natesfortune

San Jacinto was important to show the results of the sacrifices of the 189 men in the Alamo, and to contrast their lack of surrender all the way until death with Santa Anna's trading his own life for the entire state of Texas - which was the start of the domino effect of Mexico losing nearly one third of the present day U.S., all the way to California.

The problem is that the film was obviously heavily edited from a three hour film to one just over two hours, and the stuff that went was what the film was likely originally about - Houston and Santa Anna, with an Alamo being a PART of the story instead of the whole thing. This film is Alamo centric, and the ending does feel "tacked on", though it's redeemed a bit by the "Remember the Alamo" business at the end. The original film was obviously about Houston, Santa Anna, the creation of the Independent Nation of Texas, etc.

But it is off balance in this version.

Still, I liked the movie very much - especially Billy Bob.

natesfortune

They were fighting for their indepenence from Mexico, and the cruel dictator Santa Anna. Very much like the Revolutionary War. It is heroic because they could have escaped(many of them, people were getting in and out), or surrendered but they held out for almost two weeks to the bitterest end. 189 Texans died - down to the last man among the defenders, and they took over 1600 Mexicans with them. It splintered Santa Anna's Army and gave a rallying cry to the rest of Texas which allowed Houston to wallop them at San Jacinto and win Texas its Independence as its own nation.

Contrast the courage of the men at the Alamo, not surrendering until death and dealing a crippling blow to Santa Anna and his army in the process, to Santa Anna pawning the ENTIRE STATE OF TEXAS to the Texans so he could keep HIS life intact. That's a pretty stark contrast, and clearly shows the courage of the men at the Alamo.

kcbrett5

The only problem is that this is largely untrue. The Mexicans didnt attack for 2 weeks, it was more like 2 hours. For the first 2 weeks they just bombarded the walls from a distance to break them. The Texanos most definitely did not kill 1600 mexicans at the Alamo. That is an old figure pumped up by American history books but widely considered to be a gross exaggeration at this point. The real # is somewhere around 10% of that one.

natesfortune

What I said was true. Although the final assault only lasted a couple of hours, that does not change my point. My point was that these guys sat in that place for 11 days, knowing full well that they were facing certain death, but they did not escape or surrender. In fact, others came to join them.

Contrast this to Santa Anna pawning his life off for the entire state of Texas and you have a striking contrast in courage in the face of death.

And the figure you gave - do you have any links to support this? 1600 has been the generally accepted historical figure for many years. If you want to challenge that, it's fine, but you must provide some support for what you're saying.

kcbrett5

This is a common misconception. There are many places to look but here is one I found relatively quickly from the University of Texas:

http://www.tsha.utexas.edu/handbook/...w/AA/qea2.html

It places the number dead and wounded at 600. This is more commonly accepted by historians now. That 1600 was inflated at the time by Texans, of course, who wanted to make the defenders of the Alamo seem more heroic.

History is written by the victors. This is typical of the way most of American history is now taught to our children. It is sad that we have to inflate the deeds of our people to seem more heroic. I would settle for the truth once in awhile.

Heat

Just saw the recent movie The Alamo last night and had a couple of quick questions:

1. Who were the big, bearded guys with axes who fought with the Mexicans? They looked like German mercenaries, but I’m not sure. Really though, they looked like the dwarves out of The Lord of the Rings, but huge (6', 250 pounds).

2. In real life, what happened to the woman, children, and male slaves at the Alamo?

Mondo Kane

The commentary points out that these guys were called "Pioneers". The largest soldiers of the Mexican military who could use their brute strength to break down barricades.

Capt. Dicknson's wife and her children (Not sure how many she had) were spared and let go. Much of the accounts of what occured in the Alamo was thanks to her.
Travis's slave, Joe, stuck around to identify the Alamo defenders to Santa Ana and was set free.