Alamo Bay

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.

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.

I lived in the Rockport-Fulton area, where parts of the movie was filmed, most of my life. I remember when the Vietnamese people began moving into the area, and the problems they had with some of the local citizens. This movie was pretty accurate about the feelings of some of the shrimpers, I am sorry to say. Ed Harris did a wonderful job of portraying the racist shrimper. He reminds me of a few people I knew in the area. Amy Madigan was also great portraying his former girlfriend. She had some tough decisions to make. This is a good movie with interesting characters and great acting. I think that the relationship between some of the Texas shrimpers and the Vietnamese shrimpers is portrayed pretty realistically.

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.

This story of attacks on Vietnamese immigrants on the Texas coast was loosely based on real events from 1979-81. Shang Pierce (Ed Harris) is a Vietnam vet who hates all non-white people and gets particularly riled when Southeast Asian immigrants begin arriving in his town, and especially when one of them develops a relationship with his girlfriend, Glory (Amy Madigan). The situation gets tenser and tenser as the movie progresses.

Maybe "Alamo Bay" is not the greatest movie ever, but it certainly shows a part of Texas history (and indeed, US history) that unfortunately seems forgotten. Ed Harris looks like a typical redneck, with a short, wispy beard. It is the sort of movie that you should check out if you get a chance.