''Alamo Bay'' is a 1985 American

drama film In film and television, drama is a category or genre of narrative fiction (or semi-fiction) intended to be more serious than humorous in tone. The drama of this kind is usually qualified with additional terms that specify its particular ...

about a

Vietnam veteran A Vietnam veteran is an individual who performed active Army, ground, Navy, naval, or Air force, air service in the South Vietnam, Republic of Vietnam during the Vietnam War. The term has been used to describe veterans who served in the armed fo ...

who clashes with Vietnamese immigrants who move to his Texas bay hometown. The film was directed by

Louis Malle Louis Marie Malle (; 30 October 1932 – 23 November 1995) was a French film director, screenwriter, and producer who worked in both French cinema and Hollywood. Described as "eclectic" and "a filmmaker difficult to pin down", Malle made document ...

, and stars

Amy Madigan Amy Marie Madigan (born September 11, 1950) is an American actress. She was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress for the 1985 film ''Twice in a Lifetime (film), Twice in a Lifetime''. Her other film credits include ''Love ...

and

Ed Harris Edward Allen Harris (born November 28, 1950) is an American actor and filmmaker. His performances in '' Apollo 13'' (1995), '' The Truman Show'' (1998), '' Pollock'' (2000), and '' The Hours'' (2002) earned him critical acclaim and Academy Awa ...

. Future

Texas A&M Texas A&M University (Texas A&M, A&M, TA&M, or TAMU) is a public university, public, Land-grant university, land-grant, research university in College Station, Texas, United States. It was founded in 1876 and became the flagship institution of ...

and

Dallas Cowboys The Dallas Cowboys are a professional American football team based in the Dallas–Fort Worth metroplex. The Cowboys compete in the National Football League (NFL) as a member of the National Football Conference (NFC) NFC East, East division. T ...

linebacker Dat Nguyen, who was age 9 at the time, has a small role as a Little League ballplayer. The film's soundtrack, composed and recorded by the artist

Ry Cooder Ryland Peter Cooder (born March 15, 1947) is an American musician, songwriter, film score composer, record producer, and writer. He is a multi-instrumentalist but is best known for his slide guitar work, his interest in traditional music, and h ...

, was released as an album ''Music From the Motion Picture "Alamo Bay"'' in the same year, and its title track "Theme from Alamo Bay" can be also found on '' Music by Ry Cooder'', a compilation album of Cooder's soundtracks from movies released between 1980 and 1993.

Plot

A despondent Vietnam veteran in danger of losing his livelihood is pushed to the edge when he sees Vietnamese immigrants moving into the fishing industry in a Texas bay town. He teams up with other fishermen and the KKK to terrorize the Vietnamese fishermen in a campaign of violence and intimidation based on true historical events that took place in Texas in the late 1970s and early 1980s.

Cast

Production

first became aware of the violent confrontations between Vietnamese refugees and local fishermen in

Texas Texas ( , ; or ) is the most populous U.S. state, state in the South Central United States, South Central region of the United States. It borders Louisiana to the east, Arkansas to the northeast, Oklahoma to the north, New Mexico to the we ...

after reading accounts in

The New York Times ''The New York Times'' (''NYT'') is an American daily newspaper based in New York City. ''The New York Times'' covers domestic, national, and international news, and publishes opinion pieces, investigative reports, and reviews. As one of ...

. The film was a passion project for Malle as being an immigrant himself he felt very invested in the portrayal of the immigrant experience. Ross Milloy, who wrote the article that got Malle's attention provided the narrative basis for the film and was given an executive producer credit. Malle travedl to

with writer Alice Arlen to conduct research for the film and was so impressed with her first draft he personally financed pre-production himself and was prepared to self-finance the entire picture before

TriStar Pictures TriStar Pictures, Inc. (spelled as Tri-Star until 1991) is an American film studio and production company that is part of the Sony Pictures Motion Picture Group, which is part of the Japanese conglomerate Sony, Sony Group Corporation. The compan ...

provided the $5 million budget. The movie was filmed on location in Rockport- Fulton Beach,

where the actual violent incidents had taken place.

Soundtrack

The music for the film was composed, arranged and performed by

and released as an album, ''Music From the Motion Picture "Alamo Bay"'', in 1985. The album's nine tracks were recorded at Ocean Way Studio in Hollywood with a core of credited musicians including drummer

Jim Keltner James Lee Keltner (born April 27, 1942) is an American drummer and percussionist known primarily for his session work. He was characterized by Bob Dylan biographer Howard Sounes as "the leading session drummer in America". Howard Sounes. ''Do ...

, pianist

Jim Dickinson James Luther Dickinson (November 15, 1941 – August 15, 2009) was an American record producer, pianist, and singer who fronted, among others, the band Mud Boy and the Neutrons, based in Memphis, Tennessee. Biography Dickinson was born in Li ...

and bassist Jorge Calderon. As four of the tracks were non-instrumental, the album's front cover listed the names of the vocalists: Cooder,

David Hidalgo David Kent Hidalgo (born October 6, 1954, in Los Angeles) is an American singer-songwriter, best known for his work with the band Los Lobos. Hidalgo frequently plays musical instruments such as accordion, violin, 6-string banjo, cello, requi ...

Cesar Rosas Cesar J. Rosas (born September 26, 1954) is a Mexican-American singer, songwriter and guitarist best known as a member of the rock and roll group Los Lobos. Rosas also participates in the Latin supergroup Los Super Seven. Rosas is known for hi ...

Los Lobos Los Lobos (, Spanish for "the Wolves") is a Mexican American rock group, rock band from East Los Angeles, California. Their music is influenced by rock and roll, Tex-Mex, country, zydeco, folk, R&B, blues, brown-eyed soul, and traditional ...

Lee Ving Lee James Jude Capallero (born April 10, 1950), also known as Lee Ving, is an American guitarist, singer, and actor. Ving is the frontman of the Los Angeles-based hardcore punk band Fear. As an actor, Ving played topless club owner Johnny C. i ...

John Hiatt John Robert Hiatt (born August 20, 1952) is an American singer-songwriter. He has played a variety of musical styles on his albums, including New wave music, new wave, blues, and country music, country. Hiatt has been nominated for nine Gramm ...

and

Reception

In his review,

Vincent Canby Vincent Canby (July 27, 1924 – October 15, 2000) was an American film and theatre critic who was the chief film critic for ''The New York Times'' from 1969 until the early 1990s, then its chief theatre critic from 1994 until his death in 2000. ...

of ''

'' said "Like many other movies that have their origins in a general idea, which characters and their story, ''Alamo Bay'' is almost shamefully clumsy and superficial - it's manufactured 'art.' Watching it is an unhappy experience that never becomes illuminating."

References

External links

* * * 1985 films American war drama films 1980s English-language films Vietnam War films Films scored by Ry Cooder Films directed by Louis Malle 1985 drama films TriStar Pictures films Films about fishing Films about immigration to the United States Films about Vietnamese Americans 1980s American films {{war-drama-film-stub