The Alamo: Thirteen Days to Glory (1987)

Nice effects though.

Highly Overrated But Still Good

Wow! What a bizarre film! Unfortunately the few funny moments there were were quite overshadowed by it's completely weird and random vibe throughout.

This is a coming of age storyline that you've seen in one form or another for decades. It takes a truly unique voice to make yet another one worth watching.

I have to give these guys a five just for doing this movie. I think it would be like doing "THE JAMES BOYS" again but they DID it and put their aging faces and their ragged bodies through another one. No one EVER did a GOOD job on this subject. Every movie made about the Alamo fell on its face. John Wayne practically sold his sole (or maybe he finally did THAT at midnight one night ... But it still failed...Badly! This one was no different. They tried to take another picture of the moon to Earth and found it has already been done and we only wanted to see it ONCE!There were moments of acting that burst out of every great actor in this movie like magical stars on the stage and then... there were moments that just stunk! IF I was an actor and I was offered a role in an "Alamo" movie I would quit and go into selling Tupperware door to door. Kieth was good, only a few days from losing it openly, he pulled it off and Arness even forced his long,heavy back to stay straight for 4 min at a time! You can't DO a movie about The Alamo unless The Alamo is just in the background. And I give these men and women a round of applause. I would NEVER try this and they felt the same way but did it anyway!! YAY forAll of them!!! GUTS!!!!Warren E. Justice ACRPS,CAS,CADAC, CIMS, I could go on and on.... But I would NEVER do the Alamo!!

heres a fun fact, I was the baby in the movie, the one in the crib. :) I am 19 years old now. my parents took me to try out for the part, we lived in Texas at the time.I think I only made like 80 bucks for it, but i wasn't in it very long. My parents said i would cry when i was supposed to be happy and would be happy when i was supposed to cry. I was all mixed up. Strange and funny fact i suppose.. and no I am not a child actress. I am livin' in San Antonio, workin' at a walgreens. I graduated here in Texas but I lived in Maryland most my life. This Movie is a great movie, though, good concept. I have seen it several times in my short 19 years.

13 days to Glory tells the traditional tale with sympathy toward the Mexican viewpoint. The major problem in this movie was that while cowboy actor James Arness played the part of Jim Bowie persuasively, the rest of the name actors in the cast Brian Keith (Davy Crocket) and Lorne Greene (Sam Houston) were too old.Raul Julia played General Antonio Lopez de Santa Anna with grace and dignity owed to the professional soldier who after all won the battle. The scene where he upbraids his officers for failing to mount a guard and prevent a sortee is one the scriptwriters did not understand. Failing to keep watch is a major remiss in the military. Santa Anna was within his prerogatives to be angry. Raul Julia magnificently carried poor writing through the scene.Kathleen York was an impressive Susannah Dickinson, a woman who deserves to be remembered for her courage. However, Kathleen York might have been reminded that as Dickinsons hailed from Pennsylvania they probable dis not sound very Southron.

Yes, this movie is very patriotic, but it was made in 1987, when the Cold War itself was going on. One of the few movies based on the Alamo that shows the Mexican side of the conflict. Raul Julia does a good job as Gen. Santa Anna. The historical mistakes are obvious today, but keep in mind this was based on a book. The other blunders are the "rubber" bayonets that bend, and the misplaced bodies. As in, a Texan falls dead, but next you see him, he is on top of a dead Mexican soldier who wasn't there before. The only other criticism is that the Mexican "charge" scene was borrowed from another Alamo movie I have seen before, maybe from the fifties or sixties, but I can't remember which one. That being said, this mini series sure beats the Walt Disney version.