The Alamo

What’s the Story?

Dennis Quaid stars as General Sam Houston in this retelling of the famous 1836 battle, in which Mexico's Santa Anna and his troops battle against the Americans at the Alamo Mission during the Texan War of Independence. Among the Americans fighting in the battle over the Texas territory are Jim Bowie (Jason Patric) and Davy Crockett (Billy Bob Thornton). The battle goes on for days, and American enforcements are sent for, but the Mexicans manage to scale the walls of the mission-turned-fort before Houston and his troops arrive.

Is It Any Good?

There is only one reason to see THE ALAMO and it is Billy Bob Thornton. His portrayal of Davy Crockett is magnificently vibrant, fully imagined, and breathtakingly evocative of the essence of the American hero. The battle sequences are well staged, putting the audience in the center of the action. And the movie address racism, with slaves talking about whether they would be better off as Mexicans, and Hispanic Texans explaining why they chose to fight the Mexicans.

Despite all of that, however, the movie just does not work. The narrative is so muddled and the pace so choppy that we never connect with the characters or their cause. It makes the fatal mistake of assuming that it is enough to put American icons on one side and a choleric popinjay of a general who wears a uniform out of a Friml operetta, barks at his subordinates, and preys on young women on the other. It isn't. This is not a fight about religious freedom or taxation without representation or stopping a despotic marauder. It is a fight over who will own the land that probably both sides took from the Native Americans. And it is hard to cheer for the independence of the "Texians" when we know they're just going to end up part of America anyway.