Under Siege

Thornton, especially, had been singled out as a contender: His introspective, fiddle-playing Crockett is the jewel in the movie's coonskin crown. Thornton enjoyed playing Crockett so much, he didn't want to stop. ''Crockett loved people,'' he told EW on set, between folksy schmoozing with the extras and crew. ''[He]liked to hold court. That's kinda what I do.'' Thornton's now back in Texas, filming the football drama Friday Night Lights. (Jason Patric has been back in Texas too, apparently still channeling the fractious Bowie. He was arrested last month in Austin for alleged public intoxication.)

As for the delays, Thornton says he wasn't bothered: ''It's much better to have it come out in April instead of Christmas, when we had all these monster movies coming out. This way it's got room to breathe.'' The feller's got a point: December was packed with historical epics like Master and Commander and The Last Samurai, not to mention The Missing, the violent (and financially unsuccessful) period Western that Ron Howard ended up doing instead.

For his part, Cook sees promise in the terra incognita of the spring box office frontier, noting, ''With Passion of the Christ, you can see that the business is out there.'' Cook says the decision to premiere the film in San Antonio (and keep it relatively under wraps in New York and L.A.) was not an appeal to the passionate populism sweeping the heartland. But ''[we're] glad we made that decision.''

Hancock maintains a nonpartisan stance. From minute one, his movie has been the object of scrutiny, when pundits began accusing him of making the Alamo PC. In the fall, he was the victim of a virulent, untrue rumor that a rootin'-tootin' Texas test audience rejected a scene where Crockett begs his executioners for mercy. ''It's hysterical how people look at this as a Rorschach test for the political scene,'' he marvels. But Hancock will allow this Texas-size understatement: ''The Alamo has sort of a brand name.''

It's a brand both celebrities and politicians want A piece of, if The Alamo's gala Texas premiere is any indication. Two weeks before the film makes its stand at the box office, San Antonio's Majestic Theatre is visited not only by Faith Hill and Tim McGraw but also Phil Gramm and current Texas governor Rick Perry. The latter delivers a speech about ''the price of freedom'' just before ''The Star-Spangled Banner'' is played on a vintage fiddle believed to have belonged to Davy Crockett. Hancock, called on stage by Cook for a hearty round of Texas applause, looks proud, exhausted, elated, terrified -- in other words, like a man who knows there's no back door.