[abigail2]

I haven't seen it. But I didn't want to. I knew they would make the good guys bad and the bad guys good.

[gilliam]

This country yerns for heros. Disney missed the mark on this one. #1 rule in the business: know your audience.

[BenLurkin]

"Walt Disney Co. (NYSE:DIS - News) shares fell 34 cents to $25.70 as its costly feature film "The Alamo" took in a disappointing $9.2 million at the box office during the holiday weekend" http://biz.yahoo.com/rf/040412/markets_stocks_22.html

[Viking2002]

That fact that Disney has jettisoned everything it stood for in the last 50 years in order to market revisionist propaganda, is just more proof that it fell pray to Hollyweird's Dark Side. They need to be boycotted on all fronts until that moron Eisner is made to walk the plank.

[YaYa123]

John Wayne's "Alamo" was on television tonight on TCM. The host explained the movie was John Wayne's baby. That Wayne wanted to make the movie because he thought Americans had forgotten how hard fought our freedom was.

John Wayne's "Alamo" has been described as a "labor of love", and it got 7 Oscar nominations. It's possible this new Alamo is going to be Eisner's swan song.

[drjimmy]

I haven't seen it. But I didn't want to. I knew they would make the good guys bad and the bad guys good.
I have seen it, and you don't know what you think you know. There is certainly no "even handed" portrayal of Santa Anna, and if he did have any good points, they aren't shown in this movie. While not a great flick, it is a good one. There is no doubt from this movie that Crockett, Bowie, and Travis are heroes; they just aren't the kind you find in cartoons, but rather the kind you would probably find right now in places like Iraq.

[txzman]

And like 9-11, what is lost is the massacre at Goliad - after the Alamo, when the Texan force surrendered.

"After a delay of about five days following Houston's order, Fannin finally began his retreat. It was not long, however, before the Texans found themselves surrounded on open prairie. Several attacks by Urrea resulted each time in the Mexicans being repulsed by the deadly fire of the Texans. By dusk, the Texans had lost about sixty men killed or wounded against some 200 of the Mexicans.

Still heavily outnumbered and with no water and few supplies, the Texans waved the white flag of truce the following morning. Believing that they would be taken captive and eventually returned to their homes, the Texans surrendered the morning of March 20. The were escorted back to Goliad as prisoners.

When news of their capture reached Santa Anna, however, he was furious that the Texans had not been executed on the spot. Citing a recently passed law that all foreigners taken under arms would be treated as pirates and executed, Santa Anna sent orders to execute the Goliad prisoners.

Santa Anna's orders were followed. On Palm Sunday, the 27th of March, the prisoners were divided into three groups, marched onto open prairie, and shot. Thus, all of Fannin's command except a few that managed to escape and several physicians and others deemed useful by the Mexicans, were massacred, collected into piles, and burned.

[Always Right]

I am surprised all the heros of the Alamo were not portrayed as gay

[jordan8]

One of the positive aspects of the “modern era” has been an increasing openness about our flaws

This line of argument is a lie. Hollywood would never make a movie about, say, Martin Luther King, Jr., that wasn't absolutely reverential. Even for lesser stars of PC they would at least clean them up the best they could if they felt they couldn't get away with a hagiographic treatment. There would be no talk of a "new honesty" or the freeing aspects of exposing their flaws. Flaw exposure is reserved for the enemies of the left: political enemies, religious enemies, and, more often than not, racial enemies. Movies like this are a specific attack on a specific culture. The author shifts the argument to the theoretical and general in order to avoid the truth and the ugly confrontations it might produce.

For instance, there's nothing redeeming about General Santa Anna. He was a vicious, bloodthirsty tyrant, nothing more

See what I mean?

[Let's Roll]

Their "defining heroism down" - dropped their box office in the same direction.

[goodnesswins]

Here's some info on the movie....from FreedomAlliance.....it does speak well of this version.

http://www.freedomalliance.org/view_article.php?a_id=357

[SAMWolf]

I saw the movie and liked it. The pre-release rumors of revisionism and PC are mostly unfounded. The final assault is the most accurate I've seen in any movies on the Alamo. There are some throw-away lines that can be considered PC but for the most part it's a good movie.

[Paul C. Jesup]

If you guys want to read about all the insanity going on at Disney, check out http://www.SaveDisney.com

It is good for a laugh at Eisner's mismanagement.

[Eternal_Bear]

Bowie, Crockett and Travis had their flaws, the movie can't be faulted for that. I plan on going to see it soon.

I would love to see a bio movie on Bigfoot Wallace who went on a vendetta no one would believe. He came to Texas to avenge his kinfolk who were slaughtered at Goliad. He must have killed hundreds of Mexicans with his own hands in the next dozen years or so. That would make a great flick! Yes he was a wild, crazy, colorful and flawed man. He is still a big legend here.

[fabian]

thanks for the ping...I think I will pass on seeing this one.

[FourPeas]

Fascinating look at how Disney mirrors the current cultural climate. I think it's spot-on. Of course, neither I nor my boys will be seeing this version of The Alamo, although we may someday view the version with Mr. Wayne.

There's some interesting food for thought here.

[mrustow]

I don’t want to see a whitewash of history. But neither can I be truly inspired by a movie that suggests unblemished heroism is unheard of—or worse, somehow undesirable.

This guy is talking out of both sides of his mouth. A whitewash is exactly what he wants. He's already said he likes his heroes without any flaws exposed. He has the mentality of an eight-year-old. These guys were drunks -- but then, so was half the population. Bowie was a crook, and Crockett was nothing like the mythic hero he was later turned into.

I have seen the 1960, John Wayne/John Ford version, and while I have only read about the new version, I am sure I will still prefer the Wayne/Ford version ... as entertainment. But as I'm a grown man, I don't confuse entertainment with truth. Papa Ford's byline was, "When the legend becomes fact, print the legend." Well, the legend ain't fact just yet.

[BibChr]

Tolkien's Faramir vs. Jackson's Faramir.

[Ditto]

I knew they would make the good guys bad and the bad guys good.

I saw it, and it doesn't do that at all. The good guys are good guys --- not saints. It's no different the heroes of the 101 Airborne is portraed in Band of Brothers --- Good Guys, but by no means angles from on high. They are people.

The bad guy (Santa Anna) is a bad guy from beginning to end. I saw no redeeming virtues written into his character. From my limited knowledge of his history, that assessment would be about right. Maybe the guy was kind to animals and treated his mother nice, but they sure didn't show anything like that in the film. They painted him as evil and cruel.

I didn't think it was a great film, and I can't figure out how in the hell Disney managed to spend $100M on it, but it is not what you think it is. If you don't see it, you won't be missing much, IMHO. But whatever you have read that makes you think they turned the story on it's head is not accurate.