Little Moment, Big Meaning: The Tragedy of Davy from The Alamo (2004)

There are some historical topics that keep coming up in films. The Normandy Invasion, the crime waves of the 1920s and 30s, and the Battle of the Alamo. It's actually kind of amazing how this one historical event has been adapted and talked about more than others. There are so many that there's even a book that talks about it.

By the way, yes, I do have a copy of this book.

In 2004, we got the Ron Howard produced The Alamo (dir. John Lee Hancock) which to date is probably the most accurate version to date. 

This obviously didn't sit well with some since this movie was a bomb at the box office and the critics didn't show favor towards it. 

My guess for that is a lot of people wanted it to be like John Wayne's version where there's a ton of men in raccoon skin caps and Crockett goes down in, I guess you could say, a literal blaze of glory. 

I would give a spoiler warning but, for one thing, this movie is nearly 60 years old and its based on an event that I think most people know about already.

Same thing with the '04 film. That's the closest to a spoiler warning you're going to get.  

With the '04 film, we see our heroes acting uncertain about themselves and not always in the best light. The main highlight of this is with Billy Bob Thornton's portrayal of Crockett. 

In the film, we see Thornton's version of David Crockett (he prefers that according to his friend and fellow volunteer Micajah Autry) able to put on his "King of the Wild Frontier" persona for the masses. But there's something eating away at him. 

This scene basically summarizes the tragedy of David Crockett. He was a simple man from Tennessee who wanted a fresh start on things but could never escape it. At least in this film. 

Sure, he's still a people-person and enjoys a good chat. But you get a sense that he's tired putting on that dime store version of himself.

The first time we see him in the movie is during a big party where there's also a show based around the legendary tales of Crockett starring an actor named James Hackett - played by the late Lynn Mathis in what would be his last feature film. 

As the actor takes the stage he acknowledges Crockett's presence by saying "Good evening, Mr. Crockett." Crockett in return, playfully says, "Good evening, Mr. Crockett." A foreshadow to how the actual Crockett won't escape his folk hero status. 

Even when he arrives in San Antonio he almost instantly gets put on the stage to chat and tell stories. He's asked for autographs and asked to recite lines from the aforementioned show that he had no involvement with. 

Throughout the film, many shots almost give scenes at the Alamoa an almost stage-like vibe. This could possibly symbolize how the fort basically became the center stage for the Texas Revolution and a major symbol for the state. 

Probably the biggest indication of this is during the final stand in the chapel when it's just Crockett and four other defenders. 

At this point, Crockett and others have been trapped in the fort for 13 days and are exhausted and scared. Crockett, in particular, has a very uncertain look on his face but he looks down and sees the son of fellow defender Gregorio Esparza looking up at him. He looks at him almost like he wants Crockett to save them. So, he puts on his hero face one more time in this final moment. 

But that was not his final moment. Later we see Crockett as the only surviving garrison member and even the last moments of his life just before his execution he's put on a stage. In those final moments, he caves in and becomes gives in to what people expect. He knows that he can't escape and that he never could escape.

Personally, I've grown to really appreciate this film and it truly is a shame that this movie did so poorly. It's stuff like this that made me like it more. I highly recommend this film, especially if you're a history buff - this may be the closest we get to a completely historically accurate Alamo film. 

Feel free to share your thoughts and the article as well.

Follow me on Twitter @DocJohn90. 

30 Before 30 Bucket List

30 BEFORE I’M 30 BUCKET LIST

I turned 28 back in March. Which means I'm only two years away from going, "Oh dear God! I'm 30-years-old! What the hell have I done with my life?!"

A friend of mine, Kaity, actually turned 30 not too long ago and on her blog she wrote a blog checking off her '30 Before 30' list. She then followed it up with a '32 Before 32' list. Those lists can be seen at her blog (Bee)autiful Blessings. Check it out and support her.

These inspired me to come up with my own list. I know this is weird to post in a movie-related blog but I wanted to have it listed at a place where I can keep track of it - and people can probably hold me accountable in a way. But there are movie related things in it. So, I think we're good. 

