Myself, I am fond of epic movies. Lawrence of Arabia, Ben Hur, Achilles, The ten commandments...I found El Cid to be a mix of Ben Hur and Lawrence of Arabia, but I'm not sure if people will agree with me on that.

Even though this movie is 50 years old, it goes through the story with great speed. The story appears to jump or skip large sections several times, once again leaving the viewer wondering what vital moments were missed that would better explain the chain of events captured on film.

In the days before CGI, producers had to pay actual human beings to dress up in costume for huge scenes with thousands of people. These were the classic days of epic film making, and "El Cid" comes from that heady time. Visually, everything about this film is epic. Huge sets, huge locations, a huge cast of extras and lots of extravagant costuming. The castles are real, the location is Spain, and the armies seen on the big screen are actual costumed armies.

Only in the beginning of the film, the sets looked dated. Kind of reminded me of the old robin hood-movies :)

Overall, I really enjoyed this movie. Next stop : Quo Vadis.