2003’s “The Alamo” was director John Lee Hancock’s ode to the men that fought and died at the historical mission. When it originally came out, there were rumors of problems with the production. And as is par for the course, when that happens most movies tend to do badly at the theatre. After finally sitting down to watch “The Alamo”, I really had to wonder why it had gotten such a bad rap. Granted, it wasn’t necessarily action packed, but it did attempt to present the facts (as they are known) of the 2-week siege. There were comments made that some of the actors went a little over the top, or there were complaints that Jason Patric’s performance of Jim Bowie was wasted by confining him to a bed for much of the film. For the most part, I found the allegations thrown around to be less than accurate. First off, a movie about the battle at the Alamo shouldn’t be glorified in any way. I would have hated for the producers of the film to have played fast and loose with the facts or throw together a cast that included Jean-Claude Van Damme or (God help us) Steven Seagal.

Instead, the filmmakers seemed to strive to make the film as historically accurate as possible, going so far as to cast the right people for the right roles. Dennis Quaid’s turn as Sam Houston seemed on the surface to be a bit overzealous, but in reality Houston is remembered as being just that way. And as for the supposed waste of Jason Patric’s performance of Bowie, that is a ridiculous notion. The real Bowie was confined to a sick bed for most of the actual battle.

As much as I’d like to say that Billy Bob Thornton turned in a revelatory performance as the legendary Davy Crockett, that wouldn’t be a fair statement. Thornton, who is probably one of the strongest character actors working today, continuously proves himself as an actor’s actor. Even in some of the worst films, he somehow manages to rise above the material. I fully expected he would be fantastic as Crockett, and he took the role far beyond my expectations.

Now that “The Alamo” is finally being released on DVD, I hope that it will find the audience that it deserves. The DVD itself, as is to be expected from a Touchstone release, contains a near perfect transfer. There are a lot of very dark scenes, and many of those are battle sequences, and they all look and sound incredible. There was never a time in the film where I had any problems seeing exactly what was going on.

There is also no shortage of extras on this disc. There is a featurette called “Return of the Legend: The Making of the Alamo.” As the name implies, it focuses mainly on all the detail that went into the production. It runs a little under 20 minutes, but still is able to deliver quite a bit of information. “Walking in the Footsteps of Heroes”, offers a closer look at Crockett, Houston, Bowie and Travis. We get to see a brief biography on each, but then we hear from each of the actors who played them. Finally, there is “Deep in the Heart of Texas”, which talks about how important it was to shoot the movie in Texas. As a matter of fact, as the set itself was over 50 acres, building it was quite an undertaking.

Initially, I thought that was all of the extras, but when I put in the disc I found there was also a commentary by two historians. It wasn’t listed in any of the press materials or on the back of the box so it turned out to be a great extra benefit. Admittedly, there were times that they got a little long-winded, but overall they were still very interesting to listen to. For the most part they corrected things that might not have been exactly right, kind of like a nitpicker party.

Don’t listen to any of the critics who tried to tell you that “The Alamo” wasn’t worth watching. They had no idea what they were talking about, and undoubtedly were also the ones who fell asleep in history class.

Directed by: John Lee Hancock
Starring: Billy Bob Thornton, Jason Patric, Patrick Wilson, Emilio Echevarria, Jordi Molla, Marc Blucas, Dennis Quaid
Extras: Deleted Scenes, “Walking in the Footsteps of Heroes”, “Return of a Legend - The Making of The Alamo”, “Deep in the Heart of Texans”
Specifications: Widescreen, Dolby Digital 5.1 Surround Sound
Studio: Buena Vista Home Entertainment
Release Date: 9/28/2004
Region 1
MPAA Rating: PG-13
Website

We'll give The Alamo a B-.