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Tarfumes.com - The Alamo [Restored Original Director's Cut]
![The Alamo [Restored Original Director's Cut]](http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/51EN7X1GNYL._SL160_.jpg)
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List Price: $29.98
Our Price: $0.40
Your Save: $ 29.58 ( 99% )
Availability: N/A
Manufacturer: MGM (Video & DVD)
Starring: Carlos Arruza, Frankie Avalon, Veda Ann Borg, Joseph Calleia, Linda Cristal
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Average Customer Rating:  
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Audience Rating: NR (Not Rated)
Binding: VHS Tape
EAN: 9780792813729
Format: Closed-captioned
ISBN: 0792813723
Label: MGM (Video & DVD)
Manufacturer: MGM (Video & DVD)
Number Of Items: 2
Publisher: MGM (Video & DVD)
Release Date: 1993-12-23
Running Time: 202
Studio: MGM (Video & DVD)
Theatrical Release Date: 1960-10-24
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Editorial Reviews:
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John Wayne produces, directs and stars in this "bigger than life" (Life) chronicle of one ofthe most remarkable events in American history. At the Alamoa crumbling adobe mission185 exceptional men joined together in a sacred pact: they would stand firm against an army of 7,000 and willingly give their lives for freedom. Filmed entirely in Texas, only a few miles from the site of the actual battle, The Alamo is a visually stunning and historically accurate celebration of courage and honor. Co-starring Richard Widmark, Laurence Harvey and Chill Wills, and garnering seven Oscar® nominations*, it is a "truly memorable movie spectacle" (Leonard Maltin). *1960: Picture, Supporting Actor, Cinematography, Sound (winner), Editing, Score and Song
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Spotlight customer reviews:
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Customer Rating:
Summary: Colorful Historical Fiction
Comment: I love this film. It's entertaining as it can be but historically it is way off the mark. The lyrics of one of song goes as follows: "...let the legend grow and grow....'bout those thirteen days of glory at the siege of Alamo..." I think this demonstrates Wayne's philosophy..."let the LEGEND grow and grow..." He had no problem with bending the facts a little to emphasize the glory that was Alamo.
I'm in total disagreement with this philosophy. I think that the actual story of Alamo is so compelling that it shouldn't be fictionalized. So what if a few men, including possibly Davie Crockett, tried to surrender at the end? Outnumbered, out of ammunition and with a bayonet at your throat, ANYONE would have surrendered. It doesn't diminish the heroism by one iota.
That fact is that the men at Alamo--against all military logic--decided to stand despite the possibility/probability of bloody death, says it all. Travis summed it up for all of them, "I'll never surrender. I'll never retreat." He didn't, either. None of them did. No, they didn't kill thousands of Mexicans and the big fight occurred in the darkness of early morning before the sun arose, providing little opportunity for Hollywood cinematography.
Davie Crockett wasn't lanced and he didn't blow the powder room up. The powder and ammunition were captured virtually intact by the Mexicans. Jim Bowie probably was in no condition to put up a last ditch struggle and Joe didn't die protecting his master. Joe, who probably was an actual combatant, survived to become Santa Ana's personal servant.
Still, the movie is grand and the maneuvers of the colorful Mexican army are a thing to behold...not accurate but wonderful. Santa Ana was not only the bastard as portrayed but was also a physical coward. When given the opportunity to die for his country, he surrendered Texas to save his own skin.
Yes, the movie although nonhistoric, does reflect something of the glory and tragedy that was the siege of Alamo.
Ron Braithwaite, author of novels, "Skull Rack" and "Hummingbird God" on the Spanish Conquest of Mexico
Customer Rating:
Summary: Lest we forget, lest we forget.
Comment: It's hard these days to believe that men actually shouted "Remember the Alamo!", actually took guns in their hands, and fought with those guns to defend their land. These days, we watch TV which tells us we're all brothers, while outside, people from all nations stroll in, set up homes, mosques, training camps and whatever they want, and prepare to take over. The defenders of the Alamo are now villains, not heroes, lest young people should get the idea of doing likewise.
