The Alamo Movie Analysis

The Alamo

Year: 2004

Directed By: John Lee Hancock

Production: Touchstone Pictures & Imagine Entertainment

The Alamo portrays the historical battle between Santa Anna controlling the Mexican Army and the Texan Defenders who are defending The Alamo, a mission located in San Antonio, Texas. The film is heavily concentrated on the year 1836, specifically the months February and March, and the year 1835. The film stars Dennis Quaid as Sam Houston, Billy Bob Thornton as David Crockett, Jason Patric as Jim Bowie, and Patrick Wilson as William Travis. The Alamo is a historically accurate movie that involves history, war, and immense amounts of drama.

At the start of the film we are set in the year 1836 in the Mexican State of Coahuila and Tejas town of San Antonio de Bexar, the site of the Alamo. We can see massive amounts of fallen Texan Defenders and the Mexican Army invaders dispersed around the battle site. The film then flashes back to the year 1835 where we see Dennis Quaid, Sam Houston, attending a party where he is trying to persuade others at the party to migrate to Texas. Houston meets David Crockett, Billy Bob Thornton, and discusses what Crockett will receive if he moves to Texas. We are later presented with a shot of a group of people having a meeting discussing the matter of what action to take after

capturing the Alamo and rebelling against Mexico and Santa Anna. Sam Houston, David Crockett, Jim Bowie, and William Barret Travis all arrive within the Alamo setting up fortifications and are preparing for Santa Anna and his forces to come and retake the Alamo.
Although The Alamo is an extremely accurate film that does not mean that the film did not contain any historical inaccuracies at all.

In The Alamo, David Crockett’s fate is most questionable within this film. Accounts such as the account of Francisco Antonio Ruiz, the mayor of San Antonio at the time, and Susana Dickinson, wife of one of the slain Texans, both state that David Crockett was not captured and executed but died in battle. Accounts argue back and forth about Crockett’s fate, and since other movies depicted Crockett dying in battle and not being a prisoner of war and publically executed, this sparked major controversy between multiple

historians.
The film immensely depicts the Texans as courageous, heroes, and victims. However, Santa Anna and his Mexican troops are seen as the villains. The director depicted it this way in order to increase the hype around the plot of the story. The Mexicans were only trying to take back what the Texans had taken from them without any particular reason whatsoever. The film is extremely one sided and does not show the evilness about the Texan Settlers, but ultimately depicts the villainy associated with Santa Anna and his Mexican Army.
Ultimately the movie does have accuracies as well. The clothing associated with the Texas Settlers and the Mexican Army is accurate. The weaponry that is associated with the Mexican Army and Texas Settlers is accurate as well; especially the way the weapons are being used and strategy that is being used as the battles begin. The Alamo does contain multiple historical accuracies.
The film stayed true to the time of the events, but not to the actual history to a certain extent. David Crockett’s fate and the complete one sidedness of Texans settlers being depicted as heroes and the Mexican Army being depicted as villains indicates that the director ultimately sacrificed history and fact for the sole purpose of entertainment and publicity. Overall, the film is sensational for someone who is looking to watch something will immense amounts of action, but from a historical perspective it is far useless and inaccurate.