The Alamo

9/25

War, history/US/English (Japanese subtitles)/137mins
Starring: Billy Bob Thornton, Jason Patric, Patrick Wilson
Director: John Lee Hancock
Touchstone Pictures

Just what we need: another film about the Alamo. In the past, these films have been, shall we say, long on heroism and short on complexity, so you have to wonder what another can do to add to the oeuvre.

In defiance of expectations, John Lee Hancock's film does not fall into the trap of maudlin or sentimentality or flag waving. It gives us some well-rounded characters and a poignant description of doomed people — on both sides of the conflict.

The world knows the story of the 183 Texans who hold Santa Anna's Mexican army for two weeks, hang on for reinforcements that don't come and finally all die in the Mexican assault. A problem for any director here is that there are two weeks of waiting around to depict. What to do? Unending shots of Jim Bowie whittling with his knife?

Hancock works on developing his characters, a project in which the director is well-aided by his actors. Billy Bob Thornton just about steals the film with his thoughtful and faceted portrayal of Davy Crockett. A natural leader and inspirer of men he may have been, here we are reminded that he was also a performer and a politician and he hints at some alarm that he is back in a real fight against difficult odds. “The fighting's over — ain't it?” he says with jolting irony as he arrives at the Alamo. Jason Patric turns in a painfully convincing portrait of a dying Bowie who is doomed whatever the outcome of the battle. Emilio Echevarria is the strutting egomaniac Santa Anna — as callous as he is self-indulgent. His own army is appalled at him but also very much in fear of him.

The film doesn't entirely avoid the difficult questions of the war and herein lies much of the poignancy. From the Texan side is a
story undoubted heroism and sacrifice in a war that had debatable justness, and, on the Mexican side, the soldiers fought heroically to be sacrificed to stupidity and hubris. And all of this sounds like any number of wars in history.

The Fog of War

9/11

Documentary/US/English (Japanese subtitles)/106mins
Featuring: Robert McNamara
Director: Errol Morris
Sony Pictures

Robert McNamara was involved with the US firebombing of Japan and is widely considered an architect of the Vietnam war. Nice man. Why are we giving him 106 minutes of our time and forking out hard-earned dosh for the privilege?

The Fog of War, an extended interview with McNamara, is a surprisingly compelling piece of cinema which puts a face and a character on this man who was close to some of the major events of the last century. He is an engaging speaker with lots of surprising and scary tales to tell, and his account is packaged by expert documentary maker Errol Morris.

It is interesting to note that the film came about almost by accident. Originally, McNamara agreed to speak to Morris for just one hour for another project. In the end the two met on several occasions and logged about 20 hours of interviews. And he has a lot to talk about. He was a key aide to Gen. Curtis LeMay, was Secretary of Defense under JF Kennedy and Lyndon Johnson, President of General Motors and Secretary of the World Bank.

He was instrumental in planning the fire bombing of Japanese cities in the second war, a campaign he now seems to find excessive, and confides that LeMay remarked to him that they could be considered war criminals. On the Cuban Missile Crisis, he suggests that the world was closer to nuclear incineration than many people supposed and that it was more luck than judgment that averted war. On the Vietnam war he surprises by telling us that he urged Johnson to pull out the troops. He tells us how, had Kennedy not died, the Vietnam war might never have happened as Kennedy was keen to remove the troops by 1965.

Of course, this could all be the self-justifying ramblings of a man
in his twilight years, yet somehow we do not believe that. He comes across not as a man looking for approval — no, he accepts culpability where it applies. He comes across as a man telling it like he sees it.

Film Reviews: Chris Page

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