A Few Words About A few words about...™ El Cid (1 Viewer)

[Joe Karlosi]

He was 84. He was born October 4, 1923. I have been trying to get the IMDB to fix that error for years (they've always had it 1924).

 

[Simon Howson]

Is that an error that Heston perpetuated during his career?

 

[Robert Crawford]

Maybe, as reference books from Maltin and Thomson have a 1924 birthdate, but others like the AFI Desk Reference and The Film Encyclopedia have the correct birthdate. I don't understand why he would perpetuated the error because he was just 27 years old, the year his first films were released like "Dark City".






Crawdaddy

 

[Cees Alons]

We can be happy to be able to own "his" movies on DVD now. A few are still needed, e.g. Treasure Island (by his son).

I will check out a few I didn't know that well (thanks, Crawdaddy, to list those in the tribute thread!), but it was an absolute pleasure already to receive El Cid last week!


Cees

 

[Joe Karlosi]

Not at all. For one thing, in his 1978 book of his own personal diaries called THE ACTOR'S LIFE, he frequently mentioned his birthday every year or so. I recall in one of the 1973 entries when he wrote that he was about to turn 50.

 

[Robert Crawford]

I wouldn't think he would change it on purpose based on what I stated earlier. Perhaps the mistake was made when a studio gave out the wrong birth year in a press release early in his career and that mistake circulated over the years.

 

[oscar_merkx]

I just bought El Cid

 

[OliverK]

Incredibly enough I got that book for the price of one cent and it is indeed worth so much more - after reading about some movies that I know very well I can say that for me it handles the epic genre and its films very competently.

I have to say it is very well written and I also agree a lot with what he has to say about these movies. I especially like the fact that this is a book by somebody who starts off liking the epic and not somebody who is out to demistify or denigrate it. For lovers of the genre this is of much more value than a book by somebody who basically thinks that most epics are silly which of course is much more fashionable these days and probably the reason we do not see this book in print anymore.

Oliver

 

[Simon Howson]

Epics are a fascinating genre, but it is dead. The modern day Hollywood films that try to be epics don't cut it IMO.

I was reading an interviews book with Howard Hawks a few weeks ago, and he says the only reason he made Land of the Pharaoh's was because of CinemaScope. He saw the format and knew he had to find a script to make use of the format.

I can't think of any filmmakers doing the same these days.

 

[David_B_K]

john, it has been almost 2 months, but I finally forced myself to pull out my 62" set and stereo rack to re-connect the optical cable that was required to enable the AC-3 sound on my laserdisc player to hear the Dolby Digital tracks on some of my laserdiscs. I listened to several scenes from the Criterion Dolby Digital and Pro Logic tracks on the El Cid disc. It was as I remembered it-good quality sound, but virtually no action on the surround tracks. The intermission music had a bit of an echo, but none of the action sequences have any surrounds on the DD track. In the scene that opens Part Two, as the Cid comes though the doors, you can hear just a ghost of echo in the trumpet fanfare (I held my ear against the surround speaker). In the scene where the Cid announces "Valencia for Alfonso!". you can hear the barest echo of Heston's voice, but none from the crowd.

For the final sequence, as the doors open and the organ cue starts, the organ is heard in full surround. The final music cue, of the El Cid theme with organ and voice is also in full surround. None of the rest of the sequence has any surround info. I compared these scenes on the pro-logic track, and you could hear a lot on the surround tracks, but they seemed to me to be merely echos of the front sound. I confess I did not spend a lot of time listening to this version, but when I switched from 2.0 to 5.1 and back, I felt that the 5.1 sound had more presence and depth. (BTW, my 5.1 sound was definitely enabled on the laserdisc player, as my Onkyo receiver's Dolby Digital light was on. I also listened to a couple of DD discs with definite specific surrounds, like Star Trek: First Contact, and there were 5.1 surrounds all over the place).

I then compared the laserdisc with the new DVD. The sound is almost identical, save for those tiny bits of echo I heard in a few scenes on the laserdisc. As with the laserdisc, the final sequence features full organ surrounds.

On other interesting thing: the chapter stops are identical on the Criterion laserdisc and DVD. Even the names of the chapter stops are the same on both.

 

[john a hunter]

David, I do really appreicate all the effort you went to to dust off your old player and check out the sound. Obviously my memory was incorrect. I do recall a nice surround on one laser version,perhaps the original Japanese pressing. As I later said, when I played the Weinstein release all the way thru there was indeed some surround -only not where I expected to find it based on the 70mm release.

Once again, thanks,mate for all your great effort.

 

[Robert Harris]

Films from the '50s and '60s did not have surround tracks. There was also no sub information.

They had occasional use of effects tracks in the rear.

All other audio (5 channels of it in 70mm) was front, although some mixes were spread from a four channel, creating phantoms in 2 and 4.

 

[john a hunter]

Thanks for correcting my sloppy use of the word "surround".The rear track used to be called the "Audience participation" track or "AP's" for short, if my memory serves me.
If only "El Cid" had the same " occasional use of effects track in the rear" on the DVD as did the original release.!

 

[willyTass]

just scanned El Cid Blu Ray and FOTRE blu ray. Both on BD50 , AVC encode

BAD NEWS : both are locked to Region B

GOOD NEWS: Koch Media were kind enough to include a digital copy of the films . Just as well, as it's on an iphone where these sort of transfers are gonna shine

 

[Stephen PI]

From what I recall from working on the laserdisc of "El Cid" the mono 'effects' track consisted mainly of brief musical fanfares which supported the front channels. There was, however, a lot of additional information added to create a stereo surround track, plus a subwoofer channel for the 5.1. The original LCR front channels were not altered in any way. This same 5.1 track was used for the dvd release.

 

[Stephen PI]

From the June 1961 issue of Films & Filming magazine:

 

[Stephen PI]

(post #158)

 

[Stephen PI]

 

[Stephen PI]

 

[Stephen PI]