Davy Crockett, O Rei das Fronteiras

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."

The mid fifties television production of Walt Disney's "Davy Crockett" struck a nerve in the physic of American children. This three part TV mini-series launched the "Davy Crockett Craze", a phenomena that swept the Nation for some time.

Davy Crockett collecting cards, coonskin caps, toys, other assorted memorabilia, and the ever popular recording of the "Ballad of Davy Crockett", were only some of the outward signs of it's vast popularity. Actors, Fess Parker, as Davy Crockett, and Buddy Ebson as his sidekick, Georgie Russell became popular with almost most every child in America, practically over night. The show was so successful that the original three part series was clipped together and released to theaters as a full length movie. Then the Disney Studio produced a two part TV sequel the following year.

There is little doubt that by today's standards there was nothing special about it's plot, or dialog, or the acting, etc. Some critics might go as far to say it was rather silly, childish, and a mediocre production at best.

Perhaps that's all true, but it would miss the most important point. Seldom has any TV production cause so many young people to love a couple of screen characters so deeply, and with such spontaneous joy. In this regard it is a Classic and holds a special place in the history of television art.

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.

Perhaps not a masterpiece, or the best Disney film or live-action Disney film. However, it is more than easy to see why the 'Davy Crockett' series and films and merchandise were so popular.

'Davy Crockett, King of the Wild Frontier' still holds up quite well now, and to me more than just nostalgic value (have had several childhood favourites that have not held up, but 'Davy Crockett' still has a huge amount to like). Due to it being basically three episodes of the series rolled into one film, 'Davy Crockett, King of the Wild Frontier's' episodic nature is inevitable but it doesn't hurt the film that much, the middle third may not be quite as exciting as the outer two but not in a bad way.

Some of the exaggerated action sequences may come over as a bit silly and childish now and the dialogue (with some hilariously bad grammar) even more so. However, 'Davy Crockett, King of the Wild Frontier' has a huge amount to like and is impossible to dislike, a lot happens and very rarely does it lull.

It is a good-looking film, with gorgeously epic scenery and evocative production design that looks like a lot of care and homework went into it, all handsomely filmed. The music is rousing, especially the timeless theme song that is one of Disney's and childhood's best and most memorable theme songs.

There is some endearingly-good natured dialogue, and as said the story is eventful and often exciting, especially the final third in the Alamo. The characters are a lot of fun, with a charismatic and likable hero in Davy Crockett, and direction is breezy and bright.

Fess Parker is jovial, charismatic and immensely likable in the title role and Buddy Ebsen counteracts with him very nicely. The acting may not be "great" but hardly bad, more than competent.

On the whole, an impossible to dislike film and with a lot of good things. 8/10 Bethany Cox

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.