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 EchevarrÃa) 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: A moving epic with great actors all throughout....
Review: The Alamo is a brilliant account of the 180 men that stood up against an army of thousands of soldiers who were trained to fight in brutal conditions while they themselves are mostly militia men with shotguns.
Led by Col. William Travis [played by Patrick Wilson] they hold themselves up inside a church/mission that wasn't even built for warfare. Several of the buildings have been transformed into barracks and an infirmary. Most of the walls are crumbling and several of the buildings dont even have roofs on top.
Nevertheless the men decide to stay and guard it as the Mexican army starts marching toward the town near the mission without the men's knowing. James Bowie [played by Jason Patric], famous for being a knife fighter and weilding a huge blade for a knife, wants to be in charge seeing how he doesn't like Travis.
However his illness prevents him from really fighting anymore, he was shot and stabbed multiple times in his life, and soon is confined to his bed for the last half of the movie.
Travis has problems of his own, and one of them includes getting the respect of his men. One scene does the impossible as a cannonball lands in the middle of the courtyard. No one goes near it, for fear of it exploding, but Travis gets up, cuts the fuse cord off the cannonball, and tells his men to fire it back at the enemy.
His little act starts to give his men something to believe in and soon also even gets Bowie's respect for him as a leader, something that Travis really needed in order for him to keep his little militia together.
Meanwhile the Mexican Army, led by their General Santa Anna, are shown by the Director's best at not being evil. It is mostly Santa Anna that is telling his soldiers to kill innocent people, not the soldiers themselves. Some of the Mexican soldiers are even little kids, who are way too young to go fight in battles and possibly be killed before they are even young adults.
Even one of Santa Anna's own officers starts to think differently about Santa Anna. Especially after a little speech by the head General, in which he said that he was the one governing the rules and that he needed blood for victory.
He said this after telling his men to lead their soldiers in an attack, rather than waiting for several cannons that were arriving only hours after the morning sun.
But besides the acting one scene stole the show, as the Mexican army always used their band to sing a song that in English translated to "Slit Throat." This was right before they usually bombed the mission at night to keep the texans inside awake all night.
But one night David Crockett [played by Billy Bob Thorton] decided to lighten the depressing tune of the song by climbing up a tower and playing his violin along with the music. And for one night, both sides decided just to listen to the music with its new sense of style and kept a short truce that night.
This is a great movie with lots of drama and action scenes in it. The acting is one of the best I've seen, especially by Thorton, whos movies I dont really watch. Both sides are equally protrayed by the right actors and actresses for that matter as well. Plus several little storylines entwined here and there keeps this movie as exciting an moving as it started out.
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: a pg-13 disney war movie. need i say anything else?
Review: this movie is for dumb people who are easily amused and can't tell the diffeence between crap and a diamond. if you are one of these people who love all movies, this is for you.
if you are the type of person who is hard to please and doesn't fall for simple hollywood movie studio tricks, dont buy or rent or watch this.
instead watch bravehart, or the pianist. those are real war movies.
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
Rating:
Summary: Myth Busters
Review: Watching Fess Parker in the 1950s play Davy Crocket in the Disney series made John Wayne less than believable in his 1960 "The Alamo" movie. Yes, I am that old, but still open minded. The 1960s was the era of the historical epic film typified by "Spartacus," "Ben-Hur," and eventually producing the period's classic, "Doctor Zhivago." Like "Braveheart," big budget productions mixed a minute amount of real history with valiant action and portrayed larger-than-life characters using larger-than-life actors such as John Wayne, Omar Sharif, and Charlton Heston.
Davy Crocket was a mythical hero that could only be played by a mythical actor like John Wayne. Fess Parker and John Wayne's characters died in swashbuckling fashion fitting of a legend. Texans like their state and their demigods in mammoth proportions. The Alamo of Fess Parker and John Wayne fits this demand perfectly.
Enter onto the historical/movie stage recently discovered manuscripts that portray a radically different end to Davy Crocket and his compatriots. Believe this to be an actual Mexican officer's first-hand account or not, this manuscript contends that Crocket was captured alive then executed. The new film's Santa Anna is not bogged down (as portrayed in the 1960s version) by trying to subdue The Alamo, before moving on the rest of Texas. Instead, the crafty Mexican dictator/generalissimo's intention is to trap the Texicans in the Alamo and then draw Sam Houston and his small army into a destine-to-fail battle on Santa Anna's terms. Houston does not fall for the pending ambush and knowingly sacrifices the Alamo's garrison in order to save the fledgling Texas army. Hence, he saves Texas from becoming a province of Mexico. For the first time on film the battle of San Jacinto becomes the finale of the Alamo story rather than Davy Crocket swinging his musket. While heroic in the face of certain annihilation, the Alamo was not the genesis of an independent Texas--San Jacinto was.
Billy Bob Thornton's portrayal of Davy Crocket as a man trying to live up to his own legend is the best that has been done on any sized screen. Although weakly acted, Sam Houston, Jim Bowie, and William Travis are all shown as men trying to escape their pasts and remolding themselves in a new land. If you want to see an action-packed yee-haw Alamo get the John Wayne version. If you want a deeper probe into the people who fought the battle (both Texican and Mexican) get the latest edition.
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