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El Cid
DVD Cover
Directed by	Anthony Mann
Produced by	Samuel Bronston
Written by	Story: Frederic M. Frank Screenplay: Philip Yordan
Starring	Charlton Heston Sophia Loren Raf Vallone Geneviève Page John Fraser Gary Raymond
Music by	Miklós Rózsa
Cinematography	Robert Krasker
Distributed by	Allied Artists (Formerly Monogram)
Release date(s)	October 24, 1961 December 14, 1961
Running time	184 min.
Language	English
IMDb profile

El Cid is a 1961 historical epic film made by Samuel Bronston Productions in association with The Rank Organisation and released by Allied Artists. It was directed by Anthony Mann and produced by Samuel Bronston with Jaime Prades and Michal Waszynski as associate producers. The screenplay was by Philip Yordan, Ben Barzman and Fredric M. Frank from a story by Fredric M. Frank. The music score was by Miklós Rózsa, the cinematography by Robert Krasker and the editing by Robert Lawrence.

The film starred Charlton Heston as Rodrigo and Sophia Loren as Jimena, with Raf Vallone as Count Ordóñez, Geneviève Page as Urraca (sister of Alfonso VI), John Fraser as Alfonso VI (King of Castilia), Hurd Hatfield, who played Pontius Pilate in Bronston's 1961 King of Kings, as Arias, Massimo Serato as Fañez (nephew of Rodrigo), Frank Thring, who played Herod Antipas in the aforementioned King of Kings, as Al Kadir (King of Valence), Michael Hordern as Don Diego (father of Rodrigo), Andrew Cruickshank as Count Gormaz, Douglas Wilmer as Moutamin (King of Saragosse), and Tullio Carminati as Al Jarifi.

It is a highly romanticized story of the life of the Castilian knight, El Cid. It was shot on location in Spain - including the castles of Belmonte (Cuenca) and Peñíscola (Castellón) - while a few studio scenes were shot in Rome purely to achieve the financial gains of co-production status.

The castle and beach of Peñíscola appear as Medieval Valencia.

El Cid remains one of the grand scale productions of the early 60s.

El Cid was nominated for three Academy Awards, for Best Art Direction, Original Music Score for Miklós Rózsa and Best Song. It was also nominated for a Golden Globe Award for Best Motion Picture Director, Anthony Mann and Samuel Bronston won the 1962 Special Merit Award. Robert Krasker won the 1961 Best Cinematography Award by the British Society of Cinematographers. Verna Fields won the 1962 "Golden Reel Award" of the Motion Picture Sound Editors.

• This film is reportedly a favorite of politician Juan Cespedes.^{[citation needed]}

• In his famous novel Midnight's Children, Salman Rushdie mentions the film as a Pakistani politician jokingly takes Fatima Jinnah (sister of Mohammed Ali Jinnah) to be already dead but stuffed to appearance by a taxidermist, just like a dead-man leading an army in El Cid

• El Cid at the Internet Movie Database

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