The Alamo

Touchstone Pictures presents

Starring: Billy Bob Thorton, Dennis Quaid, Jason Patric

Directed by: John Lee Handcock

Rating:**1/2

Plot: If you don't know this story by now GO READ A BOOK JACK ASS, but I'll say it anyway. Around a hundered Texans stand and fight for independence in the Alamo against an army of several thousand Mexican soldiers. Do they make nice and have pleasant debate to end the dispute, hell no they go to war. If you didn't know this you are a dumb ass but everyone in the Alamo dies and the film follows what happens before and even after the battle at the Alamo. So yeah REMEMBER THE ALAMO, well at least remember the history because this movie may just pass by you without you even realizing you saw it.

Acting: This has a decent group of guys in it. They also do a pretty decent jobs playing historical characters, actually they do a great job. Jason Patric who was last in the great but never mentioned Narc, he plays James Bowie and does an impressive job at it as well. Even though Bowie in the film complains a lot and then gets sick and misses out on all the action. Dennis Quaid who has been on a great run lately with some good movies, I never did see Cold Creek Manor though. Anyway he plays General Sam Houston, Quaid does what he can with character not given very much to do in the script until the very end of the movie. Actually his role only becomes really important, at least to me until the end of the movie. I suppose he got the job since the director John Lee Hancock directed the hit movie The Rookie which Quaid was in, I never saw it so I don't know how that movie went. Anyway the one actor though who blows these guys away acting wise, and actually is one of the only legs keeping this movie a float is Billy Bob. He plays a Davy Crockett who is pretty much ashamed of what his name is and if he can live up to that name. His performance gives this basic low toned movie some light being the only character who isn't making a speech or yelling demands. He has well placed lines that really keep the audience from going: "Are we watching the History Channel?". Now I love the History channel it's just this movie has a very slow pace and tone and when Davy Crockett starts saying stuff that makes you chuckle its like a light from heaven. He also acted very well during the battle sequences keeping it very real and how the real Crockett might have acted during that battle.

Directing/Writing: I want to start this section off with something that has been bothering me lately. This movie is rated pg-13, is doesn't make any sense to me how a war movie can be rated pg-13. War is horrible and most of the time movies about war try and express a lot of emotion and try and make the audience understand how awful it by using violence. Movies like Saving Private Ryan and We Were Soldiers, two of the better war movies ever made used violence perfectly. This film had to cut corners because they didn't want that much violence in it, that said I wasn't very fearful and tensed at all during the battle scene. Well lets me start off by saying this movies one and only problem is pacing and that is not all Hancock's fault, this script should have had smooth feeling to it but instead it was slow and the dialogue was very plain and down to the point. Making this movie feel like a history class rather than a movie. I can understand the reasoning trying to teach people but if you bore them half to death there is no real point of doing it. So that was the movie's big problem was the dialogue, no intrigue in what each character has to say the pull wasn't there. They also did this thing of spreading out too many characters by giving them each bad dialogue, so when they die you simply shrug it off. It kills me that Ron Howard wanted to make an R rated version of The Alamo and they shut him down.

One thing I did very much enjoy about this film was that it was clear with its history in most parts. Some scenes made me feel funny because it seemed differen't one of those is that Davy Crockett was executed instead of killed in battle. That is a theory that only a small amount of people believe but they used it in the film, which sadly was not as powerful as I would have liked. The one historical thing they put in was the battle after the Alamo in which General Santa Anna's army got it's ass kicked and then handed to them where hundreds were killed and only one Texan fell. I never felt in my wildest dreams that they would put that in the movie, but to my surprise they did. The other impressive thing about this movie was it was not as politically correct as I thought it would be, to me this is a good thing. The Mexicans at that time were not some poor group of people everyone feels bad for, at the time they had a huge army from the Spaniards and were bossing people around. I worried that just because we live in a world where everything has to be politically correct in some way in all war movies, I find this really stupid but whatever. Now the movie doesn't show the Mexican army as some evil force which is good but does show General Santa Anna in a bad light, which is fine because he was a bad guy so he deserves to be placed in bad light movies dammit.

Now for the battle itself is pretty impressive and does lift you up because it is well cooridinated. It just it is very short and I am sure that is up to historical content because the huge battle did not take very long. It's just when your waiting for almost two hours watching guys talk and shoot cannons you want some bad ass battles. You get one for about a couple minutes but then everyone is slaughtered and you kind of shrug your shoulders and go "Well that sucked for them". I was wanting to cry and feel for these guys they gave up so much for an ideal, they wanted freedom to live and farm and they knew they were going to die and they stayed and fought. How could they not make this movie sad or heart touching, it just ends with facts being placed on screen and then credits and you feel ripped off or tricked in some way. Maybe that was just me because I was expecting so much and got not much in return.

Overall: Good for the history, the battle is decent. If you were looking for anything else I suggest you go read a book unless your a war movie junkie or just like to see these things for the hell of it because if your a regular person who doesn't fully care about history (SHAME ON YOU!!) this movie might just melt you down and kick you in the face. This is sad to me I love war movies but this just couldn't pull it off fully for me. Go make your own judgment but man be ready to sit for over two hours to make it. Forget this Alamo and remember the history and those who really died there. God bless them.