The Alamo

If you want to remember the Alamo, this latest feature film version of the Texas fort's famous last stand may not be much help. A beautifully produced but relatively bloodless (literally and figuratively) Hollywood rendering of the 1836 siege on San Antonio by tyrannical General Santa Anna (who was determined to recapture the territory for Mexico), it's a movie more concerned with details about, for instance, Jim Bowie's terminal case of consumption, than with the historical context of its story and its legendary characters. The lives of Bowie (Jason Patric), Lt. Col. William B. Travis (Patrick Wilson), and "Davy" Crockett (Billy Bob Thornton) are limned through incidentals such as drinking problems and obligatory campfire stories of Indian-killing regret, ensuring that the flamboyant, tea-sipping, despotic, take-no-prisoners Santa Anna (Emilio Echevarría) emerges, by default, as the film's most interesting character as he lays siege to the Alamo over two weeks while the 189 Texan holdouts await reinforcements that will never arrive. In the heat of the final battle, director John Lee Hancock (The Rookie) brings together all the elements of character, circumstance, cinematography, patriotism, and politics, building to a stirring crescendo--but it's too little too late. Optional. [Note: Available in either a widescreen or full screen version, DVD extras include audio commentary by historians Alan Huffines and Stephen Hardin, the 18-minute "making-of" featurette “Return of the Legend,” the six-minute behind-the-scenes segment “Deep in the Heart of Texans,” the 12-minute historical featurette “Walking in the Footsteps of Heroes,” five deleted scenes with optional commentary by director John Lee Hancock (6 min.), and trailers. Bottom line: a solid extras package for a somewhat disappointing film.] (R. Blackwelder)