A Baía do Ódio

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.

This film, like its director, was years ahead of its time. Before Mississippi Burning, Cry Freedom, and Rosewood solidified the cliches of the racism genre, Louis Malle delivered this authentic, effortless look at Vietnamese fisherman working off the gulf coast of Texas. No house burnings and lynchings need apply. Malle and his writer Alice Arlen pay such close attention to detail that the film pants with life in the hot Texas sun. The actors scarcely seem to be acting at all. It takes skill and courage to film an incendiary subject like this won with a level head and a compassion for all involved. Despite its route cinematic ending, this film's catch is bountiful.

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.

The movie is stilted and slow in today's terms but does give a fairly accurate historical representation of the struggle of the Vietnamese shrimpers versus the KKK in the early eighties. Morris Dees and the newly formed Southern Poverty Law Center came to Kemah and Seabrook to make sure the Klan did not become the ruling class in the Texas Bay Area. The actual story can be found at www.tolerance.org or the southern poverty law center site. Louis Malle (yes he was French) was a great director who was married to actress Candice Bergen. He died of cancer in the late nineties. The movie does show a fledgling actor, Ed Harris, who has gone on to make many successful movies. The script was written by the writer of "Silkwood" which was another docudrama. It is worth watching for the history alone. Shows the pain felt by the locals and the immigrants.

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.