Great War Movie, Credible Heroes

Rating: 9/10 (2 March 2007)

Having seen "The Alamo," I find it hard to understand that the movie was a box office failure. Of course, if you're looking for naïve, overly emotional patriotism, you're in for a disappointment. But it's precisely this more nuanced approach which makes "The Alamo" great. It's not a movie that's driven by the Puritan/Manichean urge to make every American with a gun into an unqualified knight in shining armor, or rather into a cowboy who always wears white.
There is no doubt in "The Alamo" that the Texans were right to reject Santa Ana's (Antonio Echevarría) centralist constitution, and they were  as they were right some 20 years later, when they rebelled against another President's attempts to mar state rights. There is also no doubt in the movie that those roughly 200 defenders who held the Alamo for two weeks against a daunting force of 7000 were heroes, and they were. There is thirdly no doubt that their leaders Davy Crockett (Billy Bob Thornton), Jim Bowie (Jason Patric) and Bill Travis (Patrick Wilson) were heroes.
However, the movie shows these main heroes  and Sam Houston (Dennis Quaid), who later defeats Santa Ana at San Jacinto  as each having a dark or at least problematic side to them. Houston is an alcoholic, who has to battle incompetent, bickering Texas politicians in order to raise an army to relieve the Alamo. Crockett feels under pressure to permanently live up to his rough, strongman persona, a persona that doesn't adequately respect every aspect of his personality. Bowie is an insubordinate criminal, who suffers from tuberculosis. And Bill Travis is basically a greenhorn who is simply not up to the task of commanding the garrison. To make matters worse, Bowie and Travis initially quarrel about who's in charge, a quarrel that is only stopped from getting physically by Crockett's intervention. Further, Crockett and Bowie own slaves, who are rightly questioning the wisdom of helping their masters defend the Alamo, since Mexico had already abolished slavery at the time.
It's great that the movies shows us that these men fought valiantly not because of their impeccable characters and unlimited morality, but despite their personal flaws. They pull themselves together, they put up a good fight, and they buy Sam Houston the time he needs to raise the army he later used to defeat Santa Ana decisively. Needless to add that the battle scenes are spectacular, but they're not obtrusive since much of the picture consists of meaningful dialog, which isn't always a given in a war movie.