The Alamo

Davy Crockett (John Wayne), Jim Bowie (Richard Widmark) and William Travis (Laurence Harvey) lead a group of volunteers and soldiers in an attempt to stave off the forces of Mexican General Santa Anna.

The Alamo was John Wayne’s dream project. He worked for years to get it green-lit, as studios were reluctant to finance such a large-scale project with Wayne, a first-time director, at the helm, but Wayne persevered, agreeing to play the role of Davy Crockett himself, as well as assuming financial responsibility for any cost overruns. Combined, these two compromises would nearly break him both physically and financially.

Wayne originally wanted to play much smaller role of Sam Huston, which would leave him free to manage the considerable task of directing the huge production, but financers would only put up the money if Wayne took a bigger role. The resulting stress left Wayne chain-smoking constantly when the cameras weren’t rolling, as well as perpetually exhausted.

But the greater damage would come to Wane’s pocketbook, as production delays sent costs soaring. When Wayne had exhausted all avenues of external funding, he mortgaged his houses, cars, and yacht to come up with the money. While the film was a modest success, the terms Wayne agreed to with the studios saw them pocket the profits, leaving Wayne forced to work through the rest of the decade to pay off the debts. This as he was approaching his 60th birthday.

As for the film itself, it’s good but not great. As a director, Wayne is a product of his two idols and mentors, as he tries to marry the humanism of John Ford with the macho ethos of Howard Hawks. While he doesn’t succeed, there are moments where he nails one or the other. There just aren’t enough of these bursts to sustain the film’s 167 minute running time. It’s a great first effort, one that’s just a bit too lose and unfocused to grab and hold you the way Wayne wanted. Watching it, you can’t help but feel that it just became a bit too big for him and that in the hands of Hawks or Ford it would be tighter effort.

That said, The Alamo is certainly worth a look. Fans of star John Wayne will certainly enjoy it, and others will likely appreciate its scale and the obvious passion behind it. Just beware of any version on DVD, as they’re all apparently the truncated 140-minute re-release version, as opposed to the 167-minute “director’s cut” that’s available on Laserdisc. Of course, both versions fall short of the 192-minute roadshow version that’s currently the subject of restoration efforts.