The Alamo (1960, PG)

Rating: ****

This movie was John Wayne's dream project. The historic 1836 Battle of the Alamo would at last be brought to the big screen. The Alamo is a grande, epic and patriotic film, that finds it's own way through a series of messups and blunders. One of those is the casting of Wayne as Davy Crockett. What a blunder!? Wayne is so unsuited for the role, it's almost ridiculous. Considering this was Wayne's movie, we can also assume that Wayne wanted the most heroic role as well as to sit the director's chair. The casting of John Wayne in the role of Davy Crockett just might go down as one of the most overlooked blunders in movie history.  Other then that, fortunately, the Alamo is casted quite well.

As for the movie itself, the Alamo is well-shot, and in general, well-made. It was shot on location in Texas, only a few miles from the sight of the extra battle (a few buddies of Wayne convinced him to shoot the film in Texas, even though Wayne had places scouted out in Panama). Condensed down, the cinematography was on par with similar style epics. The battle scenes are the main standout of the movie. There are two major battle sequences, and both are simply filmed so well, being made with the utmost, realistic and authentic profession. Thousands of Mexicans charging a wall held by maybe a couple dozen Texans, both sides blasting and hacking away with everything they've got. At times, we can see the desperation in the eyes of the Texan defenders, making a final stand for freedom.

At times, the Alamo tends to get too elongated, and the dialogue too hackneyed and stale. But the movie remains quite a work of patriotism. For Wayne, has made an epic motion picture far superior to his later 1968 movie, the Green Berets. Does the Alamo come anywhere close to becoming an awe-inspiring war film achievement? Oh no, definitely not! The 1993 Gettysburg and 1989 Glory remain the superlative, definitive movies on 1800s warfare on every level. Even so, I can still remember first watching the Alamo for the first time on TV at my grandparent's lake cabin house (I have since watched it a couple of more times). I remember the story was told in such sweeping, epic scope, I felt. Wayne's dedication to the project was higher then any other movie he made. In the end, Wayne had crafted a movie that worth watching all the way through the entire three-hour long running length. The Alamo offers a lot to us, more so then we would probably expect, even if it never reached a level of greatness.