THIRTEEN DAYS TO GLORY (1989)

[Bromhead24]

neferetus said:

bromhead24 said:

I liked Danny's girlfriend, she was lovely.

Laura Fabian is her name.

Is she single?

[neferetus]

bromhead24 said:

Is she single?

Yo no se. Sorry.

[neferetus]

Alec Baldwin's portrayal strikes me as coming closest to the historical Travis.
He's a firebrand from the get-go and doesn't let his youth stand in the way of
his ambitions. He wants it all; glory, command and respect.

He's not intimidated at all by Jim Bowie, though he probably should be. His
youthful display of toughness in front of the men only hinders, rather than helps his
image---and his position. At a time when he and Bowie should be allies, their
public bickering only seems to divide the garrison into two camps; Bowie's men
and Travis' men.

Like Travis, Baldwin's Alamo commander is also a romantic, giving up his headquarters
room to young Danny Cloud and Lucia, then stopping by to give his catseye ring
to baby Angelina Dickinson. (By suggestion of Tony Pasqua, by the way.)

[neferetus]

I guess you can start a thread on the 'blemishes' of ANY Alamo movie and there will be folks enough to jump in and tell what they
DIDN'T like about it. That being said, I'm only going to focus my remarks on the 'good points' of 13 DAYS TO GLORY.

Director Burt Kennedy, who'd directed John Wayne before (and who was even wearing a hat that the Duke once gave him during
production), wanted to do an update on the Alamo story, while at the same time, pay respectful tribute to Duke's Alamo.



That being said, the compound was revitalized to resemble the Waynamo of 1960. Kennedy had hoped to get the rights to stock
footage of the Waynamo battle scenes and he wanted the compound to match-up as closely as possible.

This is about the only Alamo film that tries to take you through the 13 day siege, boring as some of the days may've been. It is also the only Alamo film that places its focus on Santa Anna and what makes him tick. And 13 Days was so fortunate to have had the likes of Raul Julia to flesh out the Mexican dictator and make him real.

Again, Baldwin's Travis was also a plus. Juan Seguin (Michael Wren)gets more air-time than ever before, John MacGregor plays his pipes, Crockett even has a hand at the fiddle. And, while some may protest her portrayal as being "too 80's", Mrs. Dickinson (Kathleen York), we find, is much more than that woman who merely walks out of the Alamo compound at the end of most film battles. She's a person.

Keith's Crockett, in my opinion, is all right. He had to work with the material he was given and even in that, tells a humourous yarn, or two. What sinks him is his lack of a coonskin cap, long hair and side-burns. Had 13 Days been but a radio-play some of you out there would likely be applauding Keith's handling of the role. But it is his appearence on screen that sinks him. That and his stupid cowboy hat. (Oops! I'm suppose to stay positive here!)

Back to the plusses: The Gonzales 32 make their appearence, the Texians sally forth to destroy the jacales, dimension is given to the Louis Rose character and the Gregorio Esparza family is portrayed for the first time on film.

I could go on and on, but the point is, no Alamo buff is going to be completely satisfied with any Alamo film. But, do you know what, oh Alamo buff? No Alamo film was designed with you in mind. You are a minority here. The director is shooting for the general public and the general public really doesn't care if the weapons, or uniforms are right. They want story and action. And in that, 13 DAYS TO GLORY somewhat delivers.

[Bromhead24]

They did the best they could on a $1.50 budget.
The final assault would have been more effective if they shot it in the dark, that way they could hide the fact that there where only 40 to 50 soldados.

[neferetus]

bromhead24 said:

They did the best they could on a $1.50 budget.
The final assault would have been more effective if they shot it in the dark, that way they could hide the fact that there where only 40 to 50 soldados.

Yes, the first (night) assault did look impressive, to a point. But the cameraman should've done some quick cut aways so the viewer would not see that there were indeed only 40, or so guys charging out there. The charge, coming out of the darkness looks frightening, until one sees that there's just nobody behind them. There's over 100 guys on the wall firing down and only 40 of them charging. No wonder they retreated so swiftly.

[seguin]

neferetus said:

There's over 100 guys on the wall firing down and only 40 of them charging. No wonder they retreated so swiftly.

;D

[neferetus]

Much as everyone tries to diss Brian Keith for his performance as Crockett in 13 DAYS TO GLORY, I think thay are really despairing
the fact that he wears a modern-day cowboy hat, has short, thinning grey hair and a stupid buckskin outfit that looks right off the
rack and probably is. Keith did very well as Crockett, in my opinion, anyway, given the material to work with that he was given.
Had they given Keith a long-haired wig, some sideburns, an excellent coon hat and skins, he would probably get at least as much
respect as that old warhorse Merrill Connolly does in ALAMO: THE PRICE OF FREEDOM. And Keith was a finer actor than Connolly
ever was, to boot. Appearence means a lot when you're trying to portray a well-known historical character. It just does.

Attachments:

[neferetus]

In tribute to John Wayne's THE ALAMO, Burt Kennedy decided
to replicate the "raid for cannon scene" from that film. Trouble
was, in the Wayne film, the Texans sneak through the reeds
along the river to get to the Mexican cannon emplacement. In
13 DAYS however, the Texans "creep" across bare open prairie
and no one seem to see them.

[neferetus]

Another nod to THE WAYNAMO was putting a bent cross atop the chapel
facade. But that's a rather anemic-looking bent cross, n'est-ce pas?

[neferetus]

The Waynamo set, as refurbished for 13 DAYS TO GLORY and GONE TO TEXAS. (Photo by Larry Grimsley)