Popular reviews

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  Review by Jeremy ★½

  Watched for History of US Foreign Policy.

  Technically alright, but a chore to sit through. Also, racist as all hell, which I guess really makes sense for a 1915 film. Nationalistic perspectives on history from the producer that brought you Birth of a Nation. The main message: white woman pure and good, Mexican man dirty and bad.

  Also, I wish that the version I watched came with some sort of score or musical accompaniment. I’d be shocked if when this was first shown, they didn’t have a pianist playing along in the theater. It did give me a chance to create some surreal musical/film moments though, courtesy of Tom Waits, Lomelda, and (Sandy) Alex G.

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  Review by TV

  friday movie night babey!! 

  -earliest surviving movie adaptation of the Alamo
  -douglas fairbanks’ first role (blackface ooh la la)
  -soundtrack sounds like the one i made in my basement when i was seven on my keyboard
  -there is so much fucking fur in this......why do all the texicans wear fur.....are they.....yknow.....
  -i hate horses in war it makes me sad
  -these guys would have mad stats bc every wound was a headshot
  -a child gets knifed

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  Review by Lencho of the Apes ★★½

  A commentator mentioned that Griffith was the producer for this: I bet you didn't know that the conflict in Texas was triggered by threats to white womanhood. Sumbitch just couldn't help himself. "General Santa Anna, inveterate drug fiend and participant in shameful orgies."

  In rhythm and structure, this could be the template for fifty years of Hollywood mainstream war film; whether that's a good thing or not, it's certainly an efficient and effective storytelling engine...but that dozen (or two) microaggressive applications of 'greaser' stereotyping in the first half sure do add up to something unpleasant. Luckily, the back half is so much given to the slowly intensifying battle itself
  that there's hardly any time for race-baiting. Nicely handled, that battle scene..

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  Review by toothpickmoe ★★

  Pretty standard war propaganda, really. Lots of demonizing of the enemy and deifying of the heroes. The battle scenes are impressive if only for the sheer number of people involved. There are some real moments of chaos during the climactic battle (there are three different historical battles chronicled) that make up for the arm flailing deaths on both sides. It's brutal too, with some wound details and even placing women and children in peril (a D.W. Griffith special, who produced). Also lots of actors in brownface alongside actors who don't need it, which always feels even more off. Lots of great dramatic faces, especially on the main heroes like Crockett, Bowie, Houston, etc. One not-so-great face is Douglas Fairbanks in his screen debut (shot before The Lamb but released after); he's in blackface throughout as a rifle reloader for Bowie.

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  Review by Heliophage ★★

  Theoretically, this was the sort of picture Griffith probably had in mind when he set up to head the business end on what he'd branded as the Fine Arts corner of Triangle Films. This released within a year after The Birth of a Nation after all, and here's one of his main assistant directors, Christy Cabanne, all set up to graduate; riding the hype wave with an action-heavy historical number on a more moderate budget, while everyone in the company fills out the army of extras. The situation is framed with about the degree of "historical subtlety" one would expect (blah blah "liberty loving Americans"... "Napoleon of the West" ... "the honor of American womanhood" etc etc) though the primary…

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  Review by mayán

  had to watch this for class… so racist 😭

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  Review by Richard Cross ★★★

  This early story of the Alamo is heavily influenced by Griffith's Birth of a Nation, both in the staging of the impressive battle scenes and the simplistic depiction of the enemy as lazy, drunken sex fiends. Unfortunately, director Christy Cabanne, who also wrote the screenplay, makes little attempt to flesh out his characters and it all feels a little flat when away from the battle.

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  Review by Elias32 ★

  Estereotipos mexicanos

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  Review by Michael Friedman

  i lost it at the end when the texas flag faded into the confederate flag then faded into the american flag over SUPER over the top heroic music. funny stuff.

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  Review by Gregory Wood ★★

  Kinda racist historical silent.

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  Review by Cineanalyst ★★★

  Birth to Texas
  (originally posted on IMDb 25 October 2009)

  "The Birth of a Nation" was the most influential film in this art form's history, and its impact on subsequent pictures can be seen in those released shortly thereafter to those made many years later, but few other films so markedly demonstrate that influence than this one, "Martyrs of the Alamo". This is seen from the opening subtitle, "The Birth of Texas", as well as in its structure, filming and editing of battle scenes, its racist depiction of Mexicans, and its glorification of white Americans and white women's virtue. Like the director of "Martyrs of the Alamo", Christy Cabanne, most of the film's actors were Griffith veterans, too. Fred Burns,…