Charlton Heston, Frank Thring, Gary Raymond

A legendary 11th century knight drives the Moors out of Spain.

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76% liked it

1,108 ratings

Unrated, 3 hrs. 2 min.

Directed by: Anthony Mann

Release Date: December 14, 1961

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DVD Release Date: January 29, 2008

Stats: 254 reviews

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Flixster Reviews (254)


  • August 16, 2008
    real interesting if you know nothing about el cid and how he brought the spanish christians and moors together to fight the african moors in the 11th century. i knew nothing about him. hell, i'd never heard of him. it's an epic war film and obviously the battle scenes arent going...( read more) to be as good as in more modern epics, and charlton heston and sophia loren were chosen for their looks more than their acting skills most likely but despite all that it's still worth a look and seldom lets you turn away from the screen. worth one watch, but probably not entertaining for repeated viewing
  • June 21, 2008
    Very Epical (if that is an adjective) you can't get more epic than the crusades. Way too slow and long though.
  • February 17, 2009
    Classic, grand, glorious epic. Solid performance from Charlton Heston, Sophia Loren brings beauty and depth as the Cid's wife with Herbert Lom splendidly sinister as the invading Ben Yussef.
  • October 11, 2007
    Sophia Loren is a goddess...and the film was great to......
  • July 26, 2009
    Chuck Heston wailing on Moors and evil Christians alike. I get chills when they send out his corpse on the warhorse to scare the moors. Plus Sophia Loren.
  • July 15, 2009
    Some movies have to come around in order for people to appreciate that particular movies importance and significance in its depiction of facts related ot historical events or periods. But, more importantly how great movies are made to hold ones attention, stimulate conversation a...( read more)nd interaction between people long after its creidts role up the screen.
  • June 7, 2009
    This is a very great movie I've ever watched in my life.
  • May 26, 2009
    An excellent movie of good olden days







    An excellent movie of good olden days
  • April 16, 2009
    good sword & sandal epic
  • January 27, 2009
    A gorgeous period piece in the tradition of Cecil B. Demille. This is now one of my favorite Heston films and I feel it ranks with The Ten Commandments and comes close to matching Ben Hur. I was very impressed with the attention to detail, which is to be expected when the product...( read more)ion is run by those Europeans who have more of a vested interest in portraying their own history than Hollywood. Heston and the majority of the supporting cast were splendid. Loren was eh; I'm still trying to appreciate her acting style but I will say she looks genuinely scared shitless during the siege of Valencia. I was also kind of disappointed in the send-off of the head Muslim bad guy. He acts like a total bad-ass for the whole movie and then gets run over by horses while looking like a puss?! C'mon, where's the big sword fight?! Overall, a great historical epic. The ending was particularly poignant. With Heston riding off into the distance, I kept thinking "Shane! Come back, Shane!"

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