The Alamo

The Alamo is a 2004 movie, a second major studio film about the legendary battle, was shot and scheduled for release initially in December 2003 and then rescheduled for release in April 2004. This remake was directed by native Texan John Lee Hancock, and produced by Ron Howard, Brian Grazer, and Mark Johnson. Its script is credited to Hancock, John Sayles, Stephen Gaghan and Leslie Bohem. Its production budget was $95,000,000. It was produced and distributed by The Walt Disney Company with subsidiary Buena Vista International handling U.S. distribution through the Touchstone Pictures division.

It was shot near Austin, Texas between January and June 2003, mostly on a local property named Reimers Ranch. Here, what is reported to be the largest outdoor film set in history was built, comprising the entire Alamo mission and the nearby town of Bexar. The film's art direction devoted the greatest care to historical accuracy and verisimilitude; for instance, the mission's facade does not feature the well-known "hump" at the top, a detail that was actually added years after the battle during a restoration.

In contrast to the earlier 1960 film, the 2003 script makes an effort to depict the political points of view of both the Mexican and Texian sides. Santa Anna is featured as a much more prominent character.

The cast includes Billy Bob Thornton as a demythologized Crockett, Jason Patric as Bowie, stage actor Patrick Wilson as Travis, Dennis Quaid as Houston, Emilio Echevarría as Santa Anna, and Jordi Molla as Seguin.

The movie opened on Easter weekend to mostly middling reviews and a low box office turnout. In its first weekend, it was defeated in box office numbers by a resurgent The Passion of the Christ. It cost over $140 million USD to make and market the film but earned only $9.1 million USD in its first weekend. By its second month of release, the film had yet to muster $30 million USD in domestic earnings. It ended its theatrical run with a worldwide gross of slightly less than $26 million.

Trivia

• Ethan Hawke was up for the role of William Barett Travis but eventually dropped out.
  
  
• At 51 acres, the set was the largest and most expensive set built in North America to date.
  
  
• It took seven months to shoot the movie. The final battle, which actually lasted less than 6 hours in the pre-dawn morning of 6 March 1836, took over a month to shoot.
  
• Disney had originally planned to release the film at Christmas 2003 but revised the date, citing that director John Lee Hancock was still working on the film.
  
  
• Ron Howard was originally set to direct, with Russell Crowe set to star, but both left the film when Ron Howard and Disney had a major disagreement over the film's budget (Ron Howard had sought $200 million). John Lee Hancock was then brought on board as director with Ron Howard as the film's co-producer and the film's budget reduced to half of what Ron Howard had demanded from Disney.
  
  
• During production, local news stations sent helicopters to get aerial footage of the Alamo set. This was causing so much interference that everyone on the set was told to give the copters "the finger" so they could not use any footage.
  
  
• Production wrapped $82,000 dollars under budget.
  
  
• Billy Bob Thornton learned to play the violin for some scenes that required it.
  
  
• An extra had grabbed a bag of Doritos from Craft Services before being called to the set. He stuffed it into his costume and got into formation. When action was called, the group charged across the field. When he was "shot" and fell dead to the ground, his bag of Doritos popped out. The scene had to be re-shot and from then on everyone had to be checked frequently.
  
  
• Crockett plays the "Mockingbird Quick Step" on his fiddle. The song is a version of "Listen to the Mockingbird". It was composed in 1855 and later used by The Three Stooges as a theme song.
  
  
• During the battle of San Jacinto the Texans yelled, "Remember the Alamo." During the actual battle they also yelled, "Remember Goliad." The massacre at Goliad was left out of the movie. Goliad was where Colonel Fannin and his unarmed men were executed at the order of Santa Ana.
  
  
• Texas Land Commissioner Jerry Patterson was an extra and appears after the Battle of San Jacinto in a crowd scene shouting, "Hang him!" Jerry Patterson is shown briefly in costume in a cut-away shot with another extra while Houston makes a speech. Jerry Patterson also did several "PSA" announcements from the Alamo set to promote the Save Texas History Web site.
  
  
• The death of David Crockett as depicted in this film is corroborated by the account of a Mexican soldier, Jose Enrique de la Pena. Though not translated into English until after the earlier Alamo film was made, his account makes the claim that Crockett was recognized by the Mexicans, and was executed after the battle rather than killed during it.