The Alamo - Roadshow Version (1960): Reconstructed in HD

I very much enjoyed this extended version of The Alamo. I grew up on John Wayne westerns, and this was one of my favorite. Seeing it extended in this seamless way was very cool.

I saw the version in 1960 when I was 14. After many years of waiting it is finally in my collection. I wasn't sure I would live long enough. Wraith should work for a Hollywood studio as this is a magnificent job. This will probably be the definitive version unless Amazon/MGM allows a full restoration, if that is even still possible. Don't miss this, if you have any interest in the original Roadshow Version. Kudos to all involved .

Great job and an enjoyable experience to watch. I wish the movie studios would come on board with putting the full version back together like this edit did.

This truly is a behemoth of a film, clocking in at about 3 Hours, 20 Minutes and it shows. Visually, "The Alamo" is quite impressive, with grand scale battle scenes and well-executed period details it's masterful how they were able to achieve the sense of scale without the use of CG. The production values for its time were quite high something akin to modern day event movies. I always loved the term "epic", whenever a movie was tagged with the "epic" tag, I knew I was in for a good time and this movie was truly an epic in the most truest sense of that word. A studio remaster would truly be a sight to behold from film preservation perspective, but until then Wraith's Edit is genuinely the best alternative out there.

I joined fanedit.org purely in pursuit of the roadshow version of The Alamo, and I must say it was a pleasure to finally have the opportunity to view this cut of the film. Wraith very competently mixed his upscaled laserdisc footage with the HD material from the other, abridged version of the film. The laserdisc scenes are rather beautiful, and are edited seamlessly with the rest of the film.

However, a few details marred my enjoyment. First, the audio was out of sync by 250ms and had to be remuxed. Second, the framerate of the HD footage was poorly converted, resulting in a skipped frame once or twice every 20-30 seconds--so the result is a bit jumpy. Now, it's not quite as bad as it sounds. I'm particularly sensitive to such things, and my brother couldn't even see it until I pointed it out. The good news is that Wraith says he's working on a new version of this edit which corrects those errors, and I'm looking forward to having a look at that in the future.

I would also like to submit my opinion that, being a preservation, it should strive to preserve the original as precisely as possible. This means: nix the added credits after the overture and, if you must credit yourself, it should be moved to its own card after the exit music has finished.

As for the film itself, seeing the roadshow version has convinced me that the shorter version is the superior edit. This version burdens the film with unnecessary scenes that were wisely cut. Their inclusion here results in a rather clunky affair that drags in places where the abridged version shines. If this is the version that most people saw during its initial run, it's no wonder that it under-performed. Nevertheless, it's a shame that it has been so maltreated and neglected over the years. It deserves to be preserved, no matter what I might think of it, and I'm glad there's someone like Wraith with us to take his precious time to do so.