After Old San Antonio and walking around the actual Alamo, finally watched the John Lee Hancock version of The Alamo (2004), the latest of several films about the 1836 battle. It's commendably sophisticated, attempting to give context and character nuance and some attention to the Mexican perspective. I liked it. Could write a lot more and probably will at some point, but that's the gist. Good for anyone interested in what has long since become immortalized and aggrandized, and certainly good for discussion.
Above: Travis (Patrick Wilson), David Crockett (Billy Bob Thornton) and Jim Bowie (Jason Patric). Fighting for a free Texas, and in some cases, for the freedom to own slaves (an oxymoron if there ever was one. Note: Mexico abolished slavery more than forty years before the USA). Worth some comparison to HBO's Deadwood, with even a dude or two from that series. Dennis Quaid is believable as a hard-drinking Sam Houston.
Now, as for the portrayal of Mexican leader Antonio de Padua María Severino López de Santa Anna y Pérez de Lebrón, the real Santa Anna was by most accounts vain, audacious, arrogant and cruel, but at the time of the Alamo, he was in his forties and still quite a dandy. Emilio Echevarría, who plays him, seems quite a bit older. Nonetheless, I love what Echevarría says in a related interview:
Santa Anna developed this operatic style to the highest level, like that of an actor representing a part -- they were all actors -- out of a need to act within extremely contradictory situations with authority, while totally dispossessed of an ideology. He was convinced he himself was destined to lead the country. In which direction? Any direction where he would continue to lead the march . . .
I like to think of film as a window through which we may take a good look at life. That’s why we go to the movies, in search of something; to gain something. But I can’t hope to transmit an idea or something unpredictable. I like being a part of a collective story, which will be different for each viewer . . .
Exactly right on! Full interview can be found here, part of a truly inspired Alamo website well worth exploring:
http://www.alamosentry.com/alamo-news/interview-with-emilio-echevarria
www.alamosentry.com
Santa Anna (1794-1876) in full splendor.
Today's Rune: Possessions.
5 comments:
That's pretty neat. I think I would like to visit the real alamo once...just for the hell of it really. I'm sure it would be educational.
http://www.qsl.net/w5www/yellowrose.html
And in the end it was one of those "slaves" that got Santa Ana caught with his drawers down.
So who really "freed" Texas? Them of the slave holding class or the one of the "indentured servants" they held?
I liked that version of the Alamo too. Wouldn't mind seeing it again.
The Santa Ana guy look better than I imagined from the "Republic" novel.
Eric, I am still bloated from a 2 margarita and bean dip lunch! Happy 5th. of May to you!
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