I May Be A Bit Biased, But It Was Still Good

Rating: 8/10 (9 April 2004)

Admittedly, having been born in Austin and raised near Houston, I'm a bit biased. And being born on April 9, I had to go see the movie the second it came out! What a birthday gift! Still, I really liked this film - it's far superior to the John Wayne and Fess Parker takes on the Alamo.
The directing could use some work; there are far too many close-ups of the actors' faces. The film could also stand to be a bit shorter. I daresay those are "The Alamo"'s only major flaws. I don't think there was a bad actor in the picture. Perhaps the screenwriters' got things wrong with their characterizations, but the actors did exactly what those writers told them to do. Superb. The Dallas Morning Star reviewer called it intellectual and compassionate - I'm not sure those are the words I would use to describe the movie, but I won't argue with him. As far as intellectualism goes, the character development was perfect - most movies are sufficiently lacking in that department, yet it's really easy to spend too much time on character development. Even with at least five major characters to track, this movie walked that fine line perfectly.
I don't know how accurate it is historically. With a few notable exceptions such as "Thirteen Days" and "Inherit the Wind", Hollywood routinely blows off history. It was nice to see the Col. Travis line in the sand legend ignored, as well as to see all our larger than life characters portrayed as fully human (which to me makes them that much more heroic). Also, the battle of San Jacinto was very well done. Perhaps that scene was a bit cliched, but I'm speaking in terms of accuracy with this paragraph.
Since the movie only came out today, I won't spoil anything (obviously, the Alamo was a massacre but we kicked butt at San Jacinto - just like the Titanic sank. I mean I won't spoil any style specifics). I will say that, despite some critics' disapproval, I liked the way Davey Crockett went out. It wasn't quite John Wayne and the ammo dump, but it was every bit as heroic. The scene with his violin was great, as well. Both of them, come to think of it. I wouldn't ever think to cast Billy Bob Thornton as Davey Crockett, but he pulled it off. He took some getting used to, but after the first half hour or so I could see it. Dennis Quaid would have been more appropriate as either Col. Travis or Col. Bowie, but he worked as Sam Houston, as well.
Is $7.50 too much for a movie ticket? Perhaps. But if any movies are worth the price of admission, this one certainly ranks among them, especially given a lot of the crap out there made purely for money.
God bless Texas!