Alamo.

This is coolbert:

Movie Review.

The movie being reviewed is the "The Alamo."

This is a MUST SEE movie. Outstanding, even brilliant.

And is outstanding in two regards.

One is that the movie is factually very accurate, as best as the circumstances and facts are understood by us moderns.

[the inhabitants of what is now Texas at the time were referred to as Texians, or Tejanos. I make free use of these terms].

Second, character development of the major players in the drama surrounding the episode of the siege and battle is superb.

I know that there was a lot of controversy prior, during, and after the filming of this movie. Before release to the general public, a lot of ink and hot air was dispensed with just in discussion of a movie that people had not even seen [this does happen from time to time with controversial subjects]. What to include, what not to include, how this should be shown, how this should be seen, how to interpret this, how to interpret that, was all up for discussion. And this is not bad, this is GOOD! Let all parties be heard from and have their viewpoints considered.

And of course politics plays a part in all this. Modern Texans want to have the defenders of the Alamo shown as noble people that sacrificed themselves bravely. Mexicans want the same defenders portrayed as slave owning pirates and rebels breaking the laws of Mexico.

Some facts were made apparent in the movie that are not known to the general public.

The local Mexicans [to be discerned from the "Anglo" immigrants to Texas, DID side and fight with the "Anglos" at the Alamo.

These locals that stood with the "Anglos" at the Alamo to be sure were citizens of Mexico, as were the "Anglos", but not a Mexican as the term is normally understood [a person of mixed white and American Indian ancestry, a mestizo]. The residents of San Antonio de Bexar were the descendants of Spanish immigrants from the Canary Islands specifically sent to colonize and inhabit the land [Tejas], that most Mexicans shunned totally.

The reasons for revolt on the part of the Texians [they referred to themselves as such] are only touched upon in passing. This is a flaw.

The Tejanos, "Mexican" and "Anglo" alike fought as a response to the abrogation of the Mexican Constitution and the assumption of dicatorial powers by General Santa Ana. Santa Ana ruled with a heavy hand and violated the GOD-given rights as recognized by both "Mexicans" and "Anglos".

Character development in this movie WAS outstanding.

The "Anglo" immigrants to Tejas are protrayed as hard-drinking, hard-living folk with short tempers and an exaggerated sense of honor.

A sense of honor that must be often satisfied by dueling. And to a large extent this was true. But that can almost be said of any group of people alive at the time.

Excessive [to us moderns] of hard liquor was not unusual, perhaps even warranted. Alcohol beverage is an excellent way of preserving perishable agricultural product, and also getting just plain ordinary calories into the individual. People of the time were noted for having bad teeth and not being able to eat a normal diet. The drinking of hard liquor was one way around this problem.

Living a hard but full live was also common. The average life expectancy at the time was less than fifty years!! You had normally only a short adult life to pack in a whole lot of living. Live intensely is what most folks did!

The major characters of the Alamo epic are portrayed in what is most likely a true manner.

Santa Ana is properly shown as the Mexican dictator with disreputable habits.

Called "Don Demonico [the demon] by his own people, Santa Ana WAS a drug addict, addicted to chicle, a leecher who demanded and got a woman to satisfy his sexual lust at the end of each day's march, and a man quite capable and willing to go back on his word and perpetrate massacre. [the massacre of Fanin and his force at Goliad is well known. Not so well known is that Santa Ana also ordered similar atrocities within Mexico itself in response to spontaneous rebellions that occurred during his "rule". Santa Ana WAS a cruel man without inhibitions in many areas.

Jim Bowie is a man depressed [the death of his wife [a Mexican woman born of high station] and child [in a cholera epidemic] given over to hard drinking. Also a man on death's door from consumption [TB].



[when Jim Bowie decided to join the Texian rebels in their war against the despotic rule of Santa Ana, he felt duty bound [that exaggerated sense of honor!!] to ride fifteen hundred miles round trip into the interior of Mexico and explain to his brother-in-law, a Governor of one of the Mexican states, the exact reasons why he, Bowie, was joining the rebellion. The Governor was encouraged by his aides to hang Bowie there on the spot, but the response was [on the part of the Governor] that "a man of such courage does not deserve such a fate!!!" Fancy that attitude being held by almost anyone today!!].

Travis is a man who desperately seeks fame and success, and sees the rebellion of the Texians as being a means to that end. Travis is a man given over to excessive oratory and ostentatious displays of melodrama. But a man of courage and leadership nonetheless.



Davy Crockett is another duty and honor bound fighter for the Texian cause who realizes the true nature of the peril to those defending the Alamo. Duty and honor and the role of a natural leader to a contingent of Tennessee fighters places Crockett in a position that he cannot back down from, and does not!! Crockett is a man whose loyalty and idealism is generated primarily from closeness to the "Anglos" whose roots are identical to his, the white, Scots-Irish Presbyterian. An idealist whose also realizes what is to be the fate of the Alamo garrison in case of attack by Santa Ana.



Finally, the role of Sam Houston in the rebellion of the Texians and their eventual victory over Santa Ana is not neglected.

It can be said of Sam Houston that he could very well lay claim to being the most accomplished American that ever lived. At age thirty nine, he had already been a lawyer/soldier/Senator/Governor/member of the Cherokee nation. Houston of course also led the victorious Texian army at San Jacinto [being wounded in the leg], and is recognized as one of the Founding Fathers of Texas. It has been suggested that such was the authority of Houston, that he may have been able to avert the American Civil War, if he had so directed his energy in that direction!!



Houston leads a rag-tag mob of angry men that desire vengeance against Santa Ana. These men responded as a warrior would do. Houston's approach is to fight Santa Ana on ground of his choosing [Houston's], and have the Texian army do so as soldiers, not warriors. [soldiers fight as a team, according to a plan, and do so accepting discipline]. This was contrary to the emotional attitudes of many honor-bound Texians. An attitude that Houston was hard pressed to prevail against. Houston DID prevail, almost single-handedly, with the strength of his will and the result was the Republic of Texas.

Houston does display an intuitive sense of how to fight Santa Ana. Houston cites Wellington as being the model he hopes to follow. Make your enemy react to you, select ground of your choosing for battle, and husband your forces for an eventual victorious advance. This Houston was able to do!!

The only exception I would take to the movie is the climactic scene at the end that shows Crockett as being the last living defender of the Alamo.

Executed upon his refusal to beg for his life.

This in all likelihood did not happen. It is widely believed that Crockett and his men from Tennessee, were caught in the open and shot down by Mexican troops during the final attack upon the Alamo.

Another less plausible scenario for the end of Crockett comes from an apparently authentic letter written by a Mexican officer who fought at the Alamo. This officer does state that six defenders of the Alamo were taken alive, including Davy Crockett, "he of North American adventures". According to the letter, the six were marched into the interior of Mexico, tortured, and then executed, all the while maintaining their dignity!! Who knows on that last one??

This movie is a MUST SEE! Of this I am sure.

coolbert.