| The Alamo | |
|---|---|
 Theatrical release poster | |
| Directed by | John Lee Hancock |
| Written by | John Lee Hancock Leslie Bohem Stephen Gaghan |
| Produced by | Ron Howard Mark Johnson |
| Starring | Dennis Quaid Billy Bob Thornton Jason Patric Patrick Wilson Jordi Mollà Emilio Echevarría |
| Cinematography | Dean Semler |
| Edited by | Eric L. Beason |
| Music by | Carter Burwell |
Production companies | |
| Distributed by | Buena Vista Pictures Distribution |
Release date |
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Running time | 138 minutes |
| Country | United States |
| Languages | English Spanish |
| Budget | $107 million |
| Box office | $25.8 million |
The Alamo is a 2004 Americanwarhistorical drama about theBattle of the Alamo during theTexas Revolution. The film was directed byJohn Lee Hancock, produced byRon Howard,Brian Grazer, andMark Johnson, produced byTouchstone Pictures andImagine Entertainment, and distributed byBuena Vista Pictures Distribution, and starringDennis Quaid asSam Houston,Billy Bob Thornton asDavy Crockett,Jason Patric asJim Bowie, andPatrick Wilson asWilliam B. Travis. The screenplay is credited to Hancock,Stephen Gaghan, andLeslie Bohem.
The film received mixed to negative reviews from critics and was abox office flop, losing the studio over $146 million.[1]
At a party in 1835, while trying to persuade people to migrate to Texas,Sam Houston encountersDavid Crockett, recently defeated in his bid for re-election toCongress. InSan Felipe, the Texas provisional government is meeting to discuss what action to take after their capture of the Alamo and the town ofSan Antonio de Bexar in therecent fighting. Texas has rebelled against Mexico, and its dictatorial presidentSanta Anna is personally leading one wing of his army to retake San Antonio, then invade the settlements and put an end to the rebellion. Various members of the Texan War Party called for the Texas army to depart Bexar, cross into Mexico, and capture the town ofMatamoros. The Opposition Party seeks to rebuild the Texan army and establish a permanent government.
The provisional government votes out Sam Houston as commander of the Texas army; a disgusted Houston tellsJim Bowie to go to San Antonio, destroy the fortifications (including the Alamo), and retreat eastward. The Texas government then ordersWilliam Barret Travis to Bexar. Colonel Neil, the Alamo's commander, gives Travis command of the post as Neil must leave to take care of a family emergency before returning with reinforcements. Knowing that the Alamo's small force cannot withstand the Mexican Army, Travis sends pleas for reinforcements. Travis oversees defense preparations as small groups of Texans arrive, hoping enough reinforcements will arrive before the inevitable final assault.
Crockett, coming to Texas to revive his political career, arrives in San Antonio. He is surprised that the fighting isn't over and that Santa Anna and his army aren't expected until mid-March. But after a grueling forced march, Santa Anna unexpectedly arrives on Feb. 23, forcing the Texans to hurriedly retire to the Alamo compound. Despite its vulnerability, the Texans resume fortifying it as best they can. Travis continues to send for reinforcements, but few men arrive.
Santa Anna's troops surround the fort, and the siege begins. Bowie meets with Major-generalManuel Fernández Castrillón to talk things over, but Travis stubbornly fires a cannon at the Mexican camp, abruptly ending their conversation. Bowie returns to tell Travis that Santa Anna has offered the opportunity to surrender, but the defenders decide to stay and fight. With his hopes of an easy victory foiled, Santa Anna settles in for a siege but orders that no quarter be given to the Alamo defenders. He orders the band to playEl Degüello ("slit throat"), which signifies no quarter will be given to the Texan defenders. Bowie's ongoing illness renders him bedridden, and Travis assumes full command.
On Sunday, March 6, Mexican troops assault the Alamo in a pre-dawn attack. Despite heavy casualties, they breach the walls, and most of the Texans, including Travis and Bowie, are slain. Crockett, the last survivor, is taken prisoner. In a final act of defiance, he mockingly offers tosafely lead Santa Anna to Sam Houston if he will surrender. Santa Anna angrily orders Crockett to be executed.
