Capital Celluloid 2025 — Day 220: Sun Aug 10

El Cid (Mann, 1960): BFI Southbank, NFT1, 5.20pm

This 35mm screening (also being shown on August 23rd) is part of the Sophia Loren season at BFI Southbank. Full details here.

Time Out review:
One of the very finest epics produced by Samuel Bronston, equally impressive in terms of script (by Philip Yordan, who mercifully steers clear of florid archaisms) and spectacle. Charlton Heston is aptly heroic as the 11th-century patriot destined to die in the fight for a Moor-less Spain, Mann's direction is stately and thrilling, and Miklos Rosza's superb score perfectly complements the crisp and simple widescreen images. Sobriety and restraint, in fact, are perhaps the keynotes of the film's success, with the result that a potentially risible finale (in which Cid's corpse is borne into the realm of legend, strapped to his horse as it leads his men to battle) becomes genuinely stirring.
Geoff Andrew

Here (and above) is the trailer. 

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