Here we go:

1. Finish a screenplay/book/story idea of some kind. Some piece of writing that’s not a blog post or something related to my daytime job. At least get it done. Submitting it is a bonus. I’ve sat on these ideas for too long and I need to step up and get it done.

2. Visit The Alamo in San Antonio, Texas and if possible The Alamo Village in Bracketville, Texas. The Alamo has been something I’ve been fascinated with ever since I was kid and has, honestly, been an influence on several elements of my life. I’m not blinded by the romanticism of it but its still an interesting topic to me. Now, I know the Alamo Village is no longer in operation but it is still there.

3. Travel to New York City and/or Los Angeles. I’ve lived on this Earth for 28 years and I’ve never been to NYC and California. Hopefully I’ll visit one of these by the end of the year.

4. Do some volunteer work. Because I feel like I need to give back to people in some form.

5. Raise money for charities. I want to channel my frustration into something positive. The plan is to make a $5 donation every time I find myself getting incredibly angry about something instead of posting about it – 95% of the time it’ll be something political related. I'll donate $10 if I end up posting something angry. Consider this as a swear jar of sorts.

6. Do something that involves public speaking. Auditioning for a play, speaking somewhere, anything like that.

7. Start a Patreon page for this blog. But before that… see number 8.

8. Be more active in my blog writing. Obvious point is obvious. In regards to Patreon, I want to be able to have a consistent body of work. And no, this post will not count since it’s not a movie review or anything similar.

9. Watch all movies that won the Academy Award for Best Picture, Director, Acting, and Writing. I’ll try to watch as many of the other nominees as well. NOTE: I will not be watching the movies of Roman Polanski, Woody Allen, Kevin Spacey and I’m sure there may be others I’ll skip. I’m sure you can figure out why I’m leaving them out.

10. Watch at least half of the movies nominated for similar categories at the Razzies. I decided half because I must keep my sanity somehow.

11. Read the books I own but haven’t read yet. I’m one of those guys who goes into a bookstore and pretty much walks around going, “that looks good, that looks good, that looks good” and I’ll leave with a stack of books. Its especially bad if it’s a used bookstore.

12. Watch the movies I own but haven’t watched yet. See number eleven.

13. Watch (in some cases listen to) all Doctor Who episode. I’ve already started but I want to watch it from beginning to the current day. I’d also like to do a retrospective on it.

14. Take up a fitness class. Yoga, boxing, something. I want to get more active and something like this could help me out.

15. Organize my home office. I should probably have an environment fit to do work and writing.

16. Practice video editing. I’ve been wanting to do the reviews in a video format in some way or talk about other things in this format.

17. Bake at least five dishes featured in the Great British Bake Off. I love the show and if they can make some great looking stuff then I can too. I may focus on the technical challenges since those will help me with baking skills in general.

18. Make half of the recipes featured in Eat What You Watch by Andrew Rea (Binging With Babish) and A Taste of Cowboy by Kent Rollins. I love these books and the personalities behind them. If you like cooking/food you should add these to your collection. EDIT: I've decided to include recipes from Babish's website because there's a lot more in there that I'd like to make.

19. Get under 200 pounds. I’m around 235 pounds right now and I’m so damn close. I know I’ll never look like Chris Evans or Chris Pratt or Chris Pine, I sure as hell won’t look Chris Hemsworth (man, there are a lot of famous Chris’ right now) but I want to lose my gut.

20. Make a voice acting demo. I’ve always enjoyed doing voices so it’d be cool to make one.

21. Walk three different hiking trails. This is just to get myself more active.

22. Read my Great-Uncle’s service letters. My Great-Uncle died long before I was born. He suffered from PTSD and killed himself. All we really have are the letters he sent to my Great-Grandmother during his service in the Korean War. I want to read them because I want to see what was going on with him.  And to just get an idea of who he was.

23. Visit the statues dedicated to Mr. Rogers and Jim Henson and get a photo with it. These are two men I greatly admire and have influenced me greatly. This is just a small form of me paying respect to them.

