The Alamo (2004 film)
Encyclopedia
The Alamo is a 2004 American war film
about the Battle of the Alamo
during the Texas Revolution
. The film was directed by Texan
John Lee Hancock
, produced by Ron Howard
, Brian Grazer
, and Mark Johnson, and distributed by Touchstone Pictures
.
The screenplay is credited to Hancock, John Sayles
, Stephen Gaghan
, and Leslie Bohem
. In contrast to the earlier 1960 film
, the 2004 film attempts to depict the political points of view of both the Mexican and Texan sides; Santa Anna
is a more prominent character.
The film received mixed to negative reviews by critics and was extremely unsuccessful commercially. It is officially the second biggest box office 'bomb' in cinema history, after Cutthroat Island
.
(Dennis Quaid
) attends a party where he tries to persuade people to migrate to Texas. He meets with David Crockett (Billy Bob Thornton
), recently defeated for reelection to Congress. Houston explains to Crockett that as an immigrant to Texas, Crockett will receive 640 acres (2.6 km²) [a square mile] of his own choosing. Crockett asks with a grin whether this new republic is going to need a president.
Meanwhile, in San Felipe, Texas
, the Texas provisional government is meeting to discuss what course of action to take after the recent capture of the Alamo and Bexar from Mexican forces at the first Battle of San Antonio de Bexar. Texas having rebelled against Mexico and its presidential dictator Santa Anna
, who is personally leading an army to retake the Alamo, the War Party calls for the Texas army to depart Bexar, cross into Mexico and confront Mexican forces at the town of Matamoros. The Opposition Party seeks to rebuild the Texan army and establish a permanent government to be recognized by other nations of the world. Sam Houston is voted out as commander of the Texas army. While having drinks with Jim Bowie
later, the disgusted Houston tells Bowie to go to San Antonio and destroy the Alamo.
William Barret Travis
(Patrick Wilson
) is also in San Felipe, reporting for duty. His character is quickly established as a man who seeks respect as a uniformed military officer, a lieutenant colonel in the Texas Army. Interlaced scenes show him granting his wife a divorce (for his adultery, abandonment, and "barbarous treatment"), and seeking a second chance in Texas. He is sent to take command of the Alamo, where he meets Col. James Neill
(Brandon Smith), who informs him that he'll be in charge of the Texas Army regulars while Neil is away on leave. Travis, alarmed that the Alamo's small force cannot withstand the advancing Mexican Army, asks for reinforcements. Small groups of reinforcements arrive, but not enough for the impending battle. Travis oversees preparations for defense against inevitable attack, in hopes that enough reinforcements will arrive.
Crockett arrives in San Antonio, where he tells a crowd, "I told them folks they can go to hell, I'm going to Texas". After he is told that the other defenders are impatient for Santa Anna to arrive now that Crockett is on hand, Crockett replies, "I understood the fighting was over...Ain't it?" For the first time in any Alamo or Davy Crockett film, the viewer is shown the political aspirations of Crockett and possibly his real intentions for traveling to Texas: not so much to fight for freedom, but for new opportunities. The movie implies that he's caught in the middle and cannot escape. Santa Anna soon arrives in San Antonio, much to the surprise of the Texan fighters, who were not expecting the Mexican Army to arrive until late March or early April. The Texans retire to the Alamo compound despite its vulnerability. Amid the chaos Travis writes letters asking for reinforcements. Only a couple dozen men arrive to join them.
The siege has begun. Bowie leaves the Alamo to meet with Mexican General Manuel Castrillón
(Castulo Guerra
) to talk things out before they get out of hand. However, a perturbed Travis fires the 18-pound cannon on the south-west wall, thus cutting short Bowie's impromptu attempt at diplomacy and virtually ending any chance for avoiding the battle. Bowie notifies Travis that the Santa Anna has offered surrender at discretion. Travis offers all within the opportunity to leave. Almost to a man the defenders decide to stay and fight to the end. At least one woman remains, Mrs. Susanna Dickinson (Laura Clifton), whose husband, Lt. Almeron Dickinson (Stephen Bruton
), has decided to stay. For the next several nights, the Mexican Army band serenades the Texans inside the Alamo with the "Degüello" (slit throat), followed by an artillery bombardment of the surroundeded compound. Satisfied that the Texans will not leave the Alamo, the Mexicans raise a red flag as a signal of "no quarter". The flag is visible also to the Alamo's defenders, who know its meaning.
The inevitable attack begins in the darkness before dawn with bugle calls along the Mexican front line. The Texans are awakened by the sound of the bugles signaling for the troops to attack. They are also awakened by the sound of Mexicans screaming "Viva Santa-Anna!!" After a long and brutal battle, the Mexicans-despite taking heavy casualties-breach the north wall of the mission, and Travis is killed when he is shot in the head by a young Mexican soldier storming the north wall. While a smaller group of Mexican engineers, armed with axes and crowbars, assault and break down the boarded-up doors and windows of the west wall, a smaller group storms the southwest wall, forcing the few surviving Texans to fall back to the buildings where they are all killed. Bowie is discovered in his room and is stabbed after he fires off his pistols, killing soldiers and attempting to use his knife in the process. Crockett is taken prisoner, promising to take Santa Anna to Houston for the Mexican Army to surrender and maybe survive, but Santa Anna refuses the mocking offer and orders Crockett to be executed.
Days later, after hearing about the fall of the Alamo, Houston orders his small army to retreat eastward, pursued by Santa Anna who is leading the bulk of the Mexican Army. A few weeks later, Houston halts his retreat near the San Jacinto River area, where he decides to face the Mexicans in a final stand. With the support of two cannons and a small group of mounted Tejanos, Houston leads the Texans in a surprise attack
against the Mexican camp in which, caught off guard, the Mexicans are routed after a short battle, with many killed or wounded, at a cost of only a handful of Texans. Houston is wounded in the leg by a musket ball. Santa Anna escapes, but is captured the following day by a Texian patrol, his identity given away when Mexican prisoners respond to his presence. Santa Anna surrenders to the wounded Houston, in exchange for his life, agreeing to order all surviving Mexican troops to withdraw from Texas and accept Texan independence.
