Saw ALAMO, *ing Dennis Quaid (as Sam Houston), Billy Bob Thornton(as Davy Crockett), Jason Patric (as Jim Bowie). It tells the story of die hard Texas Rangers who refuse to give up a mud fort to the invading Mexican army and rather, prefer to fight to the last man. Ever since , the Rangers and other assorted US Regiments and battalions have gone into battle with the cry "Remember the Alamo!!" Though it has been roundly panned by critics, I quite liked the movie, it slowly builds up the personalities of the main characters and show, how they are sucked into fighting to the death, based on their code of honour. Interesting tidbit was the Negro slaves, who support their masters faithfully in the fight , but once their "masters" die, they refuse to take any further part in the battle.

this reminds me of another great tale of valor which would one day make a great movie .Its about the battle of Saragrahi, in the pre-world war one era (1890 or 1900s i think), where a small squad of 11 sikhs kept out over 5000 Afghan troops for a whole week. Incidentally both these battles (Alamo & Saragrahi) feature in the United Nations list of the 10 most brave battles ever, i have heard its even taught in French schools as examples of courageous deeds.

How come we never read about it in our school history books . IF I remember correctly , in our history books in secondary school (CBSE curriculum, dunno abt others) , a rosy picture was always painted about the Soviet Union and other communist countries, there was hardly any mention about the US and other capitalist economies. I think it's a good example of mass indoctrination of school kids, catch 'em young, if you feed enough bullshit at an impressionable age, people will believe wholeheartedly in it when they become adults. Well after Mr Murli Joshi and his elk kicked the pseudo-communists out of the NCERT board, future kids will no longer grow up with communist tendencies, rather I guess they will grow up being religious fanatics. Unbiased education, anybody ?