THE ALAMO (2004) (***)

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The latest telling of the Alamo tale had a host of strikes against it going into theaters. First, it was supposed to star Russell Crowe and be directed by Ron Howard, but they stepped down from the picture after Disney wouldn’t allow Howard to make this his SAVING PRIVATE RYAN with all the blood and gore he could muster. So Disney brought in THE ROOKIE director John Lee Hancock to craft a PG-13 version of the tale. With a budget of $95 million and a box office gross of only $22 million, you think Disney would have been better off letting Howard make his more adult version?

Come on, I bet you a lot of teens or even 20-somethings won’t even know whom William Travis is. This isn’t a tale for the mall crowd. In the end, the Hancock film still deals with the real men that participated in the story and not the legends that surround them.

Dennis Quaid (FAR FROM HEAVEN) plays Sam Houston as a drunken soldier who can’t hold the support of the Texas politicians. Jason Patric (NARC) plays a no-nonsense James Bowie, who is suffering from consumption and typhoid fever. He also likes to brandish that knife of his that made him so famous. Patrick Wilson (ANGELS IN AMERICA) plays the young, cocky and adulterous William “Buck” Travis. Rounding out the list of American legends, Billy Bob Thornton (SLING BLADE) plays Davy Crockett, who is a failing politician and reluctant hero. The film also shows the other side of the fight focusing on the Napoleon of the West – Mexican dictator Antonio Lopez de Santa Ana (Emilo Echevarria, AMORES PERROS).

As a fan of history, I found the film entertaining. However, people new to the tale may get a bit lost or even bored. I found the portrayal of these American icons as flawed humans fascinating. This especially works with Travis and Thornton. They have the luxury of having the most defined roles in the film. Thornton is wonderful as a simple frontiersman who’s lost in politics and even to some degree in war. His legend is his cross that he has to bare. I also found it quite poignant the reasoning for why Santa Ana so desperately wanted to retain Texas as property of Mexico.

Where the film stumbles is that it adds Houston to the mix as the main victorious character. He only gets a surface treatment when he is on screen and then is forgotten for most of the film. Originally, this film was clocking in at over three hours when it was first edited. It would be interesting to see what was cut. What we are given is compelling and well written, but seems to be just skirting the surface in too many places. I really wanted more. I wanted to see more about the characters' pasts, which led them to this point.

In the end, I was not disappointed with what I was given though. There were great moments, especially the one with Crockett and his fiddle on the wall of the Alamo. This is solid historical entertainment that tells a more realistic picture of some of America’s best known heroes.