Posted on 04/13/2004 1:32:02 AM PDT by goldstategop
I was a little discouraged last week when I urged a boycott of Disney's new revisionist, politically correct picture "The Alamo."
I was concerned because few seemed to pick up the cry.
I was beginning to think Americans just didn't care about heroism any more. I was beginning to think Americans had been brainwashed to believe their forebears were all just a bunch of crooks, cheats and criminals as Hollywood and too many of our government schools would like them to believe. I was beginning to think Americans would believe anything the entertainment cartel shoved down their throats.
But then I looked at the box-office results on the movie's opening.
"The Alamo," which cost $100 million to make, pulled in a meager $9.2 million in its opening weekend.
That's not "bad," by Hollywood's standards for a big production with lots of promotion. It's a disaster. It's a mega-flop. It's a dud.
Worse yet, the movie didn't just open on any weekend. It opened on Good Friday – a holiday weekend. In other words, the movie had every advantage it could have for an opening day. It failed. It failed miserably. And I have to believe the American people showed some good judgment.
What's so bad about this movie?
Well, as I said last week, "Remember the Alamo," was an American battle cry for generations.
And with this movie, Disney is consciously trying to get Americans to forget the real history of heroic fight.
No, I haven't seen the movie. Nor do I intend to see it.
Many will jump down my throat with that statement and demand, "How can you know the movie is so bad without even seeing it?"
The answer is simple: The script has been reviewed by historians. I've read enough to know the intent of this film is deconstruction of American heroes.
This is a propaganda effort to turn Davy Crockett and Jim Bowie into a couple of dead, white guys who got what was coming to them, rather than American heroes who "died with their boots on."
"The movie reads more like a Disney fairy tale and promotes a politically correct revisionist agenda aimed at destroying a traditional American hero," said B. Forrest Clayton of Freedom Alliance, who reviewed the script.
Clayton says he found it to be "full of inaccuracies." He says Davy Crockett is portrayed as a "frightened wanderer" who wanted to escape "over the wall" in the dark of night during the historic battle, but felt paralyzed and trapped by his own underserved heroic reputation.
Clayton says the film has Crockett captured, bound and executed on his knees after the battle was over, "even though the historical evidence shows that he was killed fighting, in the thick of combat, during the battle."
Is that how you want to remember Davy Crockett? Is that how you want your kids to know him?
A statement by Freedom Alliance said: "The movie makers ignored these witnesses that corroborated Crockett's heroic death in combat and based his capture and execution in the film on a suspect portion of Jose Enrique De La Pena's supposed diary-memoir which handwriting expert Charles Hamilton proved was a forgery by John Laflin, aka John Lafitte, a prominent American forger of papers on American pirates and frontier heroes."
Disney also is criticized for portraying Gen. Sam Houston as a "venereal-diseased drunkard" and Col. William Barret Travis, commander of Texan forces at the Alamo, as a "deadbeat dad and serial adulterer."
In addition, says the group, Bowie, the Alamo defender famous for his knife-fighting skills, is portrayed as a land-swindling slave trader. The film reportedly has Crockett participating in a My Lai-style massacre in the Creek Indian War.
Freedom Alliance says in contrast, Manuel Castrillon, a Mexican general who attacked the Alamo, is portrayed as a "flawless, noble and brave hero."
A recent Variety article confirmed the film's perspective.
"'Alamo' is expected to deal with many of the historical complexities – including the Mexican point of view – that were glossed over in John Wayne's 1960 film," Variety reported. "Alamo heroes William Barret Travis' serial marital infidelities, Jim Bowie's slave trading and Davy Crockett's overall political incorrectness will also be addressed."
Richard Bruce Winders, curator of the Alamo museum, said movie viewers who expect a close remake of the classic John Wayne film will be disappointed.
When I first saw the trailers for the new Alamo film, I got excited momentarily. Here was a chance for a new generation of young Americans, I thought, to get a glimpse of a piece of American history – history that could make them proud of their heritage of freedom.
Disney needs to continue to hear from Americans. This film needs to die a quick and unmerciful death at the box office. Don't go see this movie. Don't let your kids see it. Don't rent it. Don't buy the DVD or the video.
Better to rent the 1960 classic.
Well, you'd be wrong then. The Alamo is where Pee Wee Herman's bike was hidden in the basement. I think that there are a lot of people who know that and not all of them are Britney Spears fans.
I actually went to the movie expecting it to be PC crap so I was not expecting much, but I agree, its the best Alamo ever. Although it was a long movie, I also thought it seemed to cut some of the characters down a bit, but thats what you have to do sometimes.
Oh yea the "Houston was too short" was lame.
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