By a sad irony the arrival of the newly released DVD of El Cid coincided with news of the death of its star, Charlton Heston, on April 5. I had been planning a retrospective article on the way his work in El Cid and The War Lord are among modern cinema’s greatest portrayals of medieval chivalry. Although he deplored the studio’s reworking of the latter film I know he was proud of both works and I hope when the research is completed it will throw further light on a considerable achievement not just by Heston himself but also by two…