Alamo Bay

United States, 1985

Film
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French director Louis Malle seems to have an extraordinary gift to capture the spirit and ethos of American society. As in his earlier “Atlantic City”, this film features a great cast of accomplished actors who are offered the opportunity to develop richly complex characters. A young Vietnamese refugee attempts to find work in a Texas fishing town. His arrival is the catalyst for ugly confrontations between European and Asian Americans. Though the business owners are only too happy to exploit the labour of the refugee community, this creates tension between the Vietnamese and American workers who feel that their livelihood is threatened by immigrant labour. The film unflinchingly potrays the ugliness of racism but it does not resort to reducing people or events to stereotypes. By focusing on the experiences of Asian-Americans, “Alamo Bay” shows how the racist underpinnings of white Southern society affect all human relationships in the country. The outstanding cast includes Ed Harris, Amy Madigan and newcomer Ho Nguyen. The evocative theme music is by Ry Cooder.

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Collection

In ACMI's collection

Credits

director

Louis Malle

co-producer

Louis Malle

Vincent Malle

production company

Tri-Star Pictures

Duration

01:35:00:00

Production places
United States
Production dates
1985

Collection metadata

ACMI Identifier

304284

Language

English

Audience classification

MA

Sound/audio

Sound

Colour

Colour

Holdings

VHS; Access Print (Section 1)

Wikidata

Q2830457

Please note: this archive is an ongoing body of work. Sometimes the credit information (director, year etc) isn’t available so these fields may be left blank; we are progressively filling these in with further research.

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If you would like to cite this item, please use the following template: {{cite web |url=https://acmi.net.au/works/83094--alamo-bay/ |title=Alamo Bay |author=Australian Centre for the Moving Image |access-date=6 November 2024 |publisher=Australian Centre for the Moving Image}}