American Notes

The nearly 200 doomed men who made a stand at the Alamo in San Antonio helped inspire Texans to defeat General Santa Anna's Mexican army in 1836. Today more than half of San Antonio's 1.1 million residents are Hispanic, and some are up , in arms about the way a new film depicts the famous battle. Alamo -- The Price of Freedom is to run in a giant-screened theater near the fort. Hispanic leaders claim the film demeans the role of nine Tejano (Texas-born Mexican) defenders in the siege. Also "inaccurate and uncalled for," they say, is a scene that shows Mexican soldiers bayoneting Colonel Jim Bowie to death in his bed.

"No one agrees on what really happened. There are no chronicles," responds George McAlister, an amateur historian who put up most of the film's $3 million cost. "I made an honest attempt to reflect the battle as accurately as I could." Despite threats of protests, he plans to proceed with the film's public debut on March 6, the 152nd anniversary of the Alamo's fall.