The Alamo

For this assignment I chose to watch the version of the Alamo that was made in 1960 with John Wayne starring as Davy Crockett. This film was focused on the three main heroes Davy Crockett, Jim Bowie, and William Barrett Travis. This film left out some details that are important. For example it didn’t show San Jacinto Battle, the Tejanos that helped out on the Anglo side.

Then again this film was a little less than three hours long so it covered much detail that I hear other versions of it leave out. I guess you can’t have everything in a film so you need to choose what is more important to you and your viewers to decide what to include in the production. This movie contained a lot of humor and made it seem like they were real laid back and relaxed. Whether or not it was really like that or that was just added to make it more interesting it did keep me interested and listening.

It was accurate in showing that the women and children that were around were given a chance to leave before the battle and stay away from harm. Even though they were given that chance, Susanne Dickinson did not want to leave the Alamo because she wanted to stay there with her husband, and then later felt that she may have become more of a burden on her husband because he had to also worry about her and their child staying safe. When Susanne and her children were found by Santa Anna, she was given a donkey so that she could get away to safety and away from the horrible scene of the war.

I would really like to view the newer version of the Alamo that was remade in 2004 that starred Billy Bob Thorton so that I can see the differences between them and what each one leaves out and what they focus on. I think that any one who is studding the Alamo should view both of them so that they do not get just one view of the battle. I did not get the time to do that in time but hopefully in the future I will be able to.