, with Ron Howard
in the director's chair and partner Brian Grazer
as producer. Russell Crowe
was originally cast as Sam Houston
, Ethan Hawke
as William Barret Travis and Billy Bob Thornton
as David Crockett
. But there were financial and creative disagreements between Imagine and Disney
, particularly with Howard wanting a $200 million budget. Disney rejected Imagine's proposals, and Crowe and Hawke left the project. Disney opted for director John Lee Hancock
and a budget between $95–107 million. Thornton remained with the project as Crockett, while Howard and Grazer were credited as producers.
The exterior scenes of the film were shot in Texas, between January-June 2003, mostly on Reimers Ranch, near Austin
. The film's art direction focused on historical accuracy and verisimilitude; for instance, the mission's chapel facade
is not topped with the iconic "hump", an architectural detail added during a restoration years after the battle.
The film was shot in 2003 and scheduled for release in December of that year, but was rescheduled for April 2004.
The depiction of Crockett's fate came from memoirs written by former Mexican officer José Enrique de la Peña
, an officer in Santa Anna's army who fought in the battle. It was the first to show Crockett executed as a prisoner of war
; all others had depicted his death as occurring during the battle. This sparked criticism from many Alamo enthusiasts and some historians.
The Alamo set
Hancock's version was purported to be the most accurate of all the Alamo films, but various interpretive liberties were taken, such as building the movie-set version of the Alamo chapel facade forward 30 to 40 feet (12.2 m) more than the extant (and presumably historically correct) structure. According to one of the DVD version's special features, Hancock did this to show the Alamo chapel and interior of the fort all in one shot. It is the largest and most expensive set ever built in North America. It comes in at 51 acres.
Jim Bowie's knife
Bowie's knife is ornate and extremely large, qualifying as a shortsword
by some standards. It has a wood handle, and the blade is further supported by a brass backing extending about two-thirds from the 4-inch-long crossguard to the tip. The blade is about 3 inches at its widest.
Battle scenes
A second "cattle call" for extras was held because too few thin and gaunt Mexican soldiers were available in the first call. (In the winter of 1835-1836, when the Mexican Army was moving northward through desert areas shortly before crossing the Rio Bravo (Rio Grande River) into Texas, it endured a snowstorm of uncommon intensity, and hundreds of Mexican soldiers had suffered more than their usual illness and hunger.) The film's main scenes of the Mexican attack on the Alamo were done under harsh weather conditions: battle-scene extras stood for hours in cold rain, making some scenes gruelingly realistic.
Houston and Crockett discuss Texas
Sam Houston and Davy Crockett knew each other from their political activities in the capital, particularly from their respective terms as members of Congress. Crockett had recently lost his bid for a fourth term in the U.S. House of Representatives
. Houston took advantage of the situation by encouraging Crockett to come to Texas. A ballroom in Washington D.C. served as the location of a critical meeting between the two. More than a $1 million (US) was spent on a collection of English-made costumes representative of the period circa 1825-1835. The costumes included scores of women's and men's formal outfits: myriad formal dance gowns; women's undergarments, such as multi-skirt multi-tier petticoats and laced corsets; laced shoes and pumps for women of various ages; men's jackets, coats, capes, vests, shoes, and boots. Hairstyles and wigs for both women and men were historically accurate for the year 1835, the date of ballroom scenes. Other historically correct details for women's hairdos included tiaras of starched lace and polished bone, hairpins with elaborate decorative heads, lace and silk bows, and snood
s. Men's hair styles were perhaps even more varied, ranging from closely clipped, chopped, or wavy; disheveled, long loose, or bobbed at the nape; and showing various stages of baldness with hairpieces such as horseshoe shaped to displaying gray curls at the sides and rear; and beards of many types.
Miscellaneous
When Crockett first plays his fiddle to the crowd, the song is "Listen to the Mockingbird", not composed until 1855, 19 years after the fall of the Alamo. The Three Stooges later used it as their theme song. The film shows Sam Houston paying for a drink with a coin carrying Santa Anna's portrait; Mexican silver coins of that era showed a liberty cap. Aside from the short-lived empire of Maximilian
(1864–67), human representations on circulating Mexican coins between 1824 to 1905 were allegorical.
, the film holds a 30% 'rotten' rating, with two-thirds of its "top critics" making that same assessment; the consensus states "Too conventional and uninvolving to be memorable." Variety
called it a "a historically credible but overly prosaic account of the most celebrated episode in the creation of an Americanized Texas."
The Houston Chronicle
gave the film a grade of "B"
, saying Hancock, who the paper points out is a "former Houstonian", "shows respect if not reverence for his state's mythical heritage, even while viewing it from modern perspectives"; it notes the "build-up to battle is prolonged and talky, and for a classic tale of heroic defiance, this Alamo feels more restrained than rousing. Again, it's no-win. When Hancock supplies history, the action and drama bog down. And even when he's right, he's wrong, since so many historians disagree about what happened at the site in what is now downtown San Antonio." Entertainment Weekly
gave it a "C+", saying "Hancock's moderate, apolitical, war-is-hell
dramatization of the famous 1836 battle that shaped the future of a free and independent American Texas isn't nearly the flop that the exceptionally harsh and unavoidable advance chatter has suggested it is. (It's not the jingoistic call to patriotism of John Wayne's 1960 version
, either.) But The Alamo never harmonizes into a cinematic experience any more resonant than the average, manly, why-we-fight pic, or coalesces into a stirring cry for freedom." According to Roger Ebert
, "Conventional wisdom in Hollywood is that any movie named The Alamo must be simplistic and rousing, despite the fact that we already know all the defenders got killed. (If we don't know it, we find out in the first scene.) Here is a movie that captures the loneliness and dread of men waiting for two weeks for what they expect to be certain death, and it somehow succeeds in taking those pop-culture brand names like Davy Crockett and Jim Bowie and giving them human form."
