The Alamo

In 1945 legendary western actor John Wayne decided he wanted to make a film about the battle of the Alamo, an 1836 massacre that was doomed to fail yet helped Texas rally troops and win the revolution. A battle over finances led to Wayne leaving Republic Pictures but being forced to give up his script that was legally their property. Wayne would eventually settle with United Artists, putting up millions of his own money as well as investments from wealthy Texans insisting on filming in their home state to get the film made. It was a passion project that took fifteen years to come to fruition but finally, in 1960, The Alamo was finished and ready to be screened at over 200 minutes in length complete with an overture and intermission. After this roadshow version was screened United Artists cut the film down by over thirty minutes for wide release and that is the version most seen to this day.

John Wayne had no intention of starring in The Alamo, being content with producing and directing it only. Potential investors, though, were reluctant to part with the needed money without Wayne in the leading role, reasoning that his presence in front of the screen was a guaranteed return on investment. Wayne ended up playing folk hero David Crockett, King of the Wild Frontier and former US House of Representatives for the state of Tennessee. David Crockett, along with Jim Bowie (Richard Widmark), William Barrett Travis (Laurence Harvey), and many others all lost their lives defending the Alamo from the army of General Antonio Lopez de Santa Anna. They lost their lives but bought precious time for the Texans so their sacrifices were not in vain. The Alamo is a dramatization of that sacrifice with many liberties taken in the lead up to that climatic battle.

The film opens with Sam Houston (Richard Boone) leading his forces against Mexico, but he needs time to recruit and train those forces against a Mexican army that is both larger and better prepared. Even against those odds the Texans spirit and morale are high.  Col. William Travis is given the assignment of defending the Alamo, a former San Antonio mission. Jim Bowie arrives with reinforcements and, later, David Crockett shows up with a group of Tennesseans who love fighting almost as much as they do drinking and carousing. Tensions arise between Travis and Bowie who is constantly threatening to take his men and leave until Crockett plays mediator between the two strong personalities. Eventually, though, Santa Anna’s troops will arrive and when that happens, without reinforcements, the Texans don’t stand a chance. History teaches us how things eventually  turned out.

The Alamo is one of those movies where the real history is so well known that few will go into the film not knowing where it will end. The history of that battle is heavily documented and the Alamo still stands in San Antonio where visitors can see it and learn all about the events depicted in this movie. Much of what will then be depicted can be treated like a loose history lesson stringing together the broad strokes of real events with moments so far from reality that much of it ended up getting removed after the roadshow version finished its release, specifically the romantic subplot with Crockett. What little of it there is in the general release is pretty bad and serves no purpose but to extend the already hefty runtime.

There’s no doubt the film paints David Crockett as the hero of this story. With John Wayne, America’s favorite cowboy, in it, it would have to be. He gets the most runtime and the subplots. He gets the best entrance into the film.He get’s the rousing speeches about the fierceness of his men and the value of the republic. He will be the driving force behind rallying his men on to war when they are on the verge of calling it quits. It’ll be his idea to pen a phony letter from Santa Anna that is so convincing that even when he reveals it is fake his men read it as something the man would have written anyway and are willing to answer that letter with bloodshed. And in the climax he will get the biggest death tossing a torch into a room full of gunpowder to cause a giant explosion taking himself out along with many Mexican soldiers. In contrast Jim Bowie, who was equally heroic in the Battle for the Alamo, is relegated to fighting while bed ridden from an earlier wound. His, too, is a heroic death but is not played up to the same level of spectacle. 

While this is an epic historical war movie, it’s not quite on the level of John Wayne’s best efforts. It pales in comparison to the true classics such as True Grit or Rio Bravo. It’s overlong and gets mired down in an unnecessary love story that goes nowhere and ends abruptly. The camaraderie between Wayne and his men as well as his relationship with Bowie and Travis elevate any scene between them and the climatic battle is a sight to behold, knowing the outcome ahead of time. It’s a good solid western with more than a touch of real history; It just needed a little more work in the editing room to trim it down and eliminate all the excess fat.

Academy Award Nominations: 

Best Picture: John Wayne

Best Supporting Actor: Chill Wills

Best Cinematography - Color: William H. Clothier

Best Film Editing: Stuart Gilmore

Best Music or Score of a Dramatic or Comedy Picture: Dimitri Tiomkin

Best Song: “The Green Leaves of Summer” Music by Dimitri Tiomkin; 

Lyrics by Paul Francis Webster

Best Sound: Gordon E. Sawyer (won)

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Release Date: October 24, 1960

Running Time: 202 Minutes (Roadshow release), 161 Minutes (General release)

Not Rated

Starring: John Wayne, Richard Widmark and Laurence Harvey

Directed By: John Wayne