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| The Castilian | 
enlarge | Director: Javier Seto Actors: Cesar Romero, Frankie Avalon, Broderick Crawford, Alida Valli, Espartaco Santoni Studio: Warner Home Video Category: Video
Buy New: $18.90
New (4) Used (7) Collectible (2) from $4.60
Avg. Customer Rating: 1 reviews Sales Rank: 19333
Format: Color, Hifi Sound, Ntsc Language: English (Original Language) Rating: NR (Not Rated) Media: VHS Tape Number Of Items: 1 Running Time: 128 Shipping Weight (lbs): 0.4 Dimensions (in): 7.3 x 4.2 x 1.1
ISBN: 6302787548 UPC: 085391175131 EAN: 9786302787542 ASIN: 6302787548
Theatrical Release Date: September 6, 1963 Release Date: July 7, 1994 Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days Condition: BRAND NEW AND SEALED---IN STOCK---SHIPS FROM OKLAHOMA
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| Customer Reviews:
EL CID WITH A DIFFERENT EMPHASIS AND NOT AS GOOD July 29, 2000 10 out of 10 found this review helpful
This spanish-made "spectacle" was released a year after "El Cid" and takes a different look at the medieval Spanish wars between the Moors and the Christians. Whereas the Charlton Heston epic carried a message of unity for loyal Spaniards, whether Moorish or Christian, this movie is a flat out jingoistic anti-Moorish propaganda film. Both movies had large casts, huge battle scenes, a struggle of a hero to unite Spain, a romance, and are told in a style evoking tales told by medieval troubadors. "El Cid," however, has garnered both critical and popular accolades and is actually a damn fine movie, though its stylistic earnestness gets an occasional campy snicker. "The Castilian"'s stylistic earnestness fails to impress and the production values show a depressing cheapness for what was supposed to be such a big movie. Frankie Avalon (!) plays a travelling minstrel who tels the tale of a hero who defeats the Moors in an epic battle with the assistance of two saints with flaming swords. His scenes of exposition are just silly to the point of embarassment. There is lots of Spanish mountains and countryside, lots of bad dubbed dialogue, lots of pro-Christian, anti-Muslim stuff, some swordfighting, and a surprisingly lugubrious battle. It is said that the battle was the largest ever filmed or something like that, and there is an impressive shot of the Christian army marching in a cross formation, but somehow it lacks the excitement of battle scenes in "Spartacus" or "El Cid." The aide that is given by the saints seems to undercut the achievements of the people involved. I am a completist when it comes to medieval movies, yet after seeing this once, I really did not have a desire to see it again.
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