Days later, after hearing that the Alamo has fallen, Houston, now in full command of all Texan troops, ordersa general retreat eastward. They are pursued by the victorious Mexican Army, led by the over-confident Santa Anna. In an attempt to catch the retreating Texans, and against the advice of his officers, Santa Anna divides his forces, taking a smaller, fast-moving force with him to chase Houston and the fleeing Texas government. A few weeks later, Houston halts his retreat near theSan Jacinto River, where he decides to risk everything in a sudden attack when he learns of Santa Anna's presence. With the support oftwo cannons and a group ofJuan Seguin's mountedTejanos, Houston surprises Santa Anna's army during its afternoon siesta and inthe ensuing rout the vengeful Texans massacre at least 700 Mexican soldiers. Santa Anna is captured, and in exchange for his life, he agrees to order all Mexican troops to withdraw from Texas and accept Texan independence. The film ends with Crockett's spirit playing his fiddle on the walls of the Alamo, at peace, watching over the mission, and San Antonio.
The origin of the project began in the mid 1990's, with screenwriterLeslie Bohem, who had previously worked on films such asA Nightmare on Elm Street 5: The Dream Child, andDante’s Peak. Bohem had a conversation withBraveheart screenwriterRandall Wallace at theAustin Film Festival, who told Bohem about a trip he had taken toSan Antonio to take a look atThe Alamo. Bohem then set off to write a script. In 1998,Touchstone Pictures, a subsidiary of Disney bought the screenplay, and hiredRon Howard andBrian Grazer as producers, with Howard originally set to direct.[2]
In January 2001,Variety announced thatKevin Jarre was writing a new script,[3][4] In October of the same year, it was announced thatJohn Sayles was hired to write a new draft,[5][6][7] Sayles, who previously had written and directedLone Star, had come up with a 137-page draft that was considered brilliant,[8][9] In contrast to the 1960film of the same name starringJohn Wayne, this film was going to attempt to depict the political points of view from both the Mexican and Texan sides, as well as explore the personal lives of Alamo heroes William Travis, Jim Bowie and Davy Crockett. Additionally,Santa Anna is more prominently featured. As Howard mentioned in an interview:
"I believe audiences are ready to embrace the complexities of the film, but it still boils down to heroism,” “The simplistic approach is not appropriate and it’s not interesting, We know there will be limitations and controversies".
In June 2002, it was announced thatStephen Gaghan was hired to rewrite Sayles's script.[10][11][12]Howard stated that he wanted to shoot a grittier film, much in the style ofSam Peckinpah's work, with a budget costing about $130 million and having an R rating, further elaborating in interviews at the time withIGN andThe Oklahoman, Howard said:[13][14]
"I kept saying I sort of wanted to do 'Traffic', we kept working on the screenplay with that kind of multicharacter, multistory line kind of approach. … I can't say we ever had anything on paper that I could look at the studio and say, 'You've got it. You're fools if you don't do this just this way.' We didn't have that. It was still this idea, this notion in my mind more than a really fully realized script."
"My sense of what I wanted to do with it was tougher, more graphic, a closer cousin to 'Saving Private Ryan'."
