El Cid (film)

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Movie
German title El Cid
Original title El Cid
Country of production United States
original language English
Publishing year 1961
length 189 minutes
Age rating FSK 12
Rod
Director Anthony Mann
script Philip Yordan ,
Fredric M. Frank
Ben Barzman ( anonymous )
production Anthony Mann,
Samuel Bronston
music Miklós Rózsa
camera Robert Krasker
cut Robert Lawrence
occupation

El Cid is an American adventure and historical film by director Anthony Mann from 1961 , which tells the legend of the Spanish hero Rodrigo Díaz de Vivar , known as "El Cid".

action

Spain around 1080 at the time of the Reconquista : Moorish troops devastate the border region to Christian Spain, kill clergymen and destroy churches. The Spanish nobleman Rodrigo Díaz enters the combat area by chance, sees the destruction and can render the Moors harmless in a short battle. Five high-ranking Muslims are among the prisoners, including Al-Mutamin , the emir of Zaragoza . He releases her against the king's orders. He does not shy away from fighting the Muslims, but quite rightly does not want to provoke them any further and thus endanger other Christians in the border area. The freedmen are amazed at this gesture. Rodrigo Díaz, however, does not want to screw up the spiral of hatred for legitimate fear of revenge actions by the sons of the emirs against the Christian Spaniards in the border region. The emirs are deeply impressed and recognize in their victor a noble and intelligent person, which they would not have expected from their opponents, who were considered primitive. You swear him never to attack Christian settlements again and vow eternal friendship. You will keep this promise as the story progresses. As a token of their appreciation, they give him the name "El Cid" ("the Lord"), in recognition of the fact that he was able to overcome his hatred and let her go for her word of honor.

Thereupon Diaz is brought before the court of Ferdinand the Great , King of Castile , León and Asturias . Rodrigo Díaz can explain his motivation to the king, because he doesn't want any further escalation either. During his defense he is accused of cowardice by the swordsman of the king. Because of this insult by the swordsman, whose daughter Jimena he actually wanted to marry, Diaz challenges him to a duel. He doesn't want to kill him, but blood should flow. He succeeds, he can wound the swordsman, but he now wants the opponent's death, refuses to end the fight and, as he continues to attack Diaz, is finally killed by Rodrigo.

The incident fuels the hatred of his opponents and competitors. When he defeated the swordsman of the King of Aragon in a new duel and thus won the city of Calahorra for Castile , his honor was restored and the charges dropped, but Jimena continued to meet him coldly and repulsively. After El Cid has proven himself in a campaign, he can finally marry Jimena with the consent of the king, even if Jimena only reluctantly agrees. She retires to a monastery. Her love for Rodrigo has now reawakened, but she still cannot forgive him for the death of her father.

When the old king dies, there is a conflict between his two sons Sancho and Alfonso. First Sancho becomes king and has Alfonso thrown into the dungeon, but El Cid frees him. Urraca , the sister of the two aspirants to the throne, intrigues against Sancho together with the Berber prince Yusuf , who is planning an invasion of Spain. Sancho is sneakily murdered shortly afterwards. Alfonso is now king alone. El Cid requires King Alfonso to take a public oath on the Bible that he is innocent in the murder of his brother. King Alfonso takes the oath, but feels deeply humiliated by the cid. In anger fueled by Rodrigo's rival and adversary at court, Count Ordóñez , the king expropriates the cid and sends him into exile. His reputation as a brave and upright knight without fear and rebuke leads the mass of the people to remain loyal to him, although he has fallen out of favor with the king. On his way into exile, he meets Lazarus, a leper . He asks him for water and the cid hands him his bottle. Lazarus looks up, thanks and calls the cid by name. He is amazed how he knows him and he gets the answer: "There is only one person in Spain who humiliates a king, only one person who shares his water bottle with a leper ..." In a short speech he counts later Saint Lazarus canonized all the positive qualities of a noble knight that El Cid unites in himself.

Jimena, too, forgives her lover and accompanies him into exile, as do many loyal knights, squires and servants. They serve different masters but never fight Spain. El Cid and his entourage are finally accepted by Al-Mutamin, the Muslim petty king of Saragossa, with whom he has been friends since his release. Spain, however, lacks these upright knights in the fight against external and internal enemies.

