Not much worth remembering

Rating: 6/10 (3 May 2013)

As the Mexicans sends an army of thousands to take back Texas(which was rightfully theirs), The Alamo becomes one of the main battlegrounds, in spite of being difficult to defend and possessing too few troops - the Americans simply didn't think there was much of a risk. We focus on general Houston(Quaid, a smart, if at times overly aggressive, commander) who some consider obsessed, Bowie(Patric, doing much better than in Speed 2, the only other thing I've seen him in... a man resigned to his terminally ill state, who still won't stand for just anything), Travis(Wilson, a man who has to prove that he isn't just a pampered rich kid) and Crockett(Thornton, stealing the film - having a complicated relationship with the mythical status he enjoys).
There are some positives to this. Every major character is a human being, no one is a cardboard cutout, and our protagonists are not flawless. We have themes of legend vs. reality, ambition vs. Family and lower class vs. educated. We can understand both sides, and this does admit some gruesome things the Americans did(and in general there are a ton of little details that feel real, and are there purely for that, whether they reflect well on "our guys" or not). When Spanish should be spoken, it is, and convincingly so. The production design is good, with high authenticity.
It's apparently the most(I haven't watched the others) historically accurate account, however, it is also Disney-fied. There is Little tension, the actual battle comes in late and is short(and violence tends to be implied). It's talky, and comes off as a made-for-TV piece, not reaching the levels of epic that it's clearly going for. There is no one vision shining through, and we're left wondering what to feel. As such, the 2 hour, 3 minute running time sans credits(or 2 hours and 11 minutes with) at times really snail-paces by.
The DVD comes with an English Audio descriptive language track, the featurette Return of the Legend: The Making of The Alamo(18 minutes long; I will review this on its own separate page here on the site), 5 minutes of fine deleted scenes(with optional director's commentary), a 4 and a half minute decent Set Tour and a King Arthur trailer. I recommend this only to those easily roused, and those looking for a summary of what happened in the form of a film. 6/10