The film was a box office bomb
. In its first weekend, it was beat by a resurgent The Passion of the Christ
, earning only US$9.1 million in its first weekend. By its second month of release, the film had yet to reach $30 million in domestic earnings. It ended its theatrical run with a worldwide gross of slightly less than $26 million. With a loss of more than $130 million, The Alamo became one of the biggest box office bombs of all time.
War film
War films are a film genre concerned with warfare, usually about naval, air or land battles, sometimes focusing instead on prisoners of war, covert operations, military training or other related subjects. At times war films focus on daily military or civilian life in wartime without depicting battles...
about the Battle of the Alamo
Battle of the Alamo
The Battle of the Alamo was a pivotal event in the Texas Revolution. Following a 13-day siege, Mexican troops under President General Antonio López de Santa Anna launched an assault on the Alamo Mission near San Antonio de Béxar . All but two of the Texian defenders were killed...
during the Texas Revolution
Texas Revolution
The Texas Revolution or Texas War of Independence was an armed conflict between Mexico and settlers in the Texas portion of the Mexican state Coahuila y Tejas. The war lasted from October 2, 1835 to April 21, 1836...
. The film was directed by Texan
Texas
Texas is the second largest U.S. state by both area and population, and the largest state by area in the contiguous United States.The name, based on the Caddo word "Tejas" meaning "friends" or "allies", was applied by the Spanish to the Caddo themselves and to the region of their settlement in...
John Lee Hancock
John Lee Hancock
John Lee Hancock, Jr. is an American screenwriter, film director, and producer. He is best known for directing the sports drama films The Rookie and The Blind Side.-Early life:...
, produced by Ron Howard
Ron Howard
Ronald William "Ron" Howard is an American actor, director, and producer. He came to prominence as a child actor, playing Opie Taylor in the sitcom The Andy Griffith Show for eight years, and later the teenaged Richie Cunningham in the sitcom Happy Days for six years...
, Brian Grazer
Brian Grazer
Brian Thomas Grazer is an Academy Award-winning American film and television producer who co-founded Imagine Entertainment in 1986 with Ron Howard. Together they have produced many acclaimed films, including Apollo 13 and A Beautiful Mind .- Career :Brian Grazer began his career as a producer...
, and Mark Johnson, and distributed by Touchstone Pictures
Touchstone Pictures
Touchstone Pictures is an American film production label and is one of several film labels of the Walt Disney Motion Pictures Group. Established in 1984, its releases typically feature more mature themes and darker tones than those that are released under the Walt Disney Pictures banner.Touchstone...
.
The screenplay is credited to Hancock, John Sayles
John Sayles
John Thomas Sayles is an American independent film director, screenwriter and author.-Early life:Sayles was born in Schenectady, New York, the son of Mary , a teacher, and Donald John Sayles, a school administrator. He was raised Catholic and took to labeling himself "a Catholic atheist"...
, Stephen Gaghan
Stephen Gaghan
Stephen Gaghan is an American screenwriter and director. He is noted for writing the screenplay for Steven Soderbergh's film Traffic, based on a Channel 4 series, for which he won the Academy Award, as well as Syriana which he wrote and directed.-Childhood and education:Born in either Louisville,...
, and Leslie Bohem
Leslie Bohem
-Biography:Les Bohem's writing credits include the miniseries Taken, Dante's Peak, Twenty Bucks, Daylight, and The Alamo. Bohem also played bass in the 1980s with the pop groups Sparks and Gleaming Spires. He also wrote the storybook of the Steven Spielberg produced mini-series Nine Lives.-External...
. In contrast to the earlier 1960 film
The Alamo (1960 film)
The Alamo is a 1960 American historical epic released by United Artists. The film was directed by John Wayne, who also starred as Davy Crockett. The cast also includes Richard Widmark as Jim Bowie and Laurence Harvey as William B...
, the 2004 film attempts to depict the political points of view of both the Mexican and Texan sides; Santa Anna
Antonio López de Santa Anna
Antonio de Padua María Severino López de Santa Anna y Pérez de Lebrón , often known as Santa Anna or López de Santa Anna, known as "the Napoleon of the West," was a Mexican political leader, general, and president who greatly influenced early Mexican and Spanish politics and government...
is a more prominent character.
The film received mixed to negative reviews by critics and was extremely unsuccessful commercially. It is officially the second biggest box office 'bomb' in cinema history, after Cutthroat Island
Cutthroat Island
Cutthroat Island is a 1995 action adventure film directed by Renny Harlin. The film stars Geena Davis, Matthew Modine, and Frank Langella. The film received mixed reviews from critics and was a major box office bomb: listed in the Guinness Book of World Records as the biggest box office flop of...
.
Plot
The film begins in March 1836 in the Texas town of San Antonio de Bexar, site of the Alamo, where bodies of Texan defenders and Mexican attackers are strewn over the Alamo. The film then flashes back to a year earlier. Sam HoustonSam Houston
Samuel Houston, known as Sam Houston , was a 19th-century American statesman, politician, and soldier. He was born in Timber Ridge in the Shenandoah Valley of Virginia, of Scots-Irish descent. Houston became a key figure in the history of Texas and was elected as the first and third President of...
(Dennis Quaid
Dennis Quaid
Dennis William Quaid is an American actor known for his comedic and dramatic roles. First gaining widespread attention in the 1980s, his career rebounded in the 1990s after he overcame an addiction to drugs and an eating disorder...
) attends a party where he tries to persuade people to migrate to Texas. He meets with David Crockett (Billy Bob Thornton
Billy Bob Thornton
Billy Bob Thornton is an American actor, screenwriter, director and musician. Thornton gained early recognition as a cast member on the CBS sitcom Hearts Afire and in several early 1990s films including On Deadly Ground and Tombstone...
), recently defeated for reelection to Congress. Houston explains to Crockett that as an immigrant to Texas, Crockett will receive 640 acres (2.6 km²) [a square mile] of his own choosing. Crockett asks with a grin whether this new republic is going to need a president.
