The Alamo (Widescreen Edition)

Rating:
Summary: Excellent Film!
Review: After reading all the comments saying how disastrous this film was going to be I was worried maybe it was going to be a disappointment. It was not. 'The Alamo' is really a great film. Patrick Wilson is very good as Travis, Jason Patric makes an interesting James Bowie, and of course Billy Bob Thorton steals the show as Crockett. I thought Quaid did a decent job as Houston. And I really liked the characterization of Santa Anna. Some reviews said he was too 'cartoony'. Santa Anna was really an outsized figure and this came out well through the film. The battle scences were great, music was very good. I just wish it could have been three hours like John Lee Hancock, the director, planned on it being. It would have been nice to see Bonham's ride or more battle scenes but I think this will be corrected in the DVD. Again I loved it and wished it could have been an hour longer, filling out things such as the Battle of San Jacinto and Santa Anna's capture. But what was there is an A+.

Rating:
Summary: Can't wait until it plays here in the UK!!
Review: I'm giving the new version of The Alamo five stars based on the mostly good things I'm hearing about it, especially Billy Bob Thornton's down-to-earth and simplistic portrayal of David Crockett. I'm an American living in England, who grew up a great admirer of Crockett, Bowie and Travis and the whole story of The Alamo. For that reason, I can most certainly understand why many people are upset and even outraged by the "tearing down" of the heroic images of these three men. It does seem to be increasingly popular among historians to believe that Crockett did not die swinging his empty rifle in the battle, but rather less heroically, executed at the hands of his Mexican captors. Although, there is no existing evidence of General Santa Anna confirming his presence at such an event, as depicted in the film. This would seem somewhat strange, especially considering Santa Anna's reportedly huge ego and craving for power. Wouldn't he have gloated over having personally witnessed and supervised the execution of such a celebrated American hero as Crockett? Also, that Bowie may have been too ill to have offered any resistance from his sick bed. It had long been known that Bowie was a slave owner and trader and moved in some shadowy circles. Travis also had been previously documented as having lived a somewhat checkered life before he arrived in Texas. It is quite a change-of-pace to present these three noted men in perhaps, a more realistic light than ever before. That is, that they were human, flawed and made mistakes. I lament the fact that this new film underwent such a dramatic cutback in it's running time (shortened by more than half an hour at least, by most reports), and changes in director (originally to be Ron Howard), screenwriter (John Sayles) and star (originally to be Russell Crowe, as reportedly either Crockett or Sam Houston, although I personally can't picture him as Crockett). There will probably be a deluxe version on multi-DVDs that may fill in at least some of the missing footage, maybe an R-rated version, ala Pearl Harbor? Although it won't have the same impact as on the big-screen. Unfortunately, the film was originally slated to be released here in the UK on Friday, the 30th of April, but has now been postponed until Friday, the 3rd of September!! I'll be eagerly waiting to see it at the first given opportunity.

Rating:
Summary: Great Film Overall, but a few historical flaws
Review: Let's look at what is great about the film
1- portrayed both the Alamo AND San Jacinto battles (missing in the John Wayne epic)
2-Dennis Quaid, Billy Bob Thorton and the rest of the cast fit wonderfully into their parts (except the Jim Booey character)
3- special effects were cool, particularly the first person perceptive you get when a cannonball blasts into the mission
4- Santa Anna- you couldn;t get a more vile personality than they protraye in the film

Flaws
-The battle of the Alamo was fought from dawn to early morning and they handled this well, but SAN JACINTO was never fought during the day- the reason why the Mexicans were thrashed was because Houston launched a brillinat night attack
-The Travis character was killed so early in the battle, that should be examined, and I thought the Mexicans attacked the mission once (the first time they were repulsed and the second was the grande finale)

In any event great film, starts off kind of boring but accelerates rapidly and you should go see it at least for the battle scenes!!

Rating:
Summary: Thorton is a memorable Crockett in an uninspiring "Alamo"
Review: Suddenly John Wayne's 1960 version of "The Alamo" does not look so bad. Somebody else can figure out exactly where this 2004 production directed by John Lee Hancock went bad, but it seems both the director and the screenwriters had their hands all over this mess. The problem, in a word, is that this retelling of the 13 days of glory is, for the most part, uninspiring. I understand the desire to make the sainted defenders of the mission-fort in San Antonio de Bexar seem like real people, but the film keeps slipping into melodrama, such as when the tension between James Bowie (Jason Patric) and William Barrett Travis (Patrick Wilson) is suddenly resolved. This would not matter much if the film carried off the siege and the final battle, but it does not.

At the start of the film we get glimpses of the aftermath of the battle, including a shot of a stone with thirteen marks carved in it; a record of the days of the siege. Forget for a moment that the final attack takes place before the sun rises on March 6, 1836 so it does not make sense that anyone woke up to the sounds of gunfire and took time out to carve that last line. What matters is that we really have no sense of the siege building to its climax. The Mexican army shows and after some initial shelling apparently just waits until sunset each night at which point they play the "Degueo," and fire one round of cannons. All of the histories I have read have talked about considerably more of a bombardment of the Texican position. But the Mexican army is just sitting around building scaling ladders while Generalissimo Antonio Lopez de Santa Ana (Emilio Echevarría) enjoys the local young women. Eventually we find out Santa Ana has been waiting for Sam Houston (Dennis Quaid) to show up with his army so he can take care of everybody at once. Then, to prove he is really stupid, he decides to launch an attack the day before his heavy artillery shows up.

