Not to nitpick, but N.Y. Times DVD columnist Dave Kehr has gotten it slightly wrong in his review of the new double-disc El Cid DVD by claiming it was “filmed in Super Technirama, a 70-millimeter widescreen process.” Anthony Mann‘s epic was actually filmed (as was Spartacus) on a 35mm, 8-perf, horizontal-through-the-gate process that was then blown up into 70mm. The correct term would be that it was shown or “presented” in Super Technirama 70.
Otherwise, Kehr does a nice job of explaining the various financial motives and political back-currents behind the making of El Cid, and the resultant metaphors that one could fairly apply to the finished film.
