The film was directed by John Lee Hancock, produced by Ron Howard, Brian Grazer, and Mark Johnson, distributed by Buena Vista Pictures (through its Touchstone Pictures banner), and starring Dennis Quaid as Sam Houston, Billy Bob Thornton as Davy Crockett, Jason Patric as Jim Bowie, and Patrick Wilson as William B. Travis.

The film received mixed to negative reviews from critics and was a box office flop, losing the studio over $146 million.

[1] At a party in 1835, while trying to persuade people to migrate to Texas, Sam Houston encounters David Crockett, recently defeated in his bid for re-election to Congress.

Texas has rebelled against Mexico, and its dictatorial president Santa Anna is personally leading one wing of his army to retake San Antonio, then invade the settlements and put an end to the rebellion.

Various members of the Texan War Party called for the Texas army to depart Bexar, cross into Mexico, and capture the town of Matamoros.

Days later, after hearing that the Alamo has fallen, Houston, now in full command of all Texan troops, orders a general retreat eastward.

A few weeks later, Houston halts his retreat near the San Jacinto River, where he decides to risk everything in a sudden attack when he learns of Santa Anna's presence.

With the support of two cannons and a group of Juan Seguin's mounted Tejanos, Houston surprises Santa Anna's army during its afternoon siesta and in the ensuing rout the vengeful Texans massacre at least 700 Mexican soldiers.

Santa Anna is captured, and in exchange for his life, he agrees to order all Mexican troops to withdraw from Texas and accept Texan independence.

The origin of the project began in the mid 1990's, with screenwriter Leslie Bohem, who had previously worked on films such as A Nightmare on Elm Street 5: The Dream Child, and Dante’s Peak.

In January 2001, Variety announced that Kevin Jarre was writing a new script,[3][4] In October of the same year, it was announced that John Sayles was hired to write a new draft,[5][6][7] Sayles, who previously had written and directed Lone Star, had come up with a 137-page draft that was considered brilliant,[8][9] In contrast to the 1960 film of the same name starring John Wayne, this film was going to attempt to depict the political points of view from both the Mexican and Texan sides, as well as explore the personal lives of Alamo heroes William Travis, Jim Bowie and Davy Crockett.

As Howard mentioned in an interview: "I believe audiences are ready to embrace the complexities of the film, but it still boils down to heroism,” “The simplistic approach is not appropriate and it’s not interesting, We know there will be limitations and controversies".

Producer Brian Grazer wanted Sean Penn for the role of James Bowie, and Billy Bob Thornton was cast as David Crockett.

The sets were subsequently abandoned but were visited occasionally, at the Milton Reimers Ranch Park, although they were deteriorating; they were not intended to endure for a long period of time.

Two calls were made to find thin and gaunt extras to play the soldiers, but the film's scenes of the attack on the Alamo were shot in harsh weather.

[36] The depiction of Crockett's fate came from memoirs written by José Enrique de la Peña, an officer in Santa Anna's army.

[43] The Houston Chronicle gave the film a grade of "B", saying Hancock, whom the paper points out is a "former Houstonian", "shows respect if not reverence for his state's mythical heritage, even while viewing it from modern perspectives"; it notes the "build-up to battle is prolonged and talky, and for a classic tale of heroic defiance, this Alamo feels more restrained than rousing.

[44] Entertainment Weekly gave it a "C+", saying "Hancock's moderate, apolitical, war-is-hell dramatization of the famous 1836 battle that shaped the future of a free and independent American Texas isn't nearly the flop that the exceptionally harsh and unavoidable advance chatter has suggested it is.

But The Alamo never harmonizes into a cinematic experience any more resonant than the average, manly, why-we-fight pic, or coalesces into a stirring cry for freedom".

Here is a movie that captures the loneliness and dread of men waiting for two weeks for what they expect to be certain death, and it somehow succeeds in taking those pop-culture brand names like Davy Crockett and Jim Bowie and giving them human form".