The Guardian

It leaves the facts wounded and strewn haphazardly across the battlefield, but El Cid remains a flat-out terrific movie.

The New York Times by Bosley Crowther

It is hard to remember a picture in which the sheer pictorial punch was greater than it is in this three-hour exhibition of kings and warriors in medieval Spain.

Los Angeles Times by Michael Wilmington

It's an ode to heroism, idealism and romance that still sweeps us away.

Austin Chronicle

A surprisingly effective adventure, El Cid begins well enough but if you stick with the story 'til the end, in CinemaScope, it becomes breathtaking.

Entertainment Weekly

El Cid remains a visually sumptuous film graced with a passionate score by Miklos Rozsa.

ReelViews by James Berardinelli

El Cid is about as self-important as a motion picture can be. Regardless, there are still moments of breathtaking, almost transcendant splendor, when the film makers attain the grand aspirations they strive for.

Slant Magazine

There’s no denying El Cid‘s lucid grandeur as it reaches its famous climax, a simultaneously triumphant and tragic portrait of the warrior as corpse that, like the best of Mann’s work, never neglects the human toll of heroism.

Washington Post by Richard Harrington

It's overly long and it's overly melodramatic, but it's also a perfect example of the kind of film they just don't make anymore, because they can't.

Empire by Ian Nathan

One of Heston's best work, this shows our lead at his most macho and heroic, inspiring a whole army while also managing to woo the stunning Loren in this romantic war epic.

The A.V. Club by Keith Phipps

It's tough to dismiss a film that succeeds so well at producing spectacle, and it's hard to miss the contemporary parallels in its simple, tortuously protracted story.