El Cid 1961 – The Last Battle – Final Scene

Movie producers Bob and Harvey Weinstein have honored their late mother by establishing a new video company in her name. The Miriam Collection, released through the Genius Products video label, will issue vintage films on DVD in special collector’s editons. It wouldn’t be accurate to call each of the forthcoming releases a classic, but it would be safe to say that movie fans will be over the moon about the availability of some long-desired gems that had never been released on DVD previously. The most exciting news for Cinema Retro readers is the fact that the Weinsteins have the rights to the films of producer Samuel L. Bronstron and their initial release, the 1961 epic El Cid is first rate in every conceivable way. Bronston was a man who didn’t know how to think small – his appetites were big and so was his love for the film industry. He shot epic movies on relatively economical budgets by establishing a studio in Spain. By doing so, he took advantage of the dictator Franco’s desire to improve his nation’s discredited image by luring heavyweight Hollywood producers to do business in Spain. Bronston found not only favorable financial and climate conditions there, but Franco also gave him a literal army of unpaid extras through use of, well, the Spanish army.Bronston planned to finanace his next film with the profits from the previous one. The idea worked well initially. El Cid, which tells the story of Spain’s greatest hero – Rodrigo de Bivar, who united disparate …