Has anyone ever seen El Cid starring Charleton Heston? It is a super movie and has a lot of sword play but the one scene that is so memorable is the battle for Calahora where Don Rodrigo de Bivar acting as the Kings champion fights another kings champion to the death for the contested city of Calahora. If you can rent or buy the movie by all means do so.

Jan,

Yes I remember The Warlord. Wasn't that where a knight took a peasant girl who had just been married and demanded the right of the first night? As I remember, he decided to keep her for his own after falling in love with her and sparked a war with the local people who laid seige to the castle. Supposedly this was in the period of the Marcher Lords in Wales.

I thought the ritual combat scene in El Cid was true to the times and in keeping with fighting style of the times...no finesse, just the brutal dispatching of one's opponent especially with the big two handed swords. One would take big slow slashing blows cleaving anything that got in the way.

The scene had it all, realistic jousting, riding down an opponent and using a ball and chain on a short staff, fighting with side swords, and finally the enormous two handed swords for a smashing finish...what more can you ask for?

Regards,

Harry

"El Cid "has recently been restored by The Miriam Collection. So has another great old movie, "The Fall of the Roman Empire." I have them both. Outside of the perhaps excessive at times orchestration, these are both well worth having. The costumes are EXCELLENT giving you great views of the leather undergarment , etc.the Romans wore under their molded body armor, and everything just looks and fits perfect. Sophia Loren never looked better in both movies, and all the acting in my opinion is very very good. I especially enjoy the barbarian ambush, (the best I've ever seen, now or then) and Alec Guiness's monologue as Marcus Aurelius.
But back to the Cid. I also love this movie, although it takes great liberties with history, as most do. While the joust scene is outstanding, (I like the saddle trick) the armor is a bit later than the time of the Cid. He was nearly contemporary with Duke William of Normandy and would probably have armored himself similarly. They looked more like 12th or 13th century knights to me. But a great movie nonetheless. I just LOVE those long buckled gloves of his.
I also like "The War Lord," especially the performance by Guy Stockwell, who steals every scene he's in. "We are all of us, good father, made of the coarsest clay..." And Richard Boone is great as the brooding, menacing Bors. The Orchestration grates on me after awhile, though. Heston plays a good guy who actually ain't all THAT good, which I thought was different and made him seem a lot more human and realistic as a man of the period. I have the VHS, but not a DVD unfortunately. Those I found were so ridiculously priced that they just weren't worth it.

Tino Brana, one of the stuntment who taught me the fine art of stunts, is the stuntman that does the joust scene in El Cid. One of the toughest individuals that I have ever known in my life.

He did both stunts. He was actually more proud of being Raquel Welch's stunt double in The Three Musketeers.

One time while he was theatrically jousting (in front of a live audience), the other jouster's lance tabled his shield, slid up and tagged him next to his eye. It somehow knocked the eye out of the socket, Tino held his eye in his hand, did a complete staged fight and then went to the hospital.

Very nice guy; scary tough.

My dad is notorious for bringing home movies,most of which are less are less than five star productions(the Spiderwick Chronicles,for example).So I was a bit sarcastic when El Cid came through the door.But I agree,this movie is amazing!!Especially since it really happened instead of being some fantasy film.I thought that using the saddle to parry with during the the joust was a great twist.The assasination and battle against the Moors were also superb.All in all,a great movie.In fact,we loved it so much that we ordered the DVD to replace the lame VHS!

El Cid is one of my favourite films. I watched it on HBO when I was 10 or 11 and set me on the path to be a fan of all things medieval. The scene where Rodrigo rescues Prince Alphonso from the 13 knights and says "Were you 13 times 10, I would still win, because my cause is just." cemented in my young mind what it meant to be brave.

One of the best movies of the genre, especially in that period of Hollywood Technicolor blockbusters! The Warlord with Heston and Richard Boone had some fantastic moments too - like when Boone at the canter on horseback, picked up the peasant and slammed him into the broken tree branch. Brilliant stunt!

The talk of 'The War Lord' movie in this thread promted me to replace my very old vhs tape of this great movie with a newly released dvd format...brilliant!

While ordering on Amazon I was also suprised to see another couple of old epics that I fondly remember from childhood viewing and both starring Yul Bryner, 'Kings of the Sun' and Taras Bulba....looks like I'l be ordering them shortly!!

best
Dave

Not sure how much they are asking for the dvd over the water Bryce, but in the U.K. the 2010 remastered release is about 10.00 GBP.

Best
Dave