The Alamo
Remember the Alamo? No? Nobody blames you. We lost anyway. In 1836, Mexican forces marched up to the Alamo, recently captured by Texans and Tejanos during a battle in December 1835. Led by General Santa Anna, the Mexicans vastly outnumbered the soldiers and militia stationed at the mission. Within the Alamo, there was a struggle for power between Jim Bowie, the militia leader played by Jason Patric, and William Travis, an unproven lieutenant colonel thrust into a leadership role. Indecisiveness and poor communication between the two heads led to the Texans firing the first shot against the Mexicans. For a subsequent 13 days, the Alamo was under siege by constant cannon fire and small sneak attacks by Mexican soldiers. Pleas for help went largely ignored. The few who did come to help are prominent in history. Davy Crockett (Billy Bob Thornton), a congressman from Tennessee during this time, comes into the Alamo at the urging of Sam Houston (Dennis Quaid), who would continue the fight after the Alamo.

This story of American bravery is, by most accounts, historically accurate. But for films like this to be successful in today's marketplace, it must capture the emotion of the people who are being sacrificed and compel us to really feel for them. Glory and Gettysburg do this. The Alamo, sadly, does not. The film is filled with images of men fighting and conversing and in battle, but none of them are lasting. This lack of story from anybody reduces the characters to chess pieces, with the director constantly moving them along until one side is gone, in this case, the Texans. The only one who really stands out is Thornton's Crockett, who shows some fight in him from beginning to end. Quaid's fine character is largely missing from the film, a casualty of the cutting room floor in its effort to cut 1 hour from the 3+ hour film. Viewed as a historical, just the facts, sort of film, it pretty much excels in capturing the era and the battle scenes are on par to what we've enjoyed as filmgoers. But while students of history will remember the Alamo as the ultimate in sacrifice for lasting so long against a vastly superior Mexican army, people will remember "The Alamo" just as entertaining as listening to a history professor talk about the Alamo. 2 stars