Alamo Bay

Here is a really earnest picture by Louis Malle. With an "important'" theme (prejudice/racism/freedom/territorialism). And it's really not that bad a picture. On the other hand, it's not that good a picture. It's well photographed, with good performances by Amy Madigan and Ed Harris. We all know it's about Vietnamese immigrants trying to make a life for themselves as shrimp fisherman on the gulf coast of Texas, but what it's really about is the plight of the disposssessed everywhere, which may be a little more than this picture can sustain. I have to admit that the picture reverts to formula just a little too often, but Malle does manage to create some tension. It might have been nice if the American fisherman were a little less the hateful, vindictive, Ku Klux Klan types they are made out to be; perhaps more could have been gained by making them more sympathetic, so we could respond to their side a little more than we do.

But then it would have been difficult to set up the inevitable good guys/ bad guys showdown at the end, with the pricipled woman (the source of whose principles I can never quite figure out) gunning down her lover in order to be true to her high ideals. Like I said. earnest.