"The Alamo": handsome propaganda.

Rating: 3/10 (2 May 2007)

"The Alamo" yet again gives us history a la Hollywood. An excellently directed, wonderfully acted crock.
Tragic as the 1836 slaughter at the Alamo was, the defenders were not valiant patriots who nobly sacrificed themselves for a great cause. They were land grabbers making an opportunity of the Mexican revolt (sadly, the film makes little of the Mexican defenders at the Alamo, the only ones there fighting for independence). The dictator, Generalissimo Antonio Lopez de Santa Ana, wasn't trying to take Texas because Mexico wanted what didn't belong to it, he was determined to keep what was left of an expanse that once included not only Texas, but what would become Utah and Nevada. Dictator or not, he had a right to rage war against interlopers who were stealing incredibly valuable land from his nation.
Also overlooked in the filmmakers' biased account: Juan Seguin and the other Mexican defenders were double-crossed the first chance Texans got. Seguin survived the battle and led a company with Gen. Sam Houston as Houston defeated Santa Ana at San Jacinto. Seguin was subsequently back-stabbed as, in the aftermath of the revolution, towns began expelling all Mexicans. After Seguin went on to help defeat a Mexican expedition against San Antonio in 1842, Anglos who'd been his comrades-in-arms turned on him with trumped up charges of treason. Vigilantes drove him from the city where he was born and forced him to flee to, of all places, Mexico, where, needless to say, he didn't get a warm welcome. Kind of takes some of the hero-worship out of the whole affair.
For good measure, one of reason colonists were up in arms against Santa Ana in the first place was that he declared slavery illegal. When Jim Bowie and William Travis showed up at the Alamo to fight for liberty, each brought a slave along to wait on him.
The whole thing boils down to the infamous edict of Manifest Destiny. The movie, of course, steers clear of this aspect. Which is a lot to simply overlook. And it's too bad because Hancock made a beautiful film with a strong cast of Dennis Quaid, Billy Bob Thornton, Jason Patric and Patrick Wilson as Houston, David Crockett, Bowie and Travis. The performances are masterful, conveying such humanity that you find yourself thoroughly engrossed in these characters and their fate. As well, skilled actors Emilio Echevarra as Santa Ana and Jodi Molla as Seguin acquit themselves admirably (especially considering they are handed two-dimensional characters to portray).
The Alamo is a powerful film in the same way that director D. W. Griffith employed groundbreaking artistry to create the propagandist landmark, Birth of a Nation.