Before last weekend, there were two things I knew for sure about the Alamo:

1. We should remember it.

2. There’s no basement in it.

(That last one I learned from watching “Pee-Wee’s Big Adventure” in 1985.)

Now, having seen director John Lee Hancock’s big-budget epic, “The Alamo,” I do have a much better grasp on the politics and the military situation surrounding Texas’ fight for independence from Mexico in 1836. And I had a good time at the movies as well.

The opening 20 minutes of the film are spent setting the political scene. Audiences are introduced to Gen. Sam Houston, who was on the path to national office until a marital scandal forced him to withdraw from the public eye. Played with conviction by Dennis Quaid, he’s first portrayed in the mode of a salesman, trying to convince wealthy Easterners to invest in Texas, his adopted homeland.

Houston rubs shoulders with the world-renowned frontiersman and Congressman Davy Crockett, personified by Billy Bob Thornton. Crockett’s popular and likeable, but he’s also humble, and he’s careful to keep separate the legend and the man. Thornton is perfectly cast in the role, and provides most of the film’s color and humor.

Butting heads over the Alamo’s military leadership are Jim Bowie (the intense Jason Patric) and Lt. Col. William Travis (newcomer Patrick Wilson). Bowie, another frontier legend, commands the volunteer Texas militia; Travis is a young, inexperienced U.S. Army officer in command of the regular troops.

Hancock’s attention to historical detail is truly impressive. All the costumes and weaponry (including 700 working flintlock musket rifles) are either actual artifacts or precise replicas, and even Crockett’s fiddle is a vintage violin handmade in the southeastern United States. The 51-acre set was the largest movie set ever constructed, and Hancock elected to film entirely on location instead of shooting interiors on a soundstage.

But Hancock, a native Texan, says he wasn’t necessarily striving for historical accuracy. Legendary characters from the pages of American history books came together at the Alamo, and Hancock used the backdrop of the grueling physical and emotional siege to craft four clear and compelling character studies of these larger-than-life men.

Oh, and then there are the battle scenes. According to history, around 2,400 Mexican soldiers led by their general and dictator Santa Anna laid siege to the Alamo, which was thinly defended by only about 200 Texans and U.S. soldiers. The fighting is indeed epic, but by the time the Mexicans storm the fort’s walls, audiences have come to know and care about the characters to the point that we’re rooting for the Texans to win – although we all know how the battle ends.

Houston has the last move, though, exhorting his troops to “remember the Alamo” as they make a gutsy charge on the overconfident Santa Anna.

Director Hancock succeeds in walking the thin line between overromanticizing the personalities who met in the Alamo and telling the true story of its last battle. I’ll certainly remember it from now on, and not just because Pee-Wee Herman couldn’t find his bicycle there.

“The Alamo”

Rated PG-13 for sustained intense battle sequences

Starring: Dennis Quaid, Billy Bob Thornton, Jason Patric, Patrick Wilson

Directed by: John Lee Hancock

Length: Two hours 17 minutes

Now playing at: Astoria Gateway Cinemas, Neptune Twin Theatres in Long Beach, Wash.

Short take: Backed by impressive sets, weapons and costumes, four legendary figures cross paths at the fateful battle for Texan independence from Mexico. The well-played characters bring history to life and remind us there are things in life worth fighting for.

Rating: Three stars (out of four)