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.

Heston And Olivier Star: "Khartoum," Plus Some History

NOTE: This article contains information about the movie "Khartoum," including its ending. If you have not seen the movie before and if you don't want to know the ending (although the ending is really obvious), please be forewarned.

While the historical "siege of Khartoum" took place in 1884-85, and the movie was released in 1966, and I'm writing this in November of 2014, you will see that the wars and killings centered around this general topic are not new, and they remain with us to this very day.

The movie "Khartoum" was released back in the mid 1960s and was loosely based upon historical events in the Sudan in eastern Africa in the 1880s. Charlton Heston starred as British General Charles Gordon, who a few years earlier had served in the Sudan as part of the Turkish-Egyptian governing authority, and who played a big role in ending the slave trade there, giving Gordon a great deal of popularity among many of the Sudanese. Gordon had become well known to the British public for his earlier role in China, where he led a highly successful force of British, American and Chinese troops in support of the Chinese emperor to put down some rebellions. This earned Gordon the nickname, "Chinese Gordon." Laurence Olivier starred as "the Mahdi," a self proclaimed Sudanese religious and military leader, whose name was Muhammad Ahmad. The Mahdi led a rebellion against the governing powers of the Sudan (see more below), and thousands of Sunni Muslim Sudanese who believed him to be the true successor to the Prophet Muhammad, flocked to his cause.

Sudan, or "the" Sudan, as I use (I must have been taught that in school long ago, and it therefore sounds more natural to me), had a complicated relationship with Egypt, the Ottoman Empire (Turkey), and Britain. The region had long been linked with Egypt, but much of Egypt and the Sudan was part of the Turkish Ottoman Empire. The British got involved in Egypt in the early 1880s, and this brought calls for the use of British forces to quell the uprising led by the Mahdi, something the British government did not want to do. The Sudan was garrisoned by Egyptian troops, but with some British officers. The movie depicts the British government's resistance to sending troops and instead asking General Gordon to go to the Sudan in an attempt to satisfy those calling for military forces to be sent, and to evacuate British and Egyptian military, governmental and business personnel from the region. Remember, this is a movie and not a documentary, and as such, actual historical events are not always followed, but rather depicted in some fashion to generally represent the historical events, and then too, there is always the need for any film to make money, and thus scenes are often added for tension and to get people interested to pay to see it.

Khartoum was the center for the administration of the Sudan and Gordon arrives there to jubilant crowds, for his reputation is so powerful, people feel they will now be saved from the Mahdi's takeover. While Gordon prepares a defense of the city, he also tries to get the British government to change its policy and to send troops. The movie shows Gordon going to meet with the Mahdi on a couple of occasions during the ten month siege of Khartoum, although that likely never happened in real life, but historically, the two leaders did exchange various communications. Gordon wants the Mahdi to allow the Egyptian troops and administrators to leave unharmed, but while the Mahdi wants Gordon to leave, he will not permit the Egyptians to leave, as they are marked for death. The Sudanese population will then have to submit to strict Islamic law or be executed. Meanwhile, back in Britain, the public wants British troops sent to the Sudan to "save Gordon." The government relents and finally thousands of troops are sent to Egypt, where they spend time training for the hot climate and rough terrain. The government really hopes this delay will force Gordon to abandon Khartoum, save himself, and join these British forces in Egypt, something, however, he will not do. Historically, Gordon had strong, but somewhat out of the ordinary, Christian religious beliefs, and the religious element of his life is depicted in the movie. In his last meeting with the Mahdi, the two use their religious views against one another, as each essentially condemns the other to death as the will of their views of God (Allah).

The pressure on the British government becomes too much, and the troops in Egypt are given the order to move into the Sudan. The Mahdi organizes his attack on Khartoum and gives the order for the assault. The Egyptian troops put up a valiant defense, inflicting heavy casualties on the enemy, but in the end the Mahdi's forces overcome their resistance and enter the city. Gordon, who is in his residence, goes out to meet the Mahdi's forces. As he appears at the head of some steps, the soldiers cease fire and grow silent. Gordon descends a few steps and one of the soldiers throws a spear which kills him and his body topples from the staircase. Gordon is beheaded and his head is put atop a long pike and carried to the Mahdi, who is terrified by its sight, as he had ordered that Gordon not be killed (historically true). The idea here is, the Mahdi was an astute leader, and he knew that killing the famous Gordon "could" bring substantial British military forces against him. The narrator tells us the British troops arrived just two days later (true), but that the Sudan suffered terribly in the aftermath of the Mahdi's victory, although the Mahdi's rule was short lived, as he too died just a short time later, and the narrator says, "Why, we shall never know," but with the implication that Gordon's religious "threat" or "curse" to the Mahdi in their last meeting had been fulfilled. Historically, how Gordon died is not really known, but the scene in the movie was not "invented" by the filmmaker, but rather was taken from some accounts and from a famous painting depicting Gordon's death. The actual final battle was not really as seen in the movie, as one of Gordon's own men opened one of the gates to the city, allowing the Mahdi's forces to enter. Many of the Egyptians were killed in the fighting, with survivors being executed, and some Sudanese were executed, with the total number being in the thousands. The Mahdi did indeed die just a few months later, "presumably" from typhus.  

The following were consulted for this article:
"Gordon of Khartoum-The Saga Of A Victorian Hero" by John H. Waller, published by Atheneum, 1988.
"Gordon of Khartoum" by Peter Johnson, published by Patrick Stevens, 1985

WORD HISTORY:
Ennet-This now largely British dialectal, but generally antiquated word for "duck," the waterfowl, goes back to Indo European "anet/anat," with the meaning "waterbird, waterfowl." This gave its Old Germanic offspring "anuth," with the same meaning. This gave Old English (Anglo-Saxon) "ened/enid," which meant "duck." This later became "enede," before the later version, "ennet," which is also at times written "annet." Other forms in the Germanic languages are: German "Ente," Low German "Aant," Dutch "eend," West Frisian "ein," Danish and Norwegian "and," Icelandic "önd," Swedish "and," but also "an."