The Alamo

There are those who dislike the Alamo starring and directed by John Wayne for its hung ho patriotism but for me it’s a big action war movie that is made so often these days. I watched it for the third time yesterday

The story is of à make shift fortress the Alamo commanded by an austere stickler Colonel William Travers ( Laurence Harvey) who cannot control the Tennessean conscripts of Davy Crockett ( John Wayne) and Jim Bowie ( Richard Widmatk) who refuse to abandon the post in the face of insuperable odds of the Mexican army under Santa Anna numbering 7000 to the 168 inside the Alamo.

In the last sequence a blonde woman leads out her daughter to the clear respect of the Mexican army.

The notion of a small group lasting out against thee odds and earning the respect of the enemy was carried forward into Zulu! and the Alamo bears other similarities too. The patriotism of the South Welsh Fusiliers under Lieutenant Chard ( Stanley Baker) and à fight out in the hospital where the malingerer James Booth as Hook exhibits his new found bravery. Moral courage sits well with american cinema audience. Sadly the courage shown by the oppresssed dockworkers in ‘On the Waterfront’ was not replicated by its director Elia Kazan who gave names to the MaCarthy Commission. In High Noon the towns people were unsupportive of Gary Cooper returning on his wedding to rid the town of an evil gang of hoodlums but Gary Cooper à confirmed republican testified before the MaCarthy commission on behalf of script writer Carl Foreman charged with being a Communist.