[15]There were financial and creative disagreements betweenImagine Entertainment andDisney, particularly over Howard's proposed budget. Disney rejected Imagine's proposal, and due to the project not moving forward at the time, Howard stepped down as director,[16][17] but he would stay on the project as an executive producer, alongside Grazer, who stated in an interview at the time:
"I wasn't interested in making 'The Alamo' as a PG-13 film, or PG movie, I didn't get it, I just didn't understand it. Whereas I did understand it through a different filter, through an R-rated, very intense (story) showing sacrifice, showing pain...all of those feelings....I didn't understand why you should do it the other way"
Robert Rodriguez was briefly considered for director, but Disney opted for directorJohn Lee Hancock and a budget of $107 million.[19][20][21][22][23]
During pre-production, several actors such asMel Gibson andBrad Pitt were considered for roles in the movie.Russell Crowe was in talks to playSam Houston, whileEthan Hawke signed on asWilliam Barret Travis. Producer Brian Grazer wantedSean Penn for the role ofJames Bowie, andBilly Bob Thornton was cast asDavid Crockett. After Howard stepped down as director, Crowe and Hawke exited the project while Thornton remained,Viggo Mortensen was considered as a possible replacement for Crowe, butDennis Quaid got cast in the role of Houston.[24]Jason Patric was cast as Bowie, andPatrick Wilson replaced Hawke as Travis.[25][26] A full $35 million was spent promoting the film.[27][28][29][30][31][32]
Most of the film was shot between January and June 2003, primarily using sets built at a ranch near Austin; at 51 acres, it was the largest set ever built in North America (at the time). A number of buildings, including the mission, were constructed for the film, at a cost of about $10 million. They depicted a Spanish colonial village. The sets were subsequently abandoned but were visited occasionally, at the Milton Reimers Ranch Park, although they were deteriorating; they were not intended to endure for a long period of time. Nine of the 12 major structures were damaged in a fire in September 2011.[33][34] The park's web site in 2020 makes no mention of the movie or the sets.[35]
Hancock's version was purported to be the most accurate of all the Alamo films, but various liberties were taken, such as building the Alamo chapel facade forward 40 feet more than the extant (and presumably historically-correct) structure. According to one of the DVD version's special features, Hancock did that to show the Alamo chapel and the interior of the fort in one shot.
In the winter of 1835–1836, when the Mexican Army was moving north through desert areas, shortly before it crossed the Rio Bravo (Rio Grande), it endured a snowstorm of uncommon intensity, and soldiers suffered illness and hunger. Snow making machines were used to create the scenes of the march through the snow. Four days later, an actual snow storm blanketed the set. Two calls were made to find thin and gaunt extras to play the soldiers, but the film's scenes of the attack on the Alamo were shot in harsh weather. Extras stood for hours in cold rain, making some scenes gruelingly realistic. A few days of the filming was held up, due to bitter cold and very muddy conditions.
After the film was shot, it was edited down to three hours; later it was reduced to two hours, with scenes and certain characters removed. Shortly prior to the release, 15 minutes were added. Nonetheless, Quaid's role had been significantly reduced from the first version.[36]
The depiction of Crockett's fate came from memoirs written byJosé Enrique de la Peña, an officer in Santa Anna's army. Though accepted by many historians, this was the first film to show Crockett executed as a prisoner of war; all others had depicted his death as occurring during the battle. That sparked criticism from many Alamo enthusiasts and some historians, given the disputed nature of its origins.[37]
The film was a box office flop. Its opening was overshadowed byThe Passion of the Christ, and first weekend earnings were only $9.1 million. The film closed with $22.4 million in the domestic market, and only $25.8 million in total, on a $107 million budget.The Alamo remains one of thebiggest box office bombs of all time.[38][39]
The film received mixed to negative reviews. It holds a 29% rating onRotten Tomatoes based on 159 reviews, with an average rating of 5/10. The critics consensus reads, "Too conventional and un-involving to be memorable".[40] It holds aMetacritic score of 47/100 based on 38 reviews, indicating "mixed or average" reviews.[41] Audiences polled byCinemaScore gave the film an average grade of "B" on an A+ to F scale.[42]
Variety called it "a historically credible but overly prosaic account of the most celebrated episode in the creation of an Americanized Texas".[43] TheHouston Chronicle gave the film agrade of "B", saying Hancock, whom 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, thisAlamo 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 nowDowntown San Antonio".[44]
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 ofJohn Wayne's 1960 version, either. ButThe 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".[45]
According toRoger Ebert: "Conventional wisdom in Hollywood is that any movie namedThe 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". He awarded the film three and a half out of four stars, and it notably became the film's most positive review.[46]
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