24. Go see three live shows. I’ve only been to a handful of live shows in my life. I feel like that shouldn’t be so.

25. Frame my pictures and posters. I’ve collected a bunch of posters and pictures (and taken a bunch of them), so I should probably get them framed and mounted.

26. Learns songs to play on guitar, mandolin and ukulele. I’ve had these instruments for years and outside of a few chords I want to at least have a song memorized so I can play on the fly. A song that’s not Free Fallin’ (no disrespect to Tom Petty).

27. Organize and catalog my books and movies. At this point, my collections are basically scattered about in my house. I’m sure you can find a DVD in my sock drawer.

28. Paint a Bob Ross-style painting. This is my small way of paying tribute to the man who gave us happy clouds and reminded us that we don't make mistakes we just have happy accidents.

29. Learn and make different cocktails. I think Cocktail Chemistry will help me out with that.

30. Try ten new restaurants. I stole this one from my friend Kaity’s 32 before 32 list. I love food and I’m always looking for great local restaurants.

So, there it is. I'm hoping to complete at least half of these. 

Wish me luck!

SPOILER FILLED Avengers: Infinity War Rambling

Avengers: Infinity War (2018)
D: Anthony and Joe Russo
W: Christopher Markus, Stephen McFeely. Based on The Avengers by Stan Lee and Jack Kirby.
S: Robert Downey Jr., Chris Hemsworth, Mark Ruffalo, Chris Evans, Scarlett Johansson, Benedict Cumberbatch, Don Cheadle, Tom Holland, Chadwick Boseman, Paul Bettany, Elizabeth Olsen, Anthony Mackie, Sebastian Stan, Danai Gurira, Letitia Wright, Dave Bautista, Zoe Saldana, Josh Brolin, Chris Pratt. 

This review will feature so many spoilers! I can't properly talk about this movie without spoiling it.

Also, this isn't so much a review as it is me rambling. Sorry about that.

If you don't want to be spoiled, here's my review in a nutshell: Good movie, can't wait for the next Avengers movie, 4/5. Go see it.

Spoilers begin now. This is your final warning.

Soooooooooooo.... that movie was emotionally distressing. It's good but to quote Homestar Runner, "I can't handle it!"

But before I talk about the assault on my emotional state, let's address a criticism that the movie has - "It just drops the characters in without explaining." In that, they just introduce a scene or characters without a proper introduction or giving the setup.

Um... okay?

Did these people also criticize Return of the Jedi for the same reason?
"They don't explain what a Jedi is or why Han Solo was frozen in carbonite."

I mean, yes, every film should be able to hold up on its own but when a movie is AN OBVIOUS SEQUEL to something. Does this look like a jumping on point?

This is basically the big event comic of this cinematic universe. This is the amalgamation of the of the past ten years and the creative team did a pretty damn good job at handling all these characters and storylines.

Everything has led to this moment. Every story has contributed to understanding these characters and what's at stake for them and why they do what they do.

Now, many of these characters have their own compelling story but the one who basically steals the show - THANOS!

It's such a relief that the character is interesting because, well, as big of an MCU fan I am, I'm willing to admit their villains haven't been very interesting. There have been good ones but a lot of them have been just... well, evil. Though they have been getting better recently.

As for Thanos... he basically thinks he's the hero.

No, seriously. When we first saw Thanos (Josh Brolin) I'm sure a majority of us thought that he was just be "I'm a God! You're all ants to me!" kind of villain. But in this movie he believes that his mission is noble and just. He believes that he is a martyr.

There are points in the movie where he acts cocky in his fights but that's the same attitude that a hero might have. There's even a scene where he comforts Scarlett Witch after she had to kill Vision - that's explained below.

His plan? End the hunger and suffering in the world by wiping out half of the universe's population which he believes will re-balance things. And he succeeds. But more on that in a bit.

