New Alamo A Troubled Production, But Worth Seeing

Rating: 6/10 (18 July 2005)

The Alamo was a troubled production with Ron Howard giving up the directing reins to John Lee Hancock over budget woes. As is the case with most similarly troubled movies, they don't do well at the box office. As a result, this film was a resounding thud. It may be due to its historical origins more than anything else. There are always expectations that are not met, or arguments about authentic details and so forth. Today's blockbuster demographic is used to seeing heroics that are far more unbelievable on screen than are depicted in this film. Hence, boredom is sure to set in long before the film gets to its climactic moments. However, the film is historically interesting despite scenes that drag at times. We get a strong sense of what kind of lives people led then. The foreboding of battle and the fates of the characters are communicated in unequivocal fashion. The film touches on a few things make this more than just a passing film: The Tejanos caught between the two sides was similar to what would happen thirty years later during the Civil War, and the film suggests that the stories surrounding the legendary characters we are familiar with might be more myth than fact. The film stars Billy Bob Thornton as Davy Crockett in a great performance, realizing that it's hard to live up to what people say about you. Jason Patric is James Bowie of Bowie knife fame, who demonstrates heroism as he lies dying of tuberculosis. Patrick Wilson is William Barrett Travis, the young, brash commander of volunteer forces defending the Alamo, who rouses the men to battle near the end with a memorable speech. Dennis Quaid, as Sam Houston, doesn't have much to do until the last third of the movie; he portrays Houston as a wise, patient military strategist with an authoritarian aura. Emilio Echevarria is Santa Anna, an immoral tyrant, who has no respect for the lives of his own men even. The concluding contrast between the falls of the men at the Alamo and Santa Anna is a little too pushy and perhaps Hollywoodized. The cinematography of Dean Semler is terrific considering the fact that he faced the challenge of filming most of the movie between dusk and dawn. The battle scenes, though long in coming, do not disappoint us in their detail and gruesomeness. One of the main weaknesses of the film is that we do not know the characters well by the end due to the fact that there are so many. Although a bit slow at times, it's worth seeing. **1/2 of 4 stars.