The Alamo

Sam Davis

At the historical site of the Alamo in San Antonio, Texas, a plaque lies on the ground with these words; Legend states that in 1836, Lieutenant Colonel William Berret Travis unsheathed his sword and drew a line on this ground before his battle-weary men stating “Those prepared to give their lives in freedoms cause, come over to me!”1 All defenders stepped over the line in the sand without much hesitation, protecting and promoting freedom at the expense of their life. The commander at the Alamo, Colonel Travis, composed a letter addressed “To the People of Texas and All Americans in the World”. In his letter, statements like “I shall never surrender or retreat” and “Victory or Death” gave the recipients of this letter a better understanding of the attitudes of these battle-hardened volunteers and why they were there, to face tyranny dead in the eye, at unsurmountable odds. This memorable event has been embraced by American culture to mean that Americans will always fight for independence at all costs, and that it is better to die as a man fighting for freedom instead living and being subordinate.

This way of thinking has been deeply rooted in our society’s culture through many mediums, a big one being media. It is to no surprise that there has been a number of movies about the Alamo in America, with a few grossly exaggerating the true history of what really happened in 1836. Most Alamo films set the scene with a binary structure conformed by the Alamo myth, were it’s the brave and freedom loving Texans up against tyrannous Mexicans. For the most part, films about the Alamo have prescribed to this narrative, probably because of the great difficulty of really pinning down what happened and also maybe just because it has the ingredients for a successful film.2

Aside from entertainment, I believe these films were produced not only to give tribute to the brave souls who gave their lives but also to reinforce what it means to be an American, even when...