I recently saw "Texas Rising" on Netflixs. Outside of the historical and stylistic errors, the biggest problem I saw in that series was the location chosen for filming, Durango, Mexico. That area is a mountainous desert. Most of the action in the Texas revolution takes place in a triangle bounded by San Antonio, Houston, and Goliad. San Antonio is in the Texas hill country, Houston and Goliad are in the gulf coast plain. There are no mountains in this area and it is not a desert. This movie, besides a number of historical and stylistic errors (this is Texas in 1836, not the American West in 1870), makes the same mistake. The retreat of the Texas army, where Sam Houston is leading his army east towards San Jacinto was filmed in an area that looks nothing like the area around today's city of Houston (San Jacinto is on the east side of the city).
I live about 10 miles from San Jacinto, it is very green, very wet, and very flat (about 25 feet above sea level). Why do Hollywood film makers not check out the area where the action took place? San Jacinto is bounded on the north by Buffalo Bayou (now the Houston Ship Channel) and the San Jacinto river, which flows into Galveston Bay, only about 7 miles away. The scene of the Mexican army camp with a mountain in the background was ludicrous.
There are highly improbably meetings between Sam Houston and many famous names from the Texas revolution and although they saved a lot of money by not showing the Alamo or Goliad, they relied on descriptions that are incorrect.
That said, I am native Texan and was disappointed. If viewed as just a typical western, it was ok, but as a movie of Sam Houston and the Texas revolution, was marred by the geographical, historical, and stylistic errors.
I live about 10 miles from San Jacinto, it is very green, very wet, and very flat (about 25 feet above sea level). Why do Hollywood film makers not check out the area where the action took place? San Jacinto is bounded on the north by Buffalo Bayou (now the Houston Ship Channel) and the San Jacinto river, which flows into Galveston Bay, only about 7 miles away. The scene of the Mexican army camp with a mountain in the background was ludicrous.
There are highly improbably meetings between Sam Houston and many famous names from the Texas revolution and although they saved a lot of money by not showing the Alamo or Goliad, they relied on descriptions that are incorrect.
That said, I am native Texan and was disappointed. If viewed as just a typical western, it was ok, but as a movie of Sam Houston and the Texas revolution, was marred by the geographical, historical, and stylistic errors.