# I just ordered El Cid on dvd
**URL:** https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-just-ordered-el-cid-on-dvd/442413
**Category:** Cafe Society
**Created:** [March 23, 2008, 5:15am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-just-ordered-el-cid-on-dvd/442413 "2008-03-23T05:15:26Z")
**Posts on this page:** 7
**Page:** 1
### Author:  [@dalej42](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dalej42)
#### Post date: [March 23, 2008, 5:15am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-just-ordered-el-cid-on-dvd/442413/1 "2008-03-23T05:15:26Z")
Finally, a restored version of \*El Cid \*is available on dvd. I’ve suffered through the terrible Chinese version compressed with no scene selections and a pan and scan VHS version.
Someone please tell me the dvd will be excellent! During Lent, I’ve watched _Ben Hur_ and _The Ten Commandments._ Wow! Blu Ray plus the new plasma makes these dvds come to life.
Next up, _The Fall of the Roman Empire_.
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### Author:  [@lissener](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/lissener)
#### Post date: [March 23, 2008, 5:27am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-just-ordered-el-cid-on-dvd/442413/2 "2008-03-23T05:27:16Z")
I’m really sorry to report that the best surviving copy of _El Cid_ is horrible. Muddy and flat. I posted this on another film forum:
[QUOTE=lissener]
I’m a huge fan of Anthony Mann, and I work in a video store that only recently installed a big-ass widescreen highdef teevee, so I was looking forward to this release with nearly literal quivers of anticipation. Am I the only one who was disappointed in the muddy quality of the print? I know it wasn’t “remastered for highdef” like, say, The Searchers–-which, by the way? eyewatering, breathtaking, on bluray–-but it seems to me to be particularly dark. Yeah, I know, Robert Krasker and his shadows. El Cid has some lovely darknesses in it. But the resolution, the overall image quality, is terrible.
[/QUOTE]
This was the response I got:
> [@](#):
>
> _The original elements all were lost. You can see in one scene of a castle that everything turns kind of green for a moment. God knows how the negatives were handled in this indie operation._
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### Author:  [@dalej42](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dalej42)
#### Post date: [March 23, 2008, 5:50am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-just-ordered-el-cid-on-dvd/442413/3 "2008-03-23T05:50:23Z")
Ugh, this is not what I wanted to hear. I will still keep the dvd set that I ordered since it is a legal US release and it can’t be as bad as the Chinese dvd circulating on Netflix.
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### Author:  [@Walloon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Walloon)
#### Post date: [March 23, 2008, 3:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-just-ordered-el-cid-on-dvd/442413/4 "2008-03-23T15:17:22Z")
[Visual comparison](http://www.dvdbeaver.com/film/DVDReviews15/el_cid_dvd_review.htm) between the latest Miriam Collection release, and the Tohokushinsha edition.
I seriously doubt that “all the original elements” were lost from a big-budget 1961 movie.
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### Author:  [@Baldwin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Baldwin)
#### Post date: [March 23, 2008, 4:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-just-ordered-el-cid-on-dvd/442413/5 "2008-03-23T16:44:34Z")
Excellent! Been waiting for years.
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### Author:  [@BrainGlutton](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BrainGlutton)
#### Post date: [March 23, 2008, 6:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-just-ordered-el-cid-on-dvd/442413/6 "2008-03-23T18:48:32Z")
I once saw _El Cid_ at the Tampa Theater and can recall nothing at all wrong with it. Visually, that is. Either you like Charlton Heston’s acting style or you don’t.
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### Author:  [@lissener](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/lissener)
#### Post date: [March 23, 2008, 10:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-just-ordered-el-cid-on-dvd/442413/7 "2008-03-23T22:31:18Z")
[QUOTE=Walloon]
[Visual comparison](http://www.dvdbeaver.com/film/DVDReviews15/el_cid_dvd_review.htm) between the latest Miriam Collection release, and the Tohokushinsha edition.
I seriously doubt that “all the original elements” were lost from a big-budget 1961 movie.
[/QUOTE]
Nonetheless, the reason I made the effort to find out was because the image was so noticeably muddy on the screen.