When the Berber Yusuf, the leader of the Almoravids , begins his invasion, King Alfonso is forced to recall the Cid because he needs him to fight the new enemy. El Cid advises the king to take Valencia without fail and not to let it come down to an open battle against the Berber-Moorish army. But the king wants the battle. So the Cid and King Alfonso split up again in an argument. In the Battle of Sagrajas , King Alfonso was defeated by Yusuf, while the Cid and Al-Mutamin moved on their own to the gates of Valencia. El Cid succeeds in taking the city, supported by the population, who overthrow the hated previous emir. El Cid is now at the height of his power. He is offered the crown of Valencia. However, he still considers himself to be the feudal man of the King of Castile and has the crown delivered to him. King Alfonso is deeply moved by this gesture. He finally realizes the true greatness and the great nobility of the cid. Repeatedly wrongly informed by bad advisors and his scheming sister, he had never expected that the Cid would renounce the crown of Valencia and remain loyal to it. He decides to move to Valencia after all and support the Cid.

Yusuf has now included Valencia. When attacked, the cid is hit by an arrow and seriously injured. He would only recover if he had a Moorish doctor operate on him, but would then be very weak for a long time and certainly not be able to lead the troops into the necessary battle the next day. He therefore refuses the treatment. In this situation there is a reconciliation between King Alfonso and the dying Cid. El Cid can no longer get up, but tries anyway when Alfonso kneels in front of him. “My king does not kneel in front of anyone!” Are his words, but Alfonso does not get up, but asks his forgiveness. “Spain finally has a king again!” Is El Cid's answer.

Since the fighting morale of the Christian soldiers depends on the presence of the cid, he decides that the next morning, whether dead or alive, he should be put on his horse and let the troops lead into battle. In the night he dies. According to his last will, the body of the Cid is placed on his horse "Babieca" the next morning. Sitting upright and supported and secured by a wooden structure hidden under his cloak, the dead Cid rides ahead of his army to victory against Yusuf.

background

Due to the long and extensive filming time - it was shot in Great Britain , Spain and Italy - Charlton Heston was unable to take part in the advertising campaign for John F. Kennedy .

After Sophia Loren initially refused to play the role of Jimena, Liselotte Pulver sought the role. She had already been accepted, but had to refuse because she was already under contract for the film Gustav Adolfs Page and would have threatened her with a contractual penalty if she did not comply . Finally, Sophia Loren took over the role.

Tensions between Heston and Loren developed so much during the filming that, contrary to the director's instructions, he could not watch them during the love scenes. The origin of the conflict was probably Loren's fee (one million dollars), which, despite its smaller role, exceeded Heston's fee. Years later, Heston said he regretted his negative behavior and described it as "unprofessional and unfair".

The most important historical advisor to the film project was Ramón Menéndez Pidal , who was then over ninety , a Spanish philologist and long-time president of the Real Academia Española , who had devoted practically his entire life to researching the medieval heroic epic El Cantar de Mio Cid , written by the Deeds of the Cid told.

The episodes set in and around Valencia, especially the conquest, were filmed 73 kilometers north of the provincial capital Castelló in Peñíscola , which is located directly on the Mediterranean coast and is characterized by its imposing castle rock and the well-preserved medieval walls and alleys. In fact, medieval Valencia was neither directly on the sea nor did it have a castle rock.

The music was composed by the composer Miklós Rózsa , who specializes in monumental films . The music was nominated for an Oscar in 1962 in the category "Music ( Scoring of a Dramatic or Comedy Picture)" and with the theme The Falcon and the Dove in the category "Music (Original Song)" .

With a budget of $ 6.25 million, the film grossed $ 12 million at box offices in the United States alone and grossed over $ 30 million by the 2010s.

Reviews

The film received mostly positive reviews, earning a 92% rating on Rotten Tomatoes based on 12 reviews.

The lexicon of international films called El Cid “an eye-catching adventure film. [...] The fighting events aroused interest through the great mass direction. "

Awards

  • 1962: Special Merit Award at the Golden Globe Awards for producer Bronston
  • 1962: Golden Laurel for best action drama
  • 1962: three Oscar nominations for "Best Film Music", "Best Song" and "Best Set Design"

Literature on the legend El Cid

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Liselotte Pulver: ... if you still laugh . Ullstein, Frankfurt am Main / Berlin 1993, ISBN 3-548-22918-2 , p. 151.
  2. ↑ Anthony Mann: El Cid. December 14, 1961, accessed December 4, 2016 .
  3. ↑ El Cid at Rotten Tomatoes (English)
  4. ↑ El Cid. In: Lexicon of International Films . Film service , accessed October 13, 2016 .Template: LdiF / Maintenance / Access used