Simply Perfect

A Disappointing Continuation

It's entirely possible that sending the audience out feeling lousy was intentional

Story: It's very simple but honestly that is fine.

When I was young, I saw a videotape of Fess Parker as Davy Crockett from Disney's interpretation of the legend and one of the parts was Crockett at the Alamo, which I loved. Then what seemed like a month later my dad picked up a videotape with one of my favorite movie stars, John Wayne, and it said The Alamo. My dad explained that in this movie John Wayne played Crockett. I excitedly watched it with him but I can't remember ever watching it again as it was very long. Well years later I saw it was coming on tv and decided to watch it all over again. And what i saw was... pretty darn good if you ask me.The story, or legend in this case, involves Mexican general Santa Anna's charge to drive away the Texicans from then Mexico territory, Texas. Because of the lack of organization of militia and army elements scattered all over the territory, Sam Houston (Richard Boone) orders Colonel William Travis (Laurence Harvey) to hold his troops at an abandoned mission, The Alamo, and hold off Santa Anna and buy himself the time to mount a defense against the coming intruders. Travis conflicts with local militia leader Jim Bowie (Richard Widmark) on what the next steps should be but are soon benefitted by the arrival of the legendary Davy Crockett (John Wayne) and his band of rough and tumble Tenesseeans. Eventually surrounded by over 7,000 Mexican troops, the men must hold out during thirteen days of siege by Santa Anna, building to their final encounter with history. This film is indeed an epic in most respects. For his first time ever at bat as director, Wayne certainly is able to fill his screen with men and sets, one of the best sets ever made for a film in my opinion. He knows where the camera should go and his action directing is top-flight. The final assualt sequence alone is worth a place alongside the Huey attack in Apocalypse Now and even the charge on Ft. Wagner in Glory. This was advertised as "fourteen years in the making" as this had become Wayne's passion project and even sunk much of his personal wealth into it. Unfortunately the film was not a giant success and critics singled out the film as Wayne trying to promote his conservative Republican ideals.With that said, the film is not without its problems, and sadly there are a few notable ones. It's clear that Wayne is exhausted in front of the camera playing Davy Crockett as his duties behind it were enormous. The acting is very hit and miss, which the actors attributed to Wayne's uncomfortableness trying to motivate an actor without his own style of acting coming into the fray. Sometimes there are lively readings, such as Chill Wills and Richard Widmark, but the others come standard and uncaring about the long-winded dialogue. Yes lets talk about the writing. There are a lot of scenes with talking, and sadly some of these fall desperately short. The rhythm is off and the dialog is very stuffy and long winded. I call this "speechifyin" and Duke does a lot of that. James Edward Grant was his favorite writer and sadly Duke didn't question any of his awkward choices of both lines and character. The film's length, although necessary I suppose, doesn't help this. Technically this film is a marvel. As i said before the art direction is amazing, with the Alamo compound recreated in painstaking detail. An element that should be studied for years to come is the astonishing sound mix. Recorded in Oscar winning Todd-AO, it is crisp and clear, almost like it was recorded yesterday. Kudos! The cinematography by William Clothier captures both the splendor of the Alamo and even the loneliness of it, and because of Wayne's carefully placed army extras, we get the sense of dread and anticipation. I cannot dare say Wayne and his crew didn't master atmosphere for this movie. It looks and sounds great.Overall, I love this movie. Can it be slow and a touch too long? Yes. Corny? Unbelievably so in many instances. But I deeply respect Wayne's dedication and craft to bring this story to life and they all did try to give something to the audience. I can see some of Wayne's own politics coming into the fold, but this is very small as he wanted to make a movie, and thats what he gave us.Note: I've seen both the roadshow cut (a dvd/video you should get before it goes out of print forever) and the restored general release version which I think is better paced and Wayne even took out scenes to make it flow better.

I saw this movie when it first came out and just saw it again on DVD. It gets better with age. John Duke Wayne put everything he had into this movie. With an all star cast and incredible acting, The Alamo is a timeless classic. Richard Widmark, Richard Boone,Chill Wills, Laurence Harvey, Frankie Avalon, Linda Cristal, Ken Curtis, Richard Boone, Patrick Wayne, and Joan O'Brien put in stellar performances.I will get the uncut version when it comes out as this is too important of a movie.The Alamo brilliantly portrays the struggle of freedom and independence of a young nation. A must see for all generations.

For anyone who deems this movie accurate, it has many small inaccuracies. But it has one big inaccuracy that someone from Texas will recognize.It talks about Fannin's men being ambushed and not coming. The Alamo fell on 3/6/1836 and Fannin's men were trapped between Goliad and Victoria on March 20, 1836 and then executed on March 26, 1836. Fannin was portrayed as the relief to the Alamo and they were never planned to be.When the soldiers stormed Santa Anna at San Jacinto, their battle cry was "Remember the Alamo, Remember Goliad". They were referring to two massacres and in the order that they happened.

. . . is nowhere to be found in this mendacious John Wayne Vanity Project nearly as fatal to America as was GONE WITH THE WIND. In Real Life, Wayne was never a Black slave. He never even was lashed to a post and flogged. He certainly did not have the front of a foot chopped off to keep him from fleeing Real Life bullies--such as Marion Mitchell Morrison. For a decade or two prior to making THE ALAMO, Wayne risked proving the adage, "Snitches get Stitches," as he betrayed dozens of more talented colleagues who could act and think circles around him to the Fascist Witch Hunters in order to further his own career of being a W.C. Fields-like buffoon pretending to be a straight man. Many of "The Duke's" Real Life victims "mysteriously" died prematurely (such as Jewish actor John Garfield) or had their lives heavily discounted (including master screenwriter Dalton Trumbo). Wayne's flunkies write on THE ALAMO jewel case that "185 exceptional men joined together in a sacred pact (to) willingly give their lives for Freedom." In actuality, these 185 lazy Southerners deemed themselves too prissy to do any Real ranch work, and too cheap to pay their FORMER Black slaves from "Up North" (that is, Tennessee and the other FUTURE Confederate Rebel States) fair wages for a change in Mexico, the Land Where Blacks Were Free.Yup, that's right: David Crockett, James Bowie, William Barrett Travis, and the other VILLAINS of THE ALAMO fought and died in a tragically successful effort to RE-ENSLAVE the Black Man in their Hellish Rebel Republic of Texas. Marion Morrison (the future "John Wayne") himself and all other American school kids of the 1930s and earlier KNEW this sordid story by heart. Without THE ALAMO to "remember," there never would have been the later U.S. Civil War, which murdered 10% of the innocent male population of the Civilized North to correct the sinful slothfulness of Satan's South. Always poor losers, the defeated Rebels boded their time and waited until America was distracted by World War II in the mid-1900s to outlaw the inclusion of TRUTH in any U.S. school textbook or classroom, K - college. Texas bigots have had veto power over each line of all U.S. "American History" texts since then (and now they're branching out into biology, sexuality, economics, and most other subjects with their Anti-Intellectual Inquisition). With THE ALAMO, Wayne is attempting to "Re-Educate" those members of the World War One generation who survived until 1960 that Real Life Freedom Fighter Santa Anna was a Hitler rather than a Grear Emancipator (like Lincoln), which he aimed to be. (Wayne brazenly depicts his own Crockett character waging a Disinformation campaign as one of the many scenes of "padding" crammed into this bloated flick.) If David Crockett and James Bowie had their Druthers, Oprah, O.J., Mariah, Beyonce, Kareem, Martin, and all their kin folk would STILL be toiling in Racist Slavery to this very day! Remember THE ALAMO, indeed!