Meanwhile, in San Felipe, Texas
San Felipe, Texas
San Felipe, also known as San Felipe de Austin, is a town in Austin County, Texas, United States. The town was the social, economic, and political center of the early Stephen F. Austin colony. The population was 868 at the 2000 census.-History:...
, the Texas provisional government is meeting to discuss what course of action to take after the recent capture of the Alamo and Bexar from Mexican forces at the first Battle of San Antonio de Bexar. Texas having rebelled against Mexico and its presidential dictator Santa Anna
Antonio López de Santa Anna
Antonio de Padua María Severino López de Santa Anna y Pérez de Lebrón , often known as Santa Anna or López de Santa Anna, known as "the Napoleon of the West," was a Mexican political leader, general, and president who greatly influenced early Mexican and Spanish politics and government...
, who is personally leading an army to retake the Alamo, the War Party calls for the Texas army to depart Bexar, cross into Mexico and confront Mexican forces at the town of Matamoros. The Opposition Party seeks to rebuild the Texan army and establish a permanent government to be recognized by other nations of the world. Sam Houston is voted out as commander of the Texas army. While having drinks with Jim Bowie
Jim Bowie
James "Jim" Bowie , a 19th-century American pioneer, slave trader, land speculator, and soldier, played a prominent role in the Texas Revolution, culminating in his death at the Battle of the Alamo...
later, the disgusted Houston tells Bowie to go to San Antonio and destroy the Alamo.
William Barret Travis
William B. Travis
William Barret Travis was a 19th-century American lawyer and soldier. At the age of 26, he was a lieutenant colonel in the Texas Army...
(Patrick Wilson
Patrick Wilson (actor)
Patrick Joseph Wilson is an American actor and singer. Wilson has spent years singing lead roles in major Broadway musicals, beginning in 1996. In 2003, he appeared in the HBO mini-series Angels in America...
) is also in San Felipe, reporting for duty. His character is quickly established as a man who seeks respect as a uniformed military officer, a lieutenant colonel in the Texas Army. Interlaced scenes show him granting his wife a divorce (for his adultery, abandonment, and "barbarous treatment"), and seeking a second chance in Texas. He is sent to take command of the Alamo, where he meets Col. James Neill
James C. Neill
↔James Clinton Neill was a 19th-century American soldier and politician, most noted for his role in the Texas Revolution and the early defense of the Alamo. He was born in North Carolina.-Early life and career:...
(Brandon Smith), who informs him that he'll be in charge of the Texas Army regulars while Neil is away on leave. Travis, alarmed that the Alamo's small force cannot withstand the advancing Mexican Army, asks for reinforcements. Small groups of reinforcements arrive, but not enough for the impending battle. Travis oversees preparations for defense against inevitable attack, in hopes that enough reinforcements will arrive.
Crockett arrives in San Antonio, where he tells a crowd, "I told them folks they can go to hell, I'm going to Texas". After he is told that the other defenders are impatient for Santa Anna to arrive now that Crockett is on hand, Crockett replies, "I understood the fighting was over...Ain't it?" For the first time in any Alamo or Davy Crockett film, the viewer is shown the political aspirations of Crockett and possibly his real intentions for traveling to Texas: not so much to fight for freedom, but for new opportunities. The movie implies that he's caught in the middle and cannot escape. Santa Anna soon arrives in San Antonio, much to the surprise of the Texan fighters, who were not expecting the Mexican Army to arrive until late March or early April. The Texans retire to the Alamo compound despite its vulnerability. Amid the chaos Travis writes letters asking for reinforcements. Only a couple dozen men arrive to join them.
The siege has begun. Bowie leaves the Alamo to meet with Mexican General Manuel Castrillón
Manuel Fernández Castrillón
Manuel Fernández Castrillón was a major general in the Mexican army of the 19th century. He was a close friend of General and Mexican President Antonio López de Santa Anna.-Early life:Manuel Fernández Castrillón was born in Cuba...
(Castulo Guerra
Castulo Guerra
Cástulo Guerra is an Argentine actor who found success appearing in American films and television. Film roles include: Terminator 2: Judgment Day, Cold Heaven, The Usual Suspects, Meet Me in Miami, Where the River Runs Black and The Celestine Prophecy""...
) to talk things out before they get out of hand. However, a perturbed Travis fires the 18-pound cannon on the south-west wall, thus cutting short Bowie's impromptu attempt at diplomacy and virtually ending any chance for avoiding the battle. Bowie notifies Travis that the Santa Anna has offered surrender at discretion. Travis offers all within the opportunity to leave. Almost to a man the defenders decide to stay and fight to the end. At least one woman remains, Mrs. Susanna Dickinson (Laura Clifton), whose husband, Lt. Almeron Dickinson (Stephen Bruton
Stephen Bruton
-Background:Born in Wilmington, Delaware as Turner Stephen Bruton, he moved with his family to Texas at the age of two. He fell into the Fort Worth music scene after graduating from Texas Christian University when he joined Kris Kristofferson's band as the latter's career was about to take off;...
), has decided to stay. For the next several nights, the Mexican Army band serenades the Texans inside the Alamo with the "Degüello" (slit throat), followed by an artillery bombardment of the surroundeded compound. Satisfied that the Texans will not leave the Alamo, the Mexicans raise a red flag as a signal of "no quarter". The flag is visible also to the Alamo's defenders, who know its meaning.
The inevitable attack begins in the darkness before dawn with bugle calls along the Mexican front line. The Texans are awakened by the sound of the bugles signaling for the troops to attack. They are also awakened by the sound of Mexicans screaming "Viva Santa-Anna!!" After a long and brutal battle, the Mexicans-despite taking heavy casualties-breach the north wall of the mission, and Travis is killed when he is shot in the head by a young Mexican soldier storming the north wall. While a smaller group of Mexican engineers, armed with axes and crowbars, assault and break down the boarded-up doors and windows of the west wall, a smaller group storms the southwest wall, forcing the few surviving Texans to fall back to the buildings where they are all killed. Bowie is discovered in his room and is stabbed after he fires off his pistols, killing soldiers and attempting to use his knife in the process. Crockett is taken prisoner, promising to take Santa Anna to Houston for the Mexican Army to surrender and maybe survive, but Santa Anna refuses the mocking offer and orders Crockett to be executed.
