Word: alamo
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Planned by Disney as a blockbuster epic, The Alamo is instead arriving in theaters with a whiff of stale cheese about it. Doleful stories of the project--directors and writers hired and dropped, the budget cut and restored, the story rearranged during editing--could land the film on the junk heap of historical movies. (Remember Al Pacino in his 1776 saga, Revolution? Neither does anyone else.) But, in fact, The Alamo deserves a fate better than oblivion...
That line gives a clue to the approach of director John Lee Hancock (The Rookie) and the platoon of writers: they want simultaneously to criticize and celebrate U.S. imperialism. The good intentions and lousy planning of the Alamo's defense make it seem like a 19th century dress rehearsal for Vietnam. A shot of American corpses dangling from a tree has an eerie resemblance to images this month of a bridge in Fallujah, Iraq. But the Alamo massacre is only Act II. Houston's quick victory at the subsequent Battle of San Jacinto seized Texas from Mexican control and allows...
...Alamo is directed by John Lee Hancock, who’s previously worked as a writer and producer for other Disney spectacles such as The Rookie. The movie is rated PG-13, but Hancock’s often gruesome battle scenes give The Alamo a modicum of R-rated grit. The film was originally devised with an R rating, with Academy award-winning Ron Howard (A Beautiful Mind) as director. However, due to Disney’s budget constraints, Howard could not make the bloodier film he wanted, so he told Disney to offer it to Hancock, who promised...
Hancock also co-wrote The Alamo with Leslie Bohem and John Sayles. The writers are diligent at recreating battles, but, in contrast with previous portrayals, are determined to create realistic heroes, warts...
While the movie struggles to deliver a truly unforgettable account of the famous battles, the film is beautifully shot and does try to capture the true character of the leaders in the Alamo and Battle of San Jacinto. The constraints of the PG-13 rating might stifle some of the excitement and violence, but The Alamo still provides an interesting spin on a classic American story...