Alamo Village thumbnails

Alamo Village is one of those "only in Texas, only because of Texas" places. On 30 acres in the midst of a working cattle ranch, deep in South Texas, is the world's most complete movie set. Over 200 movies, TV shows and music videos have been filmed here. John Wayne's version of "The Alamo" (1959) put Alamo Village on the map, although it wasn't the first Alamo story filmed here. That honor goes to the 1955 version with Ernest Borgnine, titled "The Last Command." The TV show "Texas", based on the James Michener book, also had parts filmed here. For visitors, it's a good photographic opportunity, although I visited on an overcast day.

Above: the most famous facade in Texas really didn't look like this in 1836. The rounded front wall was added long after the battle, when the U.S. Army garrisoned horses in the structure. In fact, the real Alamo was rather mistreated until the early 1900's when it began to undergo formal preservation and public memorialization.

It was a flag like this one that flew over the Alamo until March 6, 1836, when it fell after 13 days of siege. The Texians inside weren't all rebelling against being part of Mexico, nor was the Revolution simply a racial battle between Anglos and Mexicans. Rather, the 1824 flag meant that Texians wanted to preserve the Mexican constitution written in 1824, after freedom from the Spanish. That constitution was a relatively enlightened one that called for representative government. Mexican dictator Antonio Lopez de Santa Anna had usurped and consolidated power as the self-created "Napoleon of the West."

Above: I particularly like this digital shot. To make a film equivalent with those lighting variations would have taken more expertise than I enjoy.