Days later, after hearing about the fall of the Alamo, Houston orders his small army to retreat eastward, pursued by Santa Anna who is leading the bulk of the Mexican Army. A few weeks later, Houston halts his retreat near the San Jacinto River area, where he decides to face the Mexicans in a final stand. With the support of two cannons and a small group of mounted Tejanos, Houston leads the Texans in a surprise attack
Battle of San Jacinto
The Battle of San Jacinto, fought on April 21, 1836, in present-day Harris County, Texas, was the decisive battle of the Texas Revolution. Led by General Sam Houston, the Texian Army engaged and defeated General Antonio López de Santa Anna's Mexican forces in a fight that lasted just eighteen...
against the Mexican camp in which, caught off guard, the Mexicans are routed after a short battle, with many killed or wounded, at a cost of only a handful of Texans. Houston is wounded in the leg by a musket ball. Santa Anna escapes, but is captured the following day by a Texian patrol, his identity given away when Mexican prisoners respond to his presence. Santa Anna surrenders to the wounded Houston, in exchange for his life, agreeing to order all surviving Mexican troops to withdraw from Texas and accept Texan independence.
Cast
- Dennis QuaidDennis QuaidDennis William Quaid is an American actor known for his comedic and dramatic roles. First gaining widespread attention in the 1980s, his career rebounded in the 1990s after he overcame an addiction to drugs and an eating disorder...
as Sam HoustonSam HoustonSamuel Houston, known as Sam Houston , was a 19th-century American statesman, politician, and soldier. He was born in Timber Ridge in the Shenandoah Valley of Virginia, of Scots-Irish descent. Houston became a key figure in the history of Texas and was elected as the first and third President of... - Billy Bob ThorntonBilly Bob ThorntonBilly Bob Thornton is an American actor, screenwriter, director and musician. Thornton gained early recognition as a cast member on the CBS sitcom Hearts Afire and in several early 1990s films including On Deadly Ground and Tombstone...
as Davy CrockettDavy CrockettDavid "Davy" Crockett was a celebrated 19th century American folk hero, frontiersman, soldier and politician. He is commonly referred to in popular culture by the epithet "King of the Wild Frontier". He represented Tennessee in the U.S... - Jason PatricJason PatricJason Patric is an American film, television and stage actor. He may be best-known for his roles in the films The Lost Boys, Sleepers, Your Friends & Neighbors, Narc, The Losers and Speed 2: Cruise Control. His father was actor/playwright Jason Miller...
as James Bowie - Patrick WilsonPatrick Wilson (actor)Patrick Joseph Wilson is an American actor and singer. Wilson has spent years singing lead roles in major Broadway musicals, beginning in 1996. In 2003, he appeared in the HBO mini-series Angels in America...
as William Barret TravisWilliam B. TravisWilliam Barret Travis was a 19th-century American lawyer and soldier. At the age of 26, he was a lieutenant colonel in the Texas Army... - Emilio EchevarríaEmilio EchevarríaEmilio Echevarría is a Mexican actor. Internationally he is perhaps best known for appearing in a trio of films: Amores Perros , Y tu mamá también, and Babel .Echevarría also had small parts in two American productions, first as Raoul, a Cuban agent in the James Bond...
as Antonio López de Santa AnnaAntonio López de Santa AnnaAntonio de Padua María Severino López de Santa Anna y Pérez de Lebrón , often known as Santa Anna or López de Santa Anna, known as "the Napoleon of the West," was a Mexican political leader, general, and president who greatly influenced early Mexican and Spanish politics and government... - Jordi MollàJordi MollàJordi Mollá Perales is a Spanish actor, filmmaker, writer and artist.Mollà's artwork is represented in the Carmen De la Guerra Gallery in Madrid, Picasso Mio Gallery in Madrid and Barcelona and Cold Creation Gallery in Barcelona...
as Juan SeguinJuan SeguínJuan Nepomuceno Seguín was a 19th-century Texas Senator, Mayor, Judge, and Justice of the Peace and a prominent participant in the Texas Revolution.-Early life and family:... - Leon RippyLeon RippyLeon Rippy is an American actor.-Life and career:He has worked with Roland Emmerich on seven movies including: Moon 44 , Eye of the Storm , Universal Soldier , Stargate , The Thirteenth Floor , The Patriot , Eight Legged Freaks and also had a role in the 2004...
as Sergeant William Ward - Tom DavidsonTom DavidsonTom Davidson is a former Australian rules footballer who was recruited from the Geelong Falcons in the 2001 AFL Draft by the Collingwood Football Club....
as Colonel Green Jameson - Marc BlucasMarc BlucasMarcus Paul "Marc" Blucas is an American actor, known for playing Riley Finn in Buffy the Vampire Slayer.-Early life:...
as James BonhamJames BonhamJames Butler Bonham was a 19th-century American soldier who died at the Battle of the Alamo during the Texas Revolution... - Robert Prentiss as Albert Grimes
- Kevin PageKevin PageKevin Page, born in Thunder Bay, Ontario in 1957 to James and Stella Page, is a Canadian economist. He is the first ever Parliamentary Budget Officer. He was apponted to the position on March 25, 2008.-Education:...
as Micajah AutryMicajah AutryMicajah Autry was an American merchant, poet and lawyer who died in the Texas Revolution at the Battle of the Alamo.-Biography:... - Joe Stevens as Mial Scurlock
- Stephen BrutonStephen Bruton-Background:Born in Wilmington, Delaware as Turner Stephen Bruton, he moved with his family to Texas at the age of two. He fell into the Fort Worth music scene after graduating from Texas Christian University when he joined Kris Kristofferson's band as the latter's career was about to take off;...
as Lieutenant Almeron Dickinson - Laura Clifton as Susanna Dickinson
- Ricardo Chavira as Private Gregorio Esparza
- Emily Deschanel as Rosanna Travis
- Brandon Smith as Lieutenant Colonel James C. NeillJames C. Neill↔James Clinton Neill was a 19th-century American soldier and politician, most noted for his role in the Texas Revolution and the early defense of the Alamo. He was born in North Carolina.-Early life and career:...
