Ever since the early days of cinema, filmmakers have turned to inspiring stories from history as a source of inspiration. Classic films like Ben-Hur, Spartacus, Cleopatra, How The West Was Won, and Lawrence of Arabia took important historical events and used them as the basis for dramatic storytelling. Among the most popular “epics” of this era was John Wayne’s 1960 Western classic The Alamo. Although Wayne starred in countless Western adventure films, The Alamo attempted to recount the most famous battle in Texas history and pay tribute to the men who died fighting the Centralist Republic of Mexico. There was clearly a special touch that Wayne had that other filmmakers simply could not replicate. When Patrick Wilson, Billy Bob Thorton, and Dennis Quaid attempted to star in a 2004 remake, it became one of the biggest bombs at the box office.
The 2004 remake of John Wayne’s Oscar-nominated The Alamo starring Billy Bob Thornton, Patrick Wilson, and Dennis Quaid was a total box-office bomb.