I've always loved the movies and low budget's are my favorite. As the thirty-three yr old niece of the Shrimper, whose murder, this film is looooosely based on I found watching it brought back extremely painful and frightful memories. Were this movie not based on my Uncle's cruel and thoughtless murder, I would most likely not give it a second thought. Being that he was "written" and "portrayed" as a violent, dim witted, red neck and bitter Vietnam soldier turned shrimper is a slap in the face to his entire family that had