Western Weekends - Davy Crockett: King of the Wild Frontier

I've looked at a couple of "Twilight of the Old West" stories, like The Wild Bunch, Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid, and Rockstar's Red Dead series. I thought I'd mix things up a bit by looking at a "Dawn of the Old West" story. With this in mind, I'm looking at a classic American folk hero, Davy Crockett. Specifically his portrayal by Fess Parker in the 1950s Disney adaptation.

Davy Crockett was initially a three-part miniseries on the anthology series Walt Disney's Disneyland. It stars Fess Parker as Davy Crockett, and Buddy Ebsen as his sidekick Georgie Russell. The miniseries follows Crockett and Russell as they go on numerous adventures:

• Davy Crockett, Indian Fighter follows the pair as they serve as scouts under General Andrew Jackson during the Creek Wars. They butt heads with Jackson's second-in-command, Major Tobias Norton, and Crockett later duels with a Creek war chief named Red Stick
• Davy Crockett Goes to Congress has Crockett going to settle new land in Tennessee. After learning that a local bully named Bigfoot Mason has been running Cherokee families off their land and re-selling it, he becomes a magistrate for the region and arrests him. He later runs for the state legislature to oppose Bigfoot's attorney, and subsequently gets elected to The House of Representatives.
• The final episode, Davy Crockett at the Alamo follows Crockett as he decides his next adventure will be to fight in the Texas Revolution. With Russell, a  cowardly riverboat gambler named Thimblerig, and a Comanche known only as "Busted Luck", they travel to Bexar (present day San Antonio) and join the Texans being besieged in an old mission known as The Alamo.

I haven't seen the original series, but would very much like to. Fortunately it was re-edited as a feature-length film in 1955 titled Davy Crockett: King of the Wild Frontier.

The film is certainly a product of its time, and there's a greater focus on the myth than the man, so if you're looking for historical accuracy, you're in the wrong place. For example, Crockett is shown to be good friends with Andrew Jackson when the latter becomes president. I don't know whether or not that was the case, but I have found that Crockett was a vocal opponent of many of Jackson's policies, most notably the Indian Removal Act of 1830.

Crockett and Russell are likeable characters, and the adventures they go on are kind of fun. It does make the final part quite poignant, as it's made quite clear that Crockett isn't going to survive when Mexican Troops storm the Alamo.

I feel like this series was probably akin to the Pirates of the Caribbean of its time, being Disney's landmark live-action franchise. Yes, it's romanticised, but it's still enjoyable.

In fact, it became so popular that it spawned a prequel. I'll talk about that tomorrow.

I've got the main theme song stuck in my head now...