Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #78602 in DVD
• Original language: English
• Number of discs: 1
• Running time: 182 minutes

Customer Reviews

Film is better than its presentation
I saw this film during its first run in 1961. It was presented in 70mm on a huge screen with outstanding sound. Rosza's music was always part of the appeal. The photography was sometimes breathtaking. The color was rich and beautiful. Among Heston's epics it was neither Ben Hur nor the Ten Commandments, but there are hundreds of movies of less merit that have been given better treatment than this one.

The DVD I have was purchased through Amazon's resale program. It seems to be of Chinese origin as the subtitles are in that language. The print is really pretty awful. The colors seem to bleed and overall the image is not sharp. The sound is stereo with none of the impact of that 1961 memory.

This movie was "restored" in the early nineties. I remember seeing Ms. Loren talking about it on one of the morning programs. But this is not that print. It is a mere shadow of what might have been.

The movie deserves to be presented in a double DVD with full honors of trailers, "Making of...." and the best print they can come up with. Sure it's not Lawrence of Arabia -- what is? Lawrence is by consensus of a half dozen sources one of the three greatest movies of all time. But El Cid is not about an anti-hero like Lawrence but rather about a principled guy with courage and values. There IS an audience for that, too.

I don't know whether the American rights to this movie are tied up by some estate or some studio, or what. But it is time to give us the movie with the technical quality of the original. The movie itself may be a 3 1/2 out of 5. But the only excuse for this foreign ersatz is as a stopgap until the real thing FINALLY comes out.

Taken from Laser Disc
This is from the restored print, but this DVD is taken from a Laser Disc source. If you look closely you will see the pre film credits just as they fade out which tells you pretty much from what this has been mastered. I doubt that it is a legal print. While this version is better then nothing it is a long way from doing justice to the beauty of the film. The sound is stereo but not the 5.1 surround that it should be. I'd rate the film a full 5 STARS, but this disc is not much more then a 2 STAR.

DO NOT BUY THIS DVD!!!!!!!!!!!!
DREADFUL PRINT, AWFUL COLOR AND OUT OF FOCUS. DON'T WASTE YOUR MONEY ON THIS CHEAP IMPORT!