Now, before the movie, he already possessed the Power Stone and gains the others in films. He first gets the Space Stone from the Tesseract on the ship carrying the remaining Asgardians from Thor: Ragnarok (2017) and in the process kills Heimdall (Idris Elba) and Loki (Tom Hiddleston) - by the way, this happens at the very beginning of the film. Just in case you were wondering if they were playing around.

Sidenote: where the hell is Valkyrie and Korg? There better be a good answer!

Next, he gets the Reality Stone, held by the Collector (Benicio Del Toro) and then he gains the Soul Stone by... sacrificing his adopted daughter Gamora (Zoe Saldana). Yeah, that's when you realize that not only is he completely serious about getting the Stones but he is also will sacrifice things he legitimately loves. You really get a sense that killing Gamora to get the Soul Stone was tough and soul-crushing for him (which is probably the point).

Then the Time Stone which was being held by Doctor Strange (Benedict Cumberbatch). But instead of him taking it from them, Strange gives it up. More on that later.

Finally, the Mind Stone which is held by Vision (Paul Bettany). Vision and a bunch of the other Avengers took him to Wakanda to try and get it extract it so they could destroy the stone before Thanos could arrive but it didn't work. So, Scarlett Witch (Elizabeth Olsen) who was also Vision's love interest was the only one who had the power to destroy it and in the process killed him.

Unfortunately, Thanos reversed it and killed Vision to take the Stone. And so, he's able to accomplish his mission... half the universe is decimated. Including several of our heroes: Bucky (Sebastian Stan), Black Panther (Chadwick Boseman), Falcon (Anthony Mackie), Spider-Man (Tom Holland), Doctor Strange, Scarlett Witch, Maria Hill (Cobie Smulders), Nick Fury (Samuel L. Jackson), and all the Guardians except Rocket. Each one of these deaths mean something.

This was pretty much me after the movie.

Bucky and Falcon's deaths were definitely emotional blows to Captain America (Chris Evans). Bucky was Cap's childhood friend and he finally got him back after his brain control and Falcon was one of Cap's first real friends outside of the Avengers and was an emotional support for him. It's also obvious that the latter hit War Machine (Don Cheadle) too given how he calls out for him during the deaths.

Black Panther's death means a big blow to the nation of Wakanda and all his family and friends. Especially given after all the drama in Panther's own movie.

Scarlet Witch was obvious one of the few whose power could stop Thanos. Also, during her death, she almost seemed to embrace. Maybe she felt guilt and thought she let people down - even though it's not her fault.

The Guardians are obviously going to be a blow to Rocket whose arc in the previous Guardians movie was learning to open and accept that he's apart of a group now that cares about him.

And then there's Spider-Man... oh dear... that was a toughy. The main reason: he's a kid. Okay, yeah he's a teenager which isn't the same but in that group, he is the kid. His response is crying and saying "I don't want to die." That is the most natural response.

But there's another reason why Spidey's death has a big impact. It's yet another slice of guilt for Iron Man (Robert Downey Jr.). Iron Man's main motivation throughout the movies has been guilt. Guilt over the weapons he made being used by terrorists, his actions have led to the death of multiple civilians and now... he may feel responsible for basically dragging this kid into the Avengers lifestyle which leads to his death.

As for Strange, well, before he dies he says "it had to be done". And before his group of Avengers/Guardians fights Thanos, he looks into all possible outcomes and they only have one winning outcome. Him giving up the Time Stone was half the population dying was the only way that would result in a win.

So yeah, this movie does not play around. I found myself turning into Al Capone from The Untouchables (1987).

But outside of the emotional gut punches the movie delivered, It had some great and creative action, well-done pacing, and we got to see some great character interactions I'm sure many of us have been dying to see. 

Now we just have to wait another year to see how it all ends... I don't know how I'm going to make it. 

But chances are if you're reading this, you've already seen it. If you haven't... well, you should still go and see it. 

I'll probably update this later with where this ranks in the MCU. And yeah, I know this isn't my most comprehensive review ever. Next time I'll be a bit more comprehensive and collected. 

Thanks for reading. Shares your own thoughts and share the article. 

Also, follow me on Twitter @DocJohn90.