Remember The Alamo – The American Experience (PBS)
Picture: C Sound: C Extras: D
Program: B
When attempting to
understand a nation’s identity, nothing is more informative than their myths and
no myth is more illustrative of Texan, if not American, identity than the
valiant fight put up at the Alamo. However,
myth and reality are rarely the same. In
an effort to develop a rich history of the Alamo, PBS Home Video, as part of their American Experience series, offers
an hour long documentary that would make Roland Barthes and Joseph Campbell
proud. Most likely produced to coincide
with the release of Disney’s big-budget clunker, The Alamo, Remember the
Alamo is a more critical approach to the historical context surrounding the
battle in San
Antonio. While the myth valorizes the fatalistic
heroics of Davy Crockett and Jim Bowie, the documentary chooses to focus on the
story of the Mexican settlers in Texas, many of who fought along side the American
settlers at the Alamo.
Written and directed by
Joseph Tovares, Remember the Alamo
begins the historical narrative in 1813, where Mexican settlers, the Tejanos, fought
for independence from the malevolent Spanish rule. Uninterested in its inhabitants, the Spanish
crown viewed Texas in exclusively economic terms. As a result, when Spain crushed the Tejanos revolution, they
systematically executed all the male insurgents while brutally imprisoning and
abusing the women and children. Jose
Antonio Navarro, the child of a wealthy Tejanos family who escaped these
hostilities, is the central figure to this documentary. After Mexico secured independence from Spain, Navarro rose to prominence in Texas and Mexico as a key political and economic figure (his wealth
was a product of smuggling between Louisiana and Texas), even becoming the mayor of San Antonio at the age of 26.
Navarro, in an effort to promote economic growth, encouraged American
immigration to Texas. This
crafted a strong relationship between Navarro and the economically-troubled Missouri aristocrat Stephan F. Austin, who saw Texas as a land of opportunity and encouraged morally
astute and adventurous Americans to settle in Texas. However,
the dark side of Navarro’s settlement of Texas centers on its economic structure. Navarro believed prosperity was found in a
slave-based cotton industry; therefore, he encouraged American settlers to come
with slaves, against the protests of the Mexican government. Navarro’s tensions with Mexico City were magnified when General Santa Anna assumed the
governorship of Texas, who eventually led 4000 Mexican soldiers in the
siege of the Alamo and the 200 Americans and Tejanos inside. The actual recounting of the battle at the Alamo occurs in the last few minutes of the documentary, and demonstrates
its importance in securing Texan independence.
However, for the Tejanos, the story ends bleakly; the influx of American
immigration divided the Tejanos community, and made them a minority in a
country they fought hard to defend.
Like most PBS
documentaries, Remember the Alamo,
narrated by Hector Elizondo, weaves a compelling, and often overlooked,
historical narrative with interesting interviews and stylish recreations. The disk provides few special features,
including an eight minute interview with filmmaker Joseph Tovares, web links to
further information at the PBS website, as well as a Spanish audio track. The picture quality, presented in
non-anamorphic widescreen and the Dolby Digital 2.0 Stereo with Pro Logic
surrounds are fair at best; but given the budgetary constraints on public
television documentaries, such quality is to be expected. Oddly, the documentary begins and ends with
commercials from the PBS sponsors, Scott’s and Liberty Mutual. One would expect such endorsements on the
original television presentation, but on the DVD, it seems as bit out of place.
In the lure of Texas mythology, no phrase is more important than
“remember the Alamo.” Although
the reality of the battle is truly an exhibition of David versus Goliath bravery, to ignore the contributions of the Mexican settlers that
fought along with the Americans against Santa Anna’s troops is a historical
injustice. This documentary effectively
changes perceptions.
- Ron Von Burg