- W. Earl BrownW. Earl BrownW. Earl Brown is an American character actor who has appeared in many mainstream film and television projects. He is perhaps best known as Dan Dority on the HBO series Deadwood...
as David BurnetDavid G. BurnetDavid Gouverneur Burnet was an early politician within the Republic of Texas, serving as interim President of Texas , second Vice President of the Republic of Texas , and Secretary of State for the new state of Texas after it was annexed to the United States of America.Burnet was born in Newark,... - Tom EverettTom EverettTom Everett is an American actor known for his performances in political films such as Air Force One and Thirteen Days.-Film:-TV:-External links:...
as Mosley Baker - Rance HowardRance HowardRance Howard is an American actor who has starred in film and on television.-Life and career:Howard was born Harold Rance Beckenholdt in Oklahoma, the son of Ethel Cleo and Engel Beckenholdt, a farmer. He changed his name to "Rance Howard" when he became an actor. He married Jean Speegle Howard...
as Governor Henry SmithHenry Smith (Texas Governor)Henry Smith was first American-born Governor of the Mexican territory of Texas and briefly presided over the revolution there.-Early life:... - Stewart Finlay-McLennanStewart Finlay-McLennanStewart Finlay-McLennan is Australian actor. He is also credited as actor under the names of Stewart McLennan and Stuart McLennan....
as James GrantJames Grant (Texas)James Grant was a 19th century Texas politician, physician and military participant in the Texas Revolution.-Early life:James Grant was born on July 28, 1793, in Killearnan Parish, Ross-shire, Scotland. In 1823, he traveled to northern Mexico, ending up in Texas. He became interested in real... - Castulo GuerraCastulo GuerraCástulo Guerra is an Argentine actor who found success appearing in American films and television. Film roles include: Terminator 2: Judgment Day, Cold Heaven, The Usual Suspects, Meet Me in Miami, Where the River Runs Black and The Celestine Prophecy""...
as General Manuel Fernandez CastrillonManuel Fernández CastrillónManuel Fernández Castrillón was a major general in the Mexican army of the 19th century. He was a close friend of General and Mexican President Antonio López de Santa Anna.-Early life:Manuel Fernández Castrillón was born in Cuba... - Francisco Philbert as General Martin Perfecto de CosMartín Perfecto de CosMartín Perfecto de Cos was a 19th-century Mexican general. He was married to Lucinda López de Santa Anna, sister of Antonio López de Santa Anna.-Background:Cós was born in Vera Cruz in the year 1800, the son of an attorney...
- Flavio Hinojosa as Colonel Juan AlmonteJuan AlmonteJuan Nepomuceno Almonte was a 19th century Mexican official, soldier and diplomat. He was a veteran of the Battle of the Alamo during the Texas Revolution...
- Michael Crabtree as Deaf SmithDeaf SmithErastus "Deaf" Smith was an American frontiersman noted for his part in the Texas Revolution and the army of the Republic of Texas. He fought at the Grass Fight and the Battle of San Jacinto. After the war, Deaf Smith led a company of Texas Rangers.-Biography:Smith was born in Dutchess County, New...
- Rutherford CravensRutherford CravensRutherford "Ruddy" Cravens is an American TV movies and series actor, whose filmography also includes some theatrical movies like RoboCop 2, Friday Night Lights, Ray, "Temple Grandin and No Country for Old Men....
as Mr. Smith - Dameon ClarkeDameon ClarkeDameon J. Clarke is a Canadian-born American actor and voice actor who currently resides in Los Angeles. He has worked on numerous film and television productions as well as many anime and video game properties for FUNimation Entertainment, New Generation Pictures and OkraTron 5000. He is...
as Mr. Jones - Nathan Price as Charlie Travis
Production
The film was originally conceived by Imagine EntertainmentImagine Entertainment
Imagine Entertainment is a film and television production company founded in 1986 by director Ron Howard and producer Brian Grazer.Its productions include the television series 24 and Arrested Development and the films Apollo 13 , A Beautiful Mind and The Da Vinci Code .-Organization:Karen...
, with Ron Howard
Ron Howard
Ronald William "Ron" Howard is an American actor, director, and producer. He came to prominence as a child actor, playing Opie Taylor in the sitcom The Andy Griffith Show for eight years, and later the teenaged Richie Cunningham in the sitcom Happy Days for six years...
in the director's chair and partner Brian Grazer
Brian Grazer
Brian Thomas Grazer is an Academy Award-winning American film and television producer who co-founded Imagine Entertainment in 1986 with Ron Howard. Together they have produced many acclaimed films, including Apollo 13 and A Beautiful Mind .- Career :Brian Grazer began his career as a producer...
as producer. Russell Crowe
Russell Crowe
Russell Ira Crowe is a New Zealander Australian actor , film producer and musician. He came to international attention for his role as Roman General Maximus Decimus Meridius in the 2000 historical epic film Gladiator, directed by Ridley Scott, for which he won an Academy Award for Best Actor, a...
was originally cast as Sam Houston
Sam Houston
Samuel Houston, known as Sam Houston , was a 19th-century American statesman, politician, and soldier. He was born in Timber Ridge in the Shenandoah Valley of Virginia, of Scots-Irish descent. Houston became a key figure in the history of Texas and was elected as the first and third President of...
, Ethan Hawke
Ethan Hawke
Ethan Green Hawke is an American actor, writer and director. He made his feature film debut in 1985 with the science fiction movie Explorers, before making a supporting appearance in the 1989 drama Dead Poets Society which is considered his breakthrough role...
as William Barret Travis and Billy Bob Thornton
Billy Bob Thornton
Billy Bob Thornton is an American actor, screenwriter, director and musician. Thornton gained early recognition as a cast member on the CBS sitcom Hearts Afire and in several early 1990s films including On Deadly Ground and Tombstone...
as David Crockett
Davy Crockett
David "Davy" Crockett was a celebrated 19th century American folk hero, frontiersman, soldier and politician. He is commonly referred to in popular culture by the epithet "King of the Wild Frontier". He represented Tennessee in the U.S...