This movie reminds us of a by-gone age in America, when Americans were not only willing to fight to defend America, but believed it was right to do so. Seeing John Wayne swagger and defy, we click out tongues and shake our heads and call it "Romanticism" or "Conservatism" or some other swear word.
These days, they don't march in with bugles blaring and drums beating. They stroll in, one million per year, and their guns are hidden in safe houses. And as we watch Texas, New Mexico, Arizona and southern California go quietly into their hands, we think it just shows how broad-minded and global we have become. And in January, when Obama takes over, the pace will shift into high gear.
So, see this movie. You won't believe how America used to be, but it's true. And there will come a time when you won't be able to see it at all.
Customer Rating:
Summary: John Wayne's heartfelt epic on a heavily cut DVD
Comment: With the exception of the recent Billy Bob Thornton retelling of the tale, few epics have had quite as bad a press as John Wayne's The Alamo. If it is not the masterpiece Wayne set out to make, it is also certainly not the disaster it is often painted. Even financially the film eventually turned a very healthy profit, although the staggered nature of its roadshow release meant that it didn't do so quickly enough to save Wayne from having to sell his share in the picture he had invested so much in.
Very much a personal crusade, he raised the $12m budget partially from a trio of Texas millionaires and from his own pocket. The set and surrounding village were actually built three years before shooting, ostensibly so that vegetation could grow naturally around it, though problems raising the budget seem more likely. Nonetheless, the film's much-trumpeted great pains to look authentic extends to the casting, enhanced by some of the great faces in the supporting cast, not least of them the irreplaceable Hank Worden, replacing Old Mose Harper's desire for a rockin' chair for 'the time to live and a place to die' in one of his best performances as the Parson. Laurence Harvey, a man reputedly in life as innately impossible to like as his character in The Manchurian Candidate, carries the dramatic element as Travis more than efficiently, while Wayne and Widmark give perfect demonstrations of fleshing out a part through star quality as Davey Crockett and Jim Bowie.
Along with 55 Days at Peking, this was the biggest of the siege epics of the sixties (Zulu, Khartoum, The War Lord), recounting a somewhat romanticised version of the iconic battle that saw some 185 men hold off 7000 Mexican soldiers for thirteen days. Very much a populist epic, it is broadly entertaining but with a quiet dignity at its heart, and while there is sentiment, it is pure and honest enough not to seem desperately manipulative. Wayne's direction is a strong point, with a good visual eye that owes nothing to John Ford (who had less to do with the film than is commonly believed and nothing to do with the truly spectacular battle scenes) and a surprising generosity to friend and foe alike.
There are many moments of pure visual poetry, too - a rider galloping through a stream, defeated Mexican troops reflected in a muddy pond while their women carry away the bodies of their loved ones and the astonishing finale where the screen is packed to bursting with thousands of extras. The cavalry sequences in particular are strikingly well handled, with a healthy respect for the horses (unlike many sixties epics, none were hurt or killed). True, it sure is a long time a-comin', but if there's a more spectacular battle scene on film this side of Bondarchuk's Waterloo, I've not seen it.
Unfortunately, the DVD is something of a travesty. Facing personal bankruptcy, two weeks after the film opened Wayne asked his producer son Michael to cut the film to get in more shows to improve its cash flow - the film was popular, but at nearly three-and-a-half hours was limited to only two shows a day at a handful of theatres. No prizes for guessing which version MGM/UA have chosen to release. Although the uncut version was available on video and laser disc, the company's rationale for releasing the cut version to DVD was that since there were no foreign language soundtracks surviving for the uncut version and they were committed to releasing multiple-language versions, the cut version was preferable to subtitling the film for foreign languages. To add insult to injury, even the hour-long documentary produced for the laserdisc release has been cut back to 40 minutes to paper over any mention of the restored version!
As a result, some half an hour of footage is now missing once again not much more than a decade after it was restored. Even the Overture, Intermission, Entr'acte and Exit Music from Dimitri Tiomkin's superb score have been lost. The only positive is that the widescreen transfer at least makes the most of Wayne and cinematographer William Clothier's careful Scope compositions - and films like this are what Scope is all about.
