El Cid Film Review
Abigail Franzer

El Cid tells the story of noble knight Rodrigo Diaz de Vivar of Castile and the struggles and triumphs he experiences throughout life. The movie is a romantic retelling of the Poem of the Cid written sometime between 1195 AD - 1207 AD. The intense use of color certainly stands stark against the black words on the pages from which the movie is based. It begins with Diaz making the decision to spare the lives of captured Moors and is sent back home to his bride, Jimena. When he arrives, however, he is perceived as a traitor and refused by the father of Jimena and champion of the King, Count Diego Gonzalez. After a duel that results in the death of Gonzalez and a duel against a rivaling Christian kingdom in which Diaz also wins, Rodrigo becomes the new champion of the King. Through the death of the King, hatred from his promised bride (who eventually comes around), and an assasination carried out by the new king's siblings, the Cid faces more trials. In the end, Diaz is wounded in battle and dies but still rides into battle strapped to his horse. Like aforementioned, this is a heavily romanticized version of the poem that leaves a lot of scenes out and even occurs at a different time during the story. Even though it takes a few liberties, I feel that the movie did a good job historically and cinematographically explaining the story. The movie shows the essence of how delicate their lives were but how grand they lived. In the duel against