El Cid - 2 Disc Deluxe Edition

Drama, War, Romance, History

Charlton Heston	Rodrigo Diaz de Bivar/El Cid
Sophia Loren	Chimene
Raf Vallone	Count Ordonez
Ralph Truman	King Ferdinand
Gary Raymond	King Sancho / Prince Sancho
John Fraser	Prince Alfonso
Geneviève Page	Queen Urraca / Princess Urraca
Andrew Cruickshank	Count Gomez
Michael Hordern	Don Diego
Gérard Tichy	King Ramirez
Hurd Hatfield	Arias
Massimo Serato	Fanez
Frank Thring	Al Kadir
Barbara Everest
Carlo Giustini
Herbert Lom
Genevieve Page

Director	Anthony Mann
Producer	Samuel Bronston; Jaime Prades
Writer	Philip Yordan; Fredric M. Frank

Sweeping adaptation of the Spanish legendary hero. It is the 11th century and Spain is divided into Christian and Moorish kingdoms. Rodrigo Diaz, also known as El Cid (Charlton Heston), vows to bring peace to the divided land by driving out the Moorish invaders. When the Spanish King Ferdinand (Ralph Truman) dies, his kingdom is split between his three sons. The division results in fighting amongst the Spanish princes allowing the Moors to become stronger than ever. El Cid is charged with treason for showing leniency in battle to some of the Moorish emirs and is exiled by Prince Alfonso (John Fraser) and El Cid's wife Jimena (Sophia Loren) is sent away to a convent. Years pass and war continues. Vowing to fight the Moors on his own terms, El Cid refuses to aid Prince Alfonso in his need. Rather El Cid lays siege to Valencia and succeeds in driving the Moors out of the kingdom. When the people of Valencia offer the crown to El Cid, he refuses to further divide the kingdom and generously gives the crown to his foe Alfonso, thus uniting Spain under one King.