Alamo Bay

I really enjoy this movie. I am normally a Horror buff, but there is a great ambiance of the Texas Gulf created. Not to mention wonderful character development. The story is about a young Vietnamese man (Ho Nguyen) who comes to Texas after the war for work. He ends up hitching a ride and begins work shrimping on the Gulf Coast of Texas. He is taken in by the Shrimp business owner's daughter (Amy Madigan). Everything is going well until the pressures of the immigrants over fishing drives Shang (Ed Harris) to lead the Ku Klux Klan to drive out the Vietnamese. The drama continues in a very REAL display. You will be able to find a VHS copy on Amazon or Ebay. This movie SHOULD be released on DVD.

Really glad I clicked on this from Amazon Prime. First time seeing it, and I was a movie watcher in 1985.

Luis Malle is a genius with camera placement and telling a story visually. The script is fine, not a gangbuster. The story is told in atmosphere, setting, and great shots.

The plot naturally develops a female hero, nothing fake or contrived.

The acting is fantastic. Luis M. Shot Ed Harris' piercing blue eyes, every chance he could get. Ed H as Shane is 300% convincing as a red-neck vet,his character is conflicted, but in the end understandable.

Is this film downgraded because there are no clear heroes?

More people should watch and review this fine film. It is better than 95% of what is pumped out of Hollywood as "product".

An interesting conflict put to screen that depicts many racist echos that still reverberate in modern times.

Being a product of the 80s, it's hard for me to be sure what message this was trying to send back then. Now, it seems like it makes efforts to shine a light on the injustice dealt to Vietnamese refugees looking to make a new life. Whether or not it's done well is up for debate. Personally, there needed to be even stronger characterization for Dinh and other Vietnamese characters for this goal to succeed. Glory is probably the best character in the story in terms of development and being fleshed out. I kept waiting for something deeper to happen to Shang's (Ed Harris) development, but that doesn't come.

I'm not sure this story could have done it, but it's only natural for me to want to see some of these characters begin to come out of their deep seeded racism. In the end, one racist leader is killed, but what is stopping the next one from rising without the obstacle of loving Glory in their way? Because of this-being that there is no systemic change within the white community aside from plunging into further racism-it's hard for me to read the final statement about the perseverance of Vietnamese gulf coast workers without feeling like the path was made more dangerous for that fact to be true.

And maybe that's the point. But I'm not sure. As it stands, I appreciated the slice of life aspects the film brings, the unveiling of Shang's plan to bring in the Klan was intimidating if not shocking, and Glory, who felt like a pretty great character all of the time.

Edit: just learned that Amy Madigan (Glory) is actually married to Ed Harris (Shang) which is such a cool fact to learn after watching this.

WATCHED ON: Tubi

HIGHER OR LOWER: Higher.

A French director telling the USA how screwed up their country is. It's always directors from outside who see more of the human damage on the USA citizens, like Wender's did in PARIS,TEXAS. But this film is uninvolving and not enough punch. Maybe I've been watching too many Oliver Stone movies. Only the brilliant acting saves it.

Notice the stereotypes this movie presents: Vietnamese as courteous, hardworking, church going honorable people. Vietnamese war vets: racist, womanizing drunks. This is one of many films that utterly demonizes Vietnam vets. Madigans character so admires the Vietnamese leader that she declares: "You have to be the last cowboy in Texas".

If you watch most Vietnam war flicks vets are usually (take your pick or all of the below) criminals, drug users or dealers, perverts, rapists, psychologically unbalance, racists. Yet statistics show that VV's are no more prone to this than the rest of the general population. Do not watch this crap.