El Cid

[iskander_32]

Did anyone remember the movie,, El Cid starring Charlton Heston? We get it over here every christmas I realised one scene is very Alexander.The part wher he takes an arrow in the Chest,,Anyway he drags himself out of his death bed to lift his soldiers.The only difference was Charlton bought it and had to be strapped on his horse, very similar story and I thought the film was great.kenny

[marcus]

One of my favourite films of all time, Kenny! The duel at the beginning is, in my opinion, one of the finest fight scenes in cinema history. There's another excellently executed battle about half way through - a small skirmish on horseback. If Oliver Stone gets as much realism into his fight scenes in Alexander, then I'll be satisfied.I always loved the legend of how they strapped El Cid's body to a horse and sent it out at the head of the army. Although he is accepted as a historical person, I have to confess that I don't know whether that part was true, or part of the legend. (There were plenty of other stories that were *definitely* legendary.)If you ever go to Madrid, and visit the Palacio Real, make sure you go to the armoury - in there they have what is reputed to be El Cid's sword. It's a monstrous two-handed weapon, probably too late to have been his really; but very impressive, all the same.All the bestMarcus

[iskander_32]

MarcusHi,, I agree with a lot of what you said,,, I never tire of watching it and as you say some scenes were superb, I like the one whjere the insane king is on his way to the dungeons yet the Cid gets him out single handed.I have looked up Rodrigos in history books it is pretty clear that he was a minimal character and very different top the one in the film.Also in reality the king wasnt as bad as the movie but irespective the film was fantastic the duel you mentiones you could actually feel ther toil and exhaustion that such a battle would cause.I still think the arrow shopuld have come out.
Kenny