear into part of Egypt. They speak forms of Berber, a language from the Afro-Asiatic family of languages, although there have been regional influences from French, Spanish, Italian, English and, of course, Arabic. They are overwhelmingly Muslim in religion.