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Customer Reviews
Average Rating:
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a tale the whole family should watch
Well written with believable action, I hate those old westerns where the one man army blows em all away. Tiny interesting facts about each historical character was squeezed in this movie which pleased history geeks like myself. Great acting and I was surprised by the bit of comedy. Before watching the film I was preparing myself for the big cry I knew would come, but surprisingly it never did. The characters were epic; proud and died with honor. I am also very pleased that a historical massacre could be put into today's modern version without blood and gore. Children can watch history encouraging them to learn.
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Movies by Ed
The director,screenwriter and actors all did a superb job of capturing the authenticity, and the thinking of the time.This movie was very close to a documentary as Billy Bob Thornton was channeling the true Davy Crocket instead of some Walt Disney version.My only criticism was that Dennis Quaid had to try too hard to be Sam Houston,a complex character easily worth an entire movie of his own.Even the scenery was incredibly detailed and accurate,giving this history buff a great deal of satisfaction.I greatly appreciate Hancock's attention to detail and respect for Texas history.
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The Best Film Version Of These Events That's Been Done
An underappreciated film that was hurt more by its attempts to please all sides than it was from any failings of authenticity. Compared to past Hollywood versions of this story, 2004's The Alamo is not only the most realistic and historically accurate depiction of the 1836 battle, it also happens to be the most elaborately staged, with great attention paid to minor details in clothing, housing, speech patterns, weaponry, and the actual battle itself.
Billy Bob Thornton's mythbusting portrayal of David Crockett (not Davy, no) steals the show here and was unjustly overlooked at Oscar time. Although the decision to conclude his presence onscreen in a scenario more in keeping with the controversial and possibly fraudulent De la Peña Diary raised a few eyebrows, it was also the most dramatic possible exit for the film's most famous individual.
The battle at the Alamo remains to this day such a passionately debated and celebrated topic that any film version is almost guaranteed to leave some segment of the population completely unsatisfied, and there were inevitably voices loudly raised when this movie was released three years ago. But as is so often the case with controversy, I found that those yelling the loudest were those who hadn't actually bothered to see the film they were denouncing. I recall how in 2004 I went online and urged a group of Texans to support this movie, and got an back an earful of negativity and (mostly misspelled) criticisms (with poor grammar) of the audacity of anyone except Texans themselves (and particularly the "liberal" Disney Corporation) to make a motion picture about the Alamo. Unlike all the rest of the history in the world, Texas history, they in effect claimed, belonged to them and them alone and was for them and them alone to interpret---even if their knowledge of the battle was in more than a few cases shown to be questionable.
Sadly that sort of mindset goes a long way toward explaining why a fine film like The Alamo flopped and why since then so few historical epics have been made. Why should a studio spend time and money on a project doomed to be lambasted when for a smaller investment it can create a silly star-filled story that will be more profitable?
As for me, I say for anyone who loves history, this is a good movie to see.
Rating: 
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Embarrassment to the Alamo heroes Go see John Wayne's epic
This is waste of celluloid. The casting, the soundtrack, the acting, the photography (where was the lighting man? was it shot in the dark with past-dated film?) were an embarrassment. Ugh. When you say Alamo, boomers fortunately think of the John Wayne classic from 1960, considered by many the greatest film of all time. The big three of the Alamo were heroically portrayed by John Wayne as Davy, Richard Widmark as Bowie, Lawrence Harvey as Travis, against the legendary soundtrack of Dimitri Tiomkin. Each of the big three had glorious last stands. Davy, dying from a bayonet in the chest, with his last ounce of energy torches the powder room and blows up half the Alamo. Bowie, laid low by a cannonball, takes out fifteen attackers with a seven barrel shotgun, two flintlocks, and that meat cleaver of a knife, before being overcome by hordes. And Travis outfences five attackers until one shoots him, but he breaks his sword over his knee in a last act of defiance before he expires. Billy Bob's Alamo? Where to start? Wayne's cast of thousands is reduced by Billy Bob to a cast of tens and the production values are straight to video quality. There are no movie stars. The "music" was an irritating wailing. Most ridiculous moment? Billy Bob after being captured, warning the attackers he is a "screamer" and then,just before being killed, well, screaming. Davy Crockett screaming? This is offensive to every boomer who remembers Fess Parker in the Walt Disney film climbing to the top of the Alamo, swinging "Ol' Betsy" and "giving 'em what's fer" one last time. I am told that after the Billy Bob screaming scene the film went on another half-hour. I wouldn't know because at that point I turned off the DVD and threw it away. Go see John Wayne's Oscar nominated masterpiece on DVD.
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Deep in the heart of Texas
Superb cinematography, set design and costumes. (I really didn't care much for the weepy Titanic-esque soundtrack score, however.) And while all of the actors aquitted themselves nicely, I think Billy Bob Thornton's take on Davy Crockett - the reality versus the legend - was a real standout. Historians may quibble about certain details here and there (as they should - it's healthy), but this production of The Alamo exposes John Wayne's vastly overrated 1960 version for the simplistic flag-waving cartoon that it always was.
