Davy Crockett

I've noticed most of the comments on this film have come from guys who saw "Davy Crockett" back in the fifties and sixties. I just want to assure those folks that Fess Parker was still working his magic years later.

In the early eighties, when I was about nine years old, HBO or one of those channels ran the entire series. After we watched it, us kids around the neighborhood were piling up firewood behind our fences to make a sort of rampart upon which to stand while we defended the Alamo from old Santy' Anna. We didn't have the coonskin caps, but we did have active imaginations. Some of us even took it upon ourselves to learn more about the battle. Surely our teachers were mystified when, at that years history fair and contest, half of the boys entered carefully constructed miniatures of the battle, composed of Play-Do, pencils, and toy soldiers.

I guess the show still had an impact on me later on when I was in the military. I learned from Fess Parker to make every shot count. When the time came, I did. I suspect quite a few of our nation's finest marksmen learned that from him as well.

I won't go into the artistic or historic discrepancies of the film. Nor will I ramble on about politics in the so-called Age of Jackson, the causes of the Texan war for independence, or the speculations made about the death of David Crockett. This is a film for kids (regardless of age), and should be enjoyed as such. But one more thing has to be thrown in.

On a late autumn night about six years ago I got the news that my grandfather had passed away. I went home and sat alone in the dark in my living room feeling that terrible numbness that we've all known at such times. I must have sat there a couple of hours before I found the TV control and hit the switch, mainly so there would be some light.

On the screen were Fess Parker and Buddy Ebson, just beginning their adventure with the river pirates. For an hour or so I was able to smile a bit and feel a little of what I once had when I had first seen re-runs of that show twenty years before. Then I got some sleep and was able to wake up and face reality with a little more grit than I might otherwise have had.

If Fess Parker ever reads this, I hope he knows how grateful I was, and am.

I was 7 years old when this movie came out. I had a coonskin cap and wore it until it cut off my circulation. I'm now 50+ and have seen exactly three professional basketball, one hockey, two baseball and no football games. I built and hunt with a 1775 flintlock, horn and bag. My focus these days is Lewis and Clark but it was Fess Parker and Buddy Ebsen who captured my imagination and have kept me dreamin' for nearly half a century. Sure there were some Hollywood inaccuracies but the flavor, feeling and freedom of the eastern woodlands and the early frontiersmen were portrayed good enough to make me, and a lot of others, life-long Crockett admirers. "Be sure you are right then go ahead."

How can you say anything bad about a movie that gave you so much joy as a child and one that you can watch over and over again? The acting is a little bad and the script is a little stupid. Reference General Jackson "stoppered?" But even thought those things I feel are true, the joy is still there and you hate to see it end. Since no one knows how Crockett really died, not having him dead at the end but knowing it was only moments away was the best way they could have done it. The movie even had some historic truths which other movies about the Alamo lacked such as the attack before dawn. It seemed longer when I was a kid and I know they have cut some; yea even important scenes, which I wish they would restore to DVD or VHS.

"Davy Crockett: King of the Wild Frontier" is a movie made up edited portions of three episodes of Disney's VERY popular television series. It is a highly fictionalized version of the exploits of the frontier scout and adventurer, Davy Crocket. It's odd, as when the film begins there is a statement reading 'The characters and events in this photoplay are fiction....'. Well, this isn't completely true...quite a bit of the movie is truth. Crockett DID exist, as did many others in the film, such as General Andrew Jackson. And, some of the events happened...but the Disney writers decided that the real story of the man's life was too dull and so they just made stuff up. It's a shame, as Crockett was a very interesting and unusual character from 19th century American history.

The plot of the first portion of the film is something that wouldn't work well today. First, it shows Andy Jackson as a heroic man--but today his image has been re-assessed and he's known mostly for being a crazy President who was rash, a bit derranged and responsible for the Trail of Tears. Second, the Indians are the baddies and it's a bit of simplistic depiction of the Creek War....and again, I cannot see this sort of depiction being done today on film. These aren't necessarily complaints....just observations about how times have changed. Plus, the film DID show one of Crockett's better qualities....his standing up for the rights of the native Cherokee tribe....in this sense, he was a very honorable and decent man.

As far as the rest of the film goes, it, like the Creek War, is often true...and often completely made up. It follows Crockett to Congress as well as fighting at the Alamo...both of which did occur but the details are completely fictionalized. Not bad but it leaves you wishing a more fact-based film would be made about his incredible life.

Because so much of the film is fake, I cannot give the movie an especially high score. Parker is just fine in the lead and the film is reasonably well made even if it was written by someone who lies more than Pinocchio! Fun and enjoyable. The theme song, in particular, is incredibly catchy! That and most of the cinematography (aside from asome grainy stock footage) is nice, as it was filmed in the Smoky Mountains and looks authentic.

By the way, although this film is mostly forgotten today, back in the 1950s, this picture ushered in a sort of 'Crockett Mania'....with little kids all wanting coonskin caps and other paraphernalia in order to have their own adventures. It also was such a popular film that Fess Parker later starred in the "Daniel Boone" television series--and it was pretty much Davy Crockett all over again.

Fess Parker's "Davey Crockett" provides an entertaining story of his Tennessee origins to his final act of courageous devotion at the Alamo. Serious historians can certainly dispute the film's adherence to the facts of Davey Crockett's life. This portrayal made Davey Crockett a hero to the men of the US's baby boomer generation.