Like in "The Titanic," right before the battle we are basically told, with the use of a visual aid (map), what is going to happen during the attack. However, once the battle begins, it becomes virtually impossible to tell what is going on as we jump from point in the battle, so it all goes for naught. The most dramatic shot of the film, where we see the Alamo under attack from all four directions, does not last long enough to appreciate the big picture. For that matter, the only way I knew it was time for the final battle was that Bowie had a pair of pistols with him on his sick bed. I kept expecting the defenders to beat off a couple of minor attacks before the final assault, but that is not the case. Overall the final attack is portrayed accurately, as near as I can tell, but I did not appreciate having to constantly think about what it was I was seeing in the grand scheme of things.

The best part of this film is Billy Bob Thorton's portrayal of David Crockett. The distinction between "David" and "Davy," is drawn several time in the course of the film, with the latter being the public persona that has gone way beyond the facts. Crockett shows up in Texas, having been voted out of office for a second time by the people of Tennessee, thinking that the fighting is all over but finding out that he has arrived just in time for the Mexican army to show up and retake the town. Crockett seems more politician than frontiersman, but there really is sincerity and honesty behind that smile. Crockett really did play the fiddle, and tell jokes, at the Alamo, and the film takes full advantage of his musical talents. There are two conflicting versions of how Crockett fell at the Alamo and the film finds a way to work in both of them.

Thorton is one of our finest actors today, in terms of the craft of acting; it seems to me he always makes sure that every one of his performances is unique in terms of the physical nuances. One nice thing about this film is that Fess Parker gets to keep being Davy Crockett while Thorton gets David Crockett all to himself. Because of Thorton's performance I was going to give this film four stars, but then this version of "The Alamo" goes the "Pearl Harbor" route and refuses to let us go home until the good guys win.

For this film that means the Battle of San Jancito. The reason the battle lasted 18 minutes was that the Texican army did a surprise attack at 4:30 in the afternoon, at the end of the Mexican army's siesta. Over 600 Mexican soldiers were killed and over 700 surrendered while the Texicans ended up losing nine men. But in this film Santa Ana has his troops lined up and the Texicans charge across a big open field and smash them to bits. Apparently all those gold braided Mexican generals forgot to have somebody give the command to fire. Not even the tableau replicating the famous painting of Sam Houston accepting Santa Ana's surrender makes up for this rampant revisionism.

The other thing missing was what happening to Fanin and his 400 troops at Goliad. Well, they surrendered to a different Mexican army and were executed. The number killed is in dispute, but it still ends up being essentially twice the number killed at the Alamo. The Texians at the Battle of San Jancinto were remembering Goliad as well as the Alamo, but that is another pivotal bit of the story that gets edited out of this version. It will be interesting to see the deleted scenes that were left on the bloody floor of the editing room when this one was done because I still want to believe there was an inspirational movie to be made from what was shot.

Rating:
Summary: Great retelling of the famous siege
Review: The Alamo is an excellent historical epic that is well worth a watch. The movie got plenty of bad publicity when Ron Howard and Russell Crowe walked away, and then again when the movie was pushed back from its original Christmas release. The only major problem with the whole movie is that almost an hour was cut from the original version which does leave somethings unsettled. The movie tells the story of the siege and battle of the Alamo in February/March 1836. This is by far the most accurate of all previous Alamo movies. The battle scenes, although a little short, are still beautifully choreographed in the predawn darkness of March 6. The movie also shows how trapped the defenders were by the enormous Mexican army. I highly recommend this movie even with its flaws.

This movie does not have a bad performance in it. Billy Bob Thornton steals the show as David Crockett, a man looking for new beginnings. Thornton brings a human side to Crockett not before seen in Alamo movies. He has countless great lines, but his performance as a whole is fantastic. Dennis Quaid is also very good as General Sam Houston, although much of his part was cut out when director John Lee Hancock had to edit much of the movie. Jason Patric is excellent as the famous knife-fighter, Jim Bowie, and Patrick Wilson is also good as Lt. Colonel William Barrett Travis. The movie also stars Emilio Echevarria as General Santa Anna, and Jordi Molla in a short, but very effective part as Juan Seguin. Kevin Page and Leon Rippy also star. I loved this movie and hope to see a Director's Cut version from John Lee Hancock. For a great historical epic with excellent characters, beautiful cinematography, a haunting score by Carter Burwell, and great battle scenes, check out The Alamo!

Rating:
Summary: amazed
Review: this movie is very good. critics hated it, alot of people hated it too. i loved it. how you could hate this movie is impossible for me to understand. this is one movie that did everything perfectly. it gave great action, a great story, and wasnt burdened by trying to make a love scene/story. unlike alot of people i thought denis quaid was wonderful. after the battle of the alamo i was really hoping theyd continue with that last charge and they did. dennis quaids speech was awesome. also this is one of the first movies to get the sound of gunfire right. i am very impressed