The Alamo (2/10)

Although Ron Howard’s name is on the credit as “producer,” he was Disney’s original choice as Director. But Howard wanted a different script and an R-rated story, so he was bumped up to a Producer credit and John Lee Hancock was brought in to direct. The result is that Hancock’s The Alamo is too long and very slow. How long is it? It only took Mexican General Santa Anna’s forces 90 minutes from start to finish to capture the Alamo and kill all the Texians, including Davy (please call me David) Crockett (Billy Bob Thornton), but it takes The Alamo 137 minutes to tell the story.

There are a lot of reasons why it’s too long. For one thing, we all know the story. Approximately 2,500 Mexicans under the leadership of Santa Anna massacred approximately 189 people defending the Alamo. It takes The Alamo 137 minutes to tell an 18-word story (I apologize for being redundant, but you didn’t have to sit through the entire 137 minutes, as I did).

For another, Hancock hasn’t presented any characters we care about or any conflict that involves us. Oh, Travis (Patrick Wilson), the 26-year-old lawyer who commanded the troops, doesn’t get along with Jim Bowie (Jason Patric), but it’s not presented as a terrific conflict that cries for resolution. Virtually nothing happens inside the Alamo that’s of any interest. You might think that everyone would hate Santa Anna (Emilio Echevarria) since he was the attacking general, but, no, he’s not hateful and there’s no conflict between him and Travis or any of the other defenders of the Alamo.

Dennis Quaid plays General Sam Houston, who knew the Alamo was indefensible and wanted it abandoned, as an always-angry caricature. Poor Dennis’s implausible characterization is undoubtedly the result of a weak script and feeble directing.

Santa Anna lays siege to the Alamo for 10 days, then attacks. I was surprised everyone inside wasn’t dead already from boredom.

I did like Billy Bob Thornton’s interpretation of Davy Crockett. I’ve never been a Thornton fan, but he gives Davy a different twist than we’ve seen before.

Hollywood has tried this story at least three times now, 1936, 1960 (John Wayne), and now this. When will they get the message, to wit, the story of the Alamo is not a good basis for a movie?

April 6, 2004

The End

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