Good History, but too much Disney (Spoilers within)

Rating: Null/10 (13 April 2004)

This movie generated much heat on the discussion boards, well before it even opened in theaters - much of it consisting of derogatory comments from Europeans and Mexicans about Americans, from Americans about Europeans and Mexicans, etc. (There were some calm, reasoned observations as well, but these appeared to be in the minority.) In any case, the sparring appears to have been mostly ill-founded. While it has its faults, this film is neither a jingoistic pro-American lovefest nor a politically correct American-demonizing essay. It is fairly well-balanced, though the Texian viewpoint is given somewhat more sympathy than the Mexican.
First of all - the primary set (the Alamo and environs) was wonderfully done. A lot of research must have been put into this careful re-creation, and it shows. The battles of the Alamo and San Jacinto were well-staged and realistic, though with minor flaws (discussed in a moment.) And the overall cinematography was great.
The main characters were well-drawn and well-portrayed, warts and all. Billy Bob Thornton's Crockett was the best of the lot; if you take a painting of Crockett from about 1826, age the face ten years, and add a few pounds, you've got this Crockett. There were a couple of ludicrous moments centered on him, but for the most part Crockett is believable. His homespun humor, general humility, frontier skills, grudging agreement to fight, and even his unhappiness with the U.S. treatment of native Americans are all part of the package. And his death may be the most accurate ever shown on film, if the De la Pena diary is correct.
Dennis Quaid's Sam Houston and Jason Patric's Jim Bowie are accurately shown as heavy drinkers (Houston's name among the Cherokee was "Big Drunk") and Bowie's role as a land swindler is alluded to. His death is a little overdramatic - it is highly doubtful that he was able to put up any fight at all. (And I'm not sure how familiar Houston was with Wellington's strategy at Waterloo.) Patrick Wilson's William Travis is devoted, uncompromising, and yet in a little over his head - and also has deserted his pregnant wife and his children. (His fierce devotion to slavery was left out, for the most part, but the rest is accurate.) And Emilio Echevarria, though about ten years too old for the part, looks quite a bit like Santa Anna and played him to perfection - his ruthlessness, fondness for military pomp, and predilection towards affairs with young women are all accurately displayed. (Echevarria would have been perfect had he been portraying "The Napoleon of the West" circa the Mexican-American War.)
Balance was achieved, at least in part, by pointing out the existence of Mexican natives on both sides of the struggle (especially Juan Seguin's cavalrymen on the Texian side.) And by noting, in a conversation between Travis' and Bowie's slaves, that slavery was illegal in Mexico. And by showing the absolute bloodthirstiness of the Texas army at San Jacinto, where they showed that two could play the "no quarter" game.
The history was generally accurate, though telescoped in a few places. A couple of annoyances were that (a) the Mexican band playing each night prior to their bombardment of the Alamo did not, as far as I know, play the "deguello;" they broke that one out partway through the assault, and (b) that, while the assault columns did get into position very stealthily, the charge itself was ostentatious, with the "adelante" being bugled. (In the movie, the troops are practically at the wall before Crockett discovers them. At least the attack is correctly portrayed as taking place before dawn.) And both armies look great - the Mexicans with regular uniforms for the most part, the Alamo defenders in varied dress common at the time (including top hats, beaver hats, etc.)
Also, the troops under Fannin at Goliad are mentioned a couple of times, but then the thread disappears. In actuality, their fate was known to the troops at San Jacinto, who shouted "Remember Goliad" as well as "Remember The Alamo" during their attack.
Most of this is forgivable. What truly mars the film is the presence of a few cheesy Disney moments. Crockett's musical duel with Santa Anna's band is silly (though he did have such a "duel" inside the Alamo, against a Scotsman playing bagpipes.) The most ludicrous scene is Crockett shooting off one of Santa Anna's epaulets. Absolutely preposterous. And they overdid the displaying of Bowie's legendary knife (though the knife itself looked about right.) There are a few other such moments in the movie, and they are objectionable enough to drag it down to perhaps a 6.5 in my book.

But it is still the most accurate Alamo tale yet put to film.