The Legend of El Cid on Amazon Prime

[Von Stroheim]

Trailer for the Legend of El Cid on Amazon Prime.

[Silent bob]

Oh dear, that's probably set the butterfly off and maybe took me back 20 years in gaming terms.....

[Atheling]

Oh dear, that's probably set the butterfly off and maybe took me back 20 years in gaming terms.....

The same could be said for me! Covid put pay to my Reconquista project earlier this year as it was designed for a game at Partizan! 

I just hope they don't keep making the same mistakes as the BBC with The Last Kingdom (dubbed The Last joke in my household!) and the recent German production, Barbarians. The list goes on (and on).

When is it due for release? I'm about to dump Netflix permanently so might with the Second Age of Middle Earth series coming up I might be tempted with giving amazon a go.

[JollyBob]

The trailer says release December 18th.

Looks quite good to me, I'm oddly pleased that its subtitled instead of having a Yankee cast (with the obligatory Englishman for the baddie). Battles look nicely grim, costume looks right (to me) and the only misgiving I have is how much Game of Thrones style shagging they will shoehorn into it for no reason.

Yes, I might see if I can get control of the buttons for a while next month, at least to see how the pilot plays. 

[Grumpy Gnome]

Looks entertaining. I do not understand Spanish but I love how it sounds, especially in that trailer. Set design and costuming looks good, if not perfect it is better than a lot of other productions.

[OB]

That looks worth watching.

[Captain Blood]

‘We bring you bread’
Best movie moment ever. Well, one of them 
That and when he wakes up after shagging Sophia Loren in a secret love nest, and his army is outside waiting for him. Fabulous.

I love the Charlton Heston version, but this does look rather good too. Looking forward to it 

[Malamute]

‘We bring you bread’
Best movie moment ever. Well, one of them 
That and when he wakes up after shagging Sophia Loren in a secret love nest, and his army is outside waiting for him. Fabulous.

I love the Charlton Heston version, but this does look rather good too. Looking forward to it 

A Sunday afternoon favourite TV viewing!

[Captain Blood]

A Sunday afternoon favourite TV viewing!

Yep

They’ll have to go some to better Miklós Rózsa’s massive glorious orchestral score.

[Atheling]

The trailer says release December 18th.

Yeah, I noticed that at the end of the trailer after watching it in full 

Looks quite good to me, I'm oddly pleased that its subtitled instead of having a Yankee cast (with the obligatory Englishman for the baddie). Battles look nicely grim, costume looks right (to me) and the only misgiving I have is how much Game of Thrones style shagging they will shoehorn into it for no reason.

Putting my cynic hat on again, I think that those sorts of sexual scenes are going to be a given in any historical fiction brought to a screen. Except in rare occasions (the Cohen brothers spring to mind) movies/TV series have become as formulaic as modern pop music IMHO.

Yes, I might see if I can get control of the buttons for a while next month, at least to see how the pilot plays. 

Having said all that, if I switch to Amazon I will no doubt be watching...... 

[Plynkes]

As a child I felt the same about El Cid as I did about Ben Hur. Being mad about history I delighted that such films existed, but I found them rather tedious to watch. Hours and hours of boredom waiting for the two or three thrilling short segments I knew were in there somewhere. Not sure if it was worth it, but I did it anyway.

For some reason 7-year-old Plynkes was much more willing and prepared to sit through all sleep-inducing parts to get to the good bits than 50-year-old Plynkes is. 


I predict the new one will be terrible, even though I haven't watched the trailer. Just because everything is terrible these days (now I really sound like an old git).

[Atheling]

I predict the new one will be terrible, even though I haven't watched the trailer. Just because everything is terrible these days (now I really sound like an old git).

Oh dear..... where does that leave me? 

I've just lost all faith in historical productions being i/historical (not always necessary but nice) and ii/ being remotely captivating.

[Plynkes]

Oh, I'm talking about absolutely everything, I'm not singling out historical productions, that would be mean. 

[Atheling]

Oh, I'm talking about absolutely everything, I'm not singling out historical productions, that would be mean. 

How far back?

[Silent bob]

I have always found it funny that nostalgia makes films/movies better or more historically accurate......

I've been watching some tosh on Netflix - basically an Indian zombie series, I won't bore you with the details but the plot is a British Battalion in the Indian Mutiny has become 'Zombieated' and run amok in modern day India.......the terrible thing was - not the acting, not the crap special effects or even the dodgy storyline/script (and it was dodgy), it was the fact that the 1857 British zombies had tricornes on......