epic. it is the first word. than - heroic. or fascinating. or great. or amazing. only words about a film who remains seductive decade by decade. in fact, it is a well -made work. same ingredients of many other historical movies from the same period. same recipes. and Heston and Loren in a love story who escapes from clichés few times. and that could be the essence of its success. because it is a wise adaptation of one of most impressive Spanish stories. and the care for details, the use of nuances in brilliant manner are the virtues who defines it. a film who could be a beautiful one. but it has the science to be more. a seductive trip in the heart of myth using memorable scenes.

Don Rodrigo (Charlton Heston) captures two of the Emirs of Valencia. He releases them and they proclaim him El Cid. Don Rodrigo is accused of treason which leads to a duel with Jimena (Sophia Loren)'s father Count Gormaz. This leads to revenge and backstabbing. King Ferdinand dies. The older Prince Sancho ascends to the throne. The younger Prince Alfonso (John Fraser) and Princess Urraca (Geneviève Page) has Sancho assassinated. Alfonso takes over the throne and El Cid is banished joined by Jimena. General Ibn Yusuf (Herbert Lom) of the Almoravid dynasty is landing from North Africa. Rodrigo does not join the king, but allies with friendly Emirs to conquer Valencia from Yusuf's allie Emir Al-Kadir.This is without a doubt an old-fashion Hollywood epic. The sets are massive and the cast number in the thousands. The back and forth with the multitude of characters can get confusing. The political intrigue in the first half drags a bit. The second half has more big epic battles. It does get a bit weird with the Almoravids running in fear of El Cid's dead body.

Evidence that quantity does not mean quality. 180 minutes long, probably just so that it could earn the "epic" tag, this movie drags on an on, thanks to unnecessary side plots and details. Clearly not true to history - if El Cid and some of the other characters really acted in the way they did, and made the decisions they did, history would have been quite different. El Cid's adherence to certain (misplaced and misguided) honours and loyalties are laid on so thick, and stymie so many good ideas, that you start supporting his enemies.Plot-holes and random pointless twists abound.The acting is incredibly wooden, especially by Charlton Heston and Sophia Loren. The supporting cast aren't much better though.On the up side, the battle scenes are well done, cinematography is great and costumes look very authentic.

I love Chralton Heston's roles. He was the very essence of a masculine, clever, smart, superb actor who could perform almost every role he got his hands to. He was absolutely mesmerizing as Moses in Ten Commandments, he was good in many other movies. Here he is not bad, to be honest, the thing is he cannot save this plodding dud of a film from mediocrity that it slowly plunges to in a course of endless 3 hours. The plot seems to be very trite and smacks more of a Shazam Orient Fables than that of a real history. Another big (I mean it B/I/G) mistake was Sophia Loren as a main female part. She is a fish out of her element here completely. The poses, the looks, the smiles, the faked sufferings all betray lack of depth and lack of genuine feeling. She is not even that attractive to be cool just for her looks. To sum it up, this is a rather middle-of-the-road effort, with all the mistakes and prolonged scenes that add more to drag and help not to develop.