As for what you're missing, much of the extra running time was taken up by slightly extended scenes, such as Travis' explaining why he knows "I am better than that rabble" that he commands, crucial to understanding his character. Nonetheless, there are several 'new' scenes, the more significant additions including: more of Bowie's opening scene and various bridging scenes enlarging on his conflict with Travis; the death of the profiteer Emil when he tries to stop Crockett taking the gunpowder from the church and a subsequent love scene between Crockett and Flacca; nearly a full reel after the Intermission where Bowie decides to leave the Alamo but is dissuaded by Patrick Wayne reluctantly lying about the number of reinforcements on their way; Scotty's patrol discovering the cattle and coming off badly at the hands of some pursuing Mexican Lancers and Dragoons; and the death of Parson and Crockett's quietly effective prayer.
Even if to some the film still felt too long at 203 minutes (and frankly, it do), none of these scenes should have been the ones to be cut, and their restoration helped the film flow more smoothly than the shorter version. Worse, it's not an isolated incident - MGM/UA meted out similar treatment to the restored version of It's a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World] on DVD, while some other titles like The Dogs of War and F*I*S*T are available in two different cuts on either side of the Atlantic.
The film's reputation may limit its appeal to Wayne's fans and the epic collector, but it's a fine film that deserves better treatment on DVD than it received.
Customer Rating:
Summary: The greatest film of all time
Comment: It is the greatest, period. Let's start by dispensing with criticism it is historically inaccurate. This is about the legend of the Alamo. It is not a PBS documentary. So as another reviewer has said, let's move on. Now back to the Alamo. Great stars (50s giants at the peak of their powers, Wayne, Widmark, Harvey, Boone), legendary film score by Tiomkin, superb acting and dialogue. As the trailer used to say, "Four years in the making" and a cast of thousands. Perfectly framed technicolor scenes.
What got me as a 4th grader in 1960, and many more times since then, were the heroic, perhaps over the top, last stands of the Alamo's big three: Wayne's Davy run through by a bayonet yet summoning enough strength to torch the powder room and blow up half the Alamo. Bowie, laid low by a cannonball, taking out fifteen attackers with his seven barrel shotgun, then two pistols, and then his meat cleaver-sized knife, yes, the "Bowie knife." And Colonel Travis outfencing four attackers before one shoots him, but breaking his sword across his knee in a final act of defiance. I think it is the Wayne's film's depiction of the line in the sand scene (although his version does not involve the drawing of a physical line) that sets it apart from other Alamo films. Wayne's gets right what other Alamo films get wrong. Others show the Alamo defenders shamed or bullied into staying after the news the Alamo is about to fall. In the Wayne film, Travis tells his troops, "Go not with your heads hung low. You are brave and noble soldiers." In Wayne's version, whether they stay or flee will be totally left up to them. Their decision to stay thus is clearly an act of courage. Watching Bowie, crippled by a horse fall, get off of his horse and walk over (to, in effect, cross the line in the sand) as the first man to stand 'side Travis, a man Bowie had despised (at least in the movie), is one of the most dramatic scenes of all time. It does not matter what version you see by the way: the DVD shows the cut version which deletes Tiomkin's legendary overture, intermission, entre'acte, and exit music and leaves out scenes such as Parsons's powerful death scene from the longer so-called road show version (which is shown on VHS and several times a year on cable's TCM or public television). But the cut version does move faster and works better as an action film. Both versions are five stars. Now that the swirl of politics which prevented any rational evaluation of the film during Wayne's lifetime has passed, we can fully appreciate this cinematic achievement. Enjoy the film's greatness for it will never be duplicated. No? Just ask the makers of the unfortunate Billy Bob Alamo remake.
Customer Rating:
Summary: Greatness.
Comment: A truly great film. A very accurate portrayal of this historical event. Well directed and well acted. Stirring and heart-wrenching. A beautiful, glorious, fine, fine, fine movie.
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