. But there were financial and creative disagreements between Imagine and Disney
Buena Vista Motion Pictures Group
Walt Disney Motion Pictures Group, Inc. is a corporation which develops scripts and oversees theatrical production for The Walt Disney Company's production companies and imprints. The Group, one of Hollywood's major film studios, is based at the Walt Disney Studios in Burbank, California...
, particularly with Howard wanting a $200 million budget. Disney rejected Imagine's proposals, and Crowe and Hawke left the project. Disney opted for director John Lee Hancock
John Lee Hancock
John Lee Hancock, Jr. is an American screenwriter, film director, and producer. He is best known for directing the sports drama films The Rookie and The Blind Side.-Early life:...
and a budget between $95–107 million. Thornton remained with the project as Crockett, while Howard and Grazer were credited as producers.
The exterior scenes of the film were shot in Texas, between January-June 2003, mostly on Reimers Ranch, near Austin
Austin, Texas
Austin is the capital city of the U.S. state of :Texas and the seat of Travis County. Located in Central Texas on the eastern edge of the American Southwest, it is the fourth-largest city in Texas and the 14th most populous city in the United States. It was the third-fastest-growing large city in...
. The film's art direction focused on historical accuracy and verisimilitude; for instance, the mission's chapel facade
Facade
A facade or façade is generally one exterior side of a building, usually, but not always, the front. The word comes from the French language, literally meaning "frontage" or "face"....
is not topped with the iconic "hump", an architectural detail added during a restoration years after the battle.
The film was shot in 2003 and scheduled for release in December of that year, but was rescheduled for April 2004.
Historical accuracy
Crockett's fateThe depiction of Crockett's fate came from memoirs written by former Mexican officer José Enrique de la Peña
José Enrique de la Peña
Jose Enrique de la Peña was a colonel in the Mexican Army. Under General Antonio López de Santa Anna, de la Peña participated in the Battle of the Alamo.In 1955, a book of his memoirs of the battle was published...
, an officer in Santa Anna's army who fought in the battle. It was the first to show Crockett executed as a prisoner of war
Prisoner of war
A prisoner of war or enemy prisoner of war is a person, whether civilian or combatant, who is held in custody by an enemy power during or immediately after an armed conflict...
; all others had depicted his death as occurring during the battle. This sparked criticism from many Alamo enthusiasts and some historians.
The Alamo set
Hancock's version was purported to be the most accurate of all the Alamo films, but various interpretive liberties were taken, such as building the movie-set version of the Alamo chapel facade forward 30 to 40 feet (12.2 m) more than the extant (and presumably historically correct) structure. According to one of the DVD version's special features, Hancock did this to show the Alamo chapel and interior of the fort all in one shot. It is the largest and most expensive set ever built in North America. It comes in at 51 acres.
Jim Bowie's knife
Bowie's knife is ornate and extremely large, qualifying as a shortsword
Shortsword
Shortsword may refer to a number of weapons intermediate between the sword and the dagger*short Iron Age swords**Gladius, an early ancient Roman sword **Xiphos, a double-edged, single-hand sword used by the ancient Greeks...
by some standards. It has a wood handle, and the blade is further supported by a brass backing extending about two-thirds from the 4-inch-long crossguard to the tip. The blade is about 3 inches at its widest.
Battle scenes
A second "cattle call" for extras was held because too few thin and gaunt Mexican soldiers were available in the first call. (In the winter of 1835-1836, when the Mexican Army was moving northward through desert areas shortly before crossing the Rio Bravo (Rio Grande River) into Texas, it endured a snowstorm of uncommon intensity, and hundreds of Mexican soldiers had suffered more than their usual illness and hunger.) The film's main scenes of the Mexican attack on the Alamo were done under harsh weather conditions: battle-scene extras stood for hours in cold rain, making some scenes gruelingly realistic.
Houston and Crockett discuss Texas
Sam Houston and Davy Crockett knew each other from their political activities in the capital, particularly from their respective terms as members of Congress. Crockett had recently lost his bid for a fourth term in the U.S. House of Representatives
United States House of Representatives
The United States House of Representatives is one of the two Houses of the United States Congress, the bicameral legislature which also includes the Senate.The composition and powers of the House are established in Article One of the Constitution...
. Houston took advantage of the situation by encouraging Crockett to come to Texas. A ballroom in Washington D.C. served as the location of a critical meeting between the two. More than a $1 million (US) was spent on a collection of English-made costumes representative of the period circa 1825-1835. The costumes included scores of women's and men's formal outfits: myriad formal dance gowns; women's undergarments, such as multi-skirt multi-tier petticoats and laced corsets; laced shoes and pumps for women of various ages; men's jackets, coats, capes, vests, shoes, and boots. Hairstyles and wigs for both women and men were historically accurate for the year 1835, the date of ballroom scenes. Other historically correct details for women's hairdos included tiaras of starched lace and polished bone, hairpins with elaborate decorative heads, lace and silk bows, and snood
Snood (headgear)
A snood is historically a type of European female headgear, or in modern times a tubular neck scarf. In the most common form the headgear resembles a close-fitting hood worn over the back of the head...
s. Men's hair styles were perhaps even more varied, ranging from closely clipped, chopped, or wavy; disheveled, long loose, or bobbed at the nape; and showing various stages of baldness with hairpieces such as horseshoe shaped to displaying gray curls at the sides and rear; and beards of many types.
Miscellaneous
When Crockett first plays his fiddle to the crowd, the song is "Listen to the Mockingbird", not composed until 1855, 19 years after the fall of the Alamo. The Three Stooges later used it as their theme song. The film shows Sam Houston paying for a drink with a coin carrying Santa Anna's portrait; Mexican silver coins of that era showed a liberty cap. Aside from the short-lived empire of Maximilian
Maximilian I of Mexico
Maximilian I was the only monarch of the Second Mexican Empire.After a distinguished career in the Austrian Navy, he was proclaimed Emperor of Mexico on April 10, 1864, with the backing of Napoleon III of France and a group of Mexican monarchists who sought to revive the Mexican monarchy...
(1864–67), human representations on circulating Mexican coins between 1824 to 1905 were allegorical.
Reception
According to Rotten TomatoesRotten Tomatoes
Rotten Tomatoes is a website devoted to reviews, information, and news of films—widely known as a film review aggregator. Its name derives from the cliché of audiences throwing tomatoes and other vegetables at a poor stage performance...
, the film holds a 30% 'rotten' rating, with two-thirds of its "top critics" making that same assessment; the consensus states "Too conventional and uninvolving to be memorable." Variety
Variety (magazine)
Variety is an American weekly entertainment-trade magazine founded in New York City, New York, in 1905 by Sime Silverman. With the rise of the importance of the motion-picture industry, Daily Variety, a daily edition based in Los Angeles, California, was founded by Silverman in 1933. In 1998, the...
called it a "a historically credible but overly prosaic account of the most celebrated episode in the creation of an Americanized Texas."
The Houston Chronicle
Houston Chronicle
The Houston Chronicle is the largest daily newspaper in Texas, USA, headquartered in the Houston Chronicle Building in Downtown Houston. , it is the ninth-largest newspaper by circulation in the United States...
gave the film a grade of "B"
Academic grading in the United States
Academic grading in the United States most commonly takes on the form of five letter grades. Historically, the grades were A, B, C, D, and F—A being the highest and F, denoting failure, the lowest. In the mid-twentieth century, many American educational institutions—especially in the Midwest —began...
, saying Hancock, who the paper points out is a "former Houstonian", "shows respect if not reverence for his state's mythical heritage, even while viewing it from modern perspectives"; it notes the "build-up to battle is prolonged and talky, and for a classic tale of heroic defiance, this Alamo feels more restrained than rousing. Again, it's no-win. When Hancock supplies history, the action and drama bog down. And even when he's right, he's wrong, since so many historians disagree about what happened at the site in what is now downtown San Antonio." Entertainment Weekly
Entertainment Weekly
Entertainment Weekly is an American magazine, published by the Time division of Time Warner, that covers film, television, music, broadway theatre, books and popular culture...
gave it a "C+", saying "Hancock's moderate, apolitical, war-is-hell
William Tecumseh Sherman
William Tecumseh Sherman was an American soldier, businessman, educator and author. He served as a General in the Union Army during the American Civil War , for which he received recognition for his outstanding command of military strategy as well as criticism for the harshness of the "scorched...
dramatization of the famous 1836 battle that shaped the future of a free and independent American Texas isn't nearly the flop that the exceptionally harsh and unavoidable advance chatter has suggested it is. (It's not the jingoistic call to patriotism of John Wayne's 1960 version
The Alamo (1960 film)
The Alamo is a 1960 American historical epic released by United Artists. The film was directed by John Wayne, who also starred as Davy Crockett. The cast also includes Richard Widmark as Jim Bowie and Laurence Harvey as William B...
, either.) But The Alamo never harmonizes into a cinematic experience any more resonant than the average, manly, why-we-fight pic, or coalesces into a stirring cry for freedom." According to Roger Ebert
Roger Ebert
Roger Joseph Ebert is an American film critic and screenwriter. He is the first film critic to win a Pulitzer Prize for Criticism.Ebert is known for his film review column and for the television programs Sneak Previews, At the Movies with Gene Siskel and Roger Ebert, and Siskel and Ebert and The...
, "Conventional wisdom in Hollywood is that any movie named The Alamo must be simplistic and rousing, despite the fact that we already know all the defenders got killed. (If we don't know it, we find out in the first scene.) Here is a movie that captures the loneliness and dread of men waiting for two weeks for what they expect to be certain death, and it somehow succeeds in taking those pop-culture brand names like Davy Crockett and Jim Bowie and giving them human form."
The film was a box office bomb
Box office bomb
The phrase box office bomb refers to a film for which the production and marketing costs greatly exceeded the revenue regained by the movie studio. This should not be confused with Hollywood accounting when official figures show large losses, yet the movie is a financial success.A film's financial...
. In its first weekend, it was beat by a resurgent The Passion of the Christ
The Passion of the Christ
The Passion of the Christ is a 2004 American drama film directed by Mel Gibson and starring Jim Caviezel as Jesus. It depicts the Passion of Jesus largely according to the New Testament Gospels of Matthew, Mark, Luke and John...
, earning only US$9.1 million in its first weekend. By its second month of release, the film had yet to reach $30 million in domestic earnings. It ended its theatrical run with a worldwide gross of slightly less than $26 million. With a loss of more than $130 million, The Alamo became one of the biggest box office bombs of all time.
See also
- Battle of the AlamoBattle of the AlamoThe Battle of the Alamo was a pivotal event in the Texas Revolution. Following a 13-day siege, Mexican troops under President General Antonio López de Santa Anna launched an assault on the Alamo Mission near San Antonio de Béxar . All but two of the Texian defenders were killed...
- The Alamo (1960 film)The Alamo (1960 film)The Alamo is a 1960 American historical epic released by United Artists. The film was directed by John Wayne, who also starred as Davy Crockett. The cast also includes Richard Widmark as Jim Bowie and Laurence Harvey as William B...
, starring John WayneJohn WayneMarion Mitchell Morrison , better known by his stage name John Wayne, was an American film actor, director and producer. He epitomized rugged masculinity and became an enduring American icon. He is famous for his distinctive calm voice, walk, and height...
External links
- Alamo Sentry: Popular Culture of The Alamo
- View of movie set from Google MapsGoogle MapsGoogle Maps is a web mapping service application and technology provided by Google, free , that powers many map-based services, including the Google Maps website, Google Ride Finder, Google Transit, and maps embedded on third-party websites via the Google Maps API...