John Wayne's film, The Alamo, was vital to the myths about Texas

What we see is what we learn to believe to be true

The Alamo film poster. Incorporates artwork by Reynold Brown. Public domain

I recently watched The Alamo, the 1960 John Wayne film that created the glorious celluloid legend about the 13-day siege of the former Franciscan chapel by the Mexicans in 1836.

The film dwelt in loving detail on the courage of the Anglo Texians (and their women) as they took on the 7,000-man army of Mexico’s ruler, General Santa Anna. It lingered on the good-heartedness of Davy Crockett, the coonskin hat-wearing legendary American frontiersman from Tennessee. Crockett, like the other 185 or so men who perished in the Alamo, is shown as a doughty upholder of old-fashioned values, not least the love of liberty. By God, is he American and proud to be so.

Despite everything I’ve written about the mythmaking that surrounds the Alamo as a Texas origin story redolent of the finest American values, it was hard not to be moved by the Wayne film. (Click here, here and here for my other blogs on the Alamo.)

And it bears out…