Only saw the second half, and not that sorry I missed the first. Brian Keith and James Arness are too old for their parts, as others have pointed out, but TV movies need names to draw viewers. Baldwin did a good job, perhaps a little under-whelming; while Raul Julia seemed to me to be a bit more "intense" than needed. Apparently David Ogden Stiers' character was well-paid by Santa Ana, or had designs on the Mexican Presidency, to stay around and absorb the crap dished out by His Excellancy. (Maybe that was addressed earlier in the film, which I didn't see.) The final battle was weak, and lacked any sort of reality. One of my complaints was the rapidity of fire from the defenders' single-shot weapons. And they couldn't push those rickety ladders off the walls faster than that? Anyway, it's more believable than The Duke's version, but in general only barely worth the time to watch it.
The Alamo: Thirteen Days to Glory
(1987 TV Movie)
An OK Alamo presentation, but only just
17 November 2009