The Alamo (2004 Film) - Historical Accuracy

Historical Accuracy

Crockett's fate

The depiction of Crockett's fate came from memoirs written by former Mexican officer José Enrique de la Peña, an officer in Santa Anna's army who fought in the battle. It was the first to show Crockett executed as a prisoner of war; all others had depicted his death as occurring during the battle. This sparked criticism from many Alamo enthusiasts and some historians.

The Alamo set

Hancock's version was purported to be the most accurate of all the Alamo films, but various interpretive liberties were taken, such as building the movie-set version of the Alamo chapel facade forward 30 to 40 feet (12 m) more than the extant (and presumably historically correct) structure. According to one of the DVD version's special features, Hancock did this to show the Alamo chapel and interior of the fort all in one shot. It is the largest and most expensive set ever built in North America. It comes in at 51 acres.

Jim Bowie's knife

Bowie's knife is ornate and extremely large, qualifying as a shortsword by some standards. It has a wood handle, and the blade is further supported by a brass backing extending about two-thirds from the 4-inch-long crossguard to the tip. The blade is about 3 inches at its widest.

Battle scenes

A second "cattle call" for extras was held because too few thin and gaunt Mexican soldiers were available in the first call. (In the winter of 1835-1836, when the Mexican Army was moving northward through desert areas shortly before crossing the Rio Bravo (Rio Grande River) into Texas, it endured a snowstorm of uncommon intensity, and hundreds of Mexican soldiers had suffered more than their usual illness and hunger.) The film's main scenes of the Mexican attack on the Alamo were done under harsh weather conditions: battle-scene extras stood for hours in cold rain, making some scenes gruelingly realistic.

Houston and Crockett discuss Texas

Sam Houston and Davy Crockett knew each other from their political activities in the capital, particularly from their respective terms as members of Congress. Crockett had recently lost his bid for a fourth term in the U.S. House of Representatives. Houston took advantage of the situation by encouraging Crockett to come to Texas. A ballroom in Washington D.C. served as the location of a critical meeting between the two. More than a $1 million (US) was spent on a collection of English-made costumes representative of the period circa 1825-1835. The costumes included scores of women's and men's formal outfits: myriad formal dance gowns; women's undergarments, such as multi-skirt multi-tier petticoats and laced corsets; laced shoes and pumps for women of various ages; men's jackets, coats, capes, vests, shoes, and boots. Hairstyles and wigs for both women and men were historically accurate for the year 1835, the date of ballroom scenes. Other historically correct details for women's hairdos included tiaras of starched lace and polished bone, hairpins with elaborate decorative heads, lace and silk bows, and snoods. Men's hair styles were perhaps even more varied, ranging from closely clipped, chopped, or wavy; disheveled, long loose, or bobbed at the nape; and showing various stages of baldness with hairpieces such as horseshoe shaped to displaying gray curls at the sides and rear; and beards of many types.

Miscellaneous

When Crockett first plays his fiddle to the crowd, the song is "Listen to the Mockingbird", not composed until 1855, 19 years after the fall of the Alamo. The Three Stooges later used it as their theme song. The film shows Sam Houston paying for a drink with a coin carrying Santa Anna's portrait; Mexican silver coins of that era showed a liberty cap. Aside from the short-lived empire of Maximilian (1864–67), human representations on circulating Mexican coins between 1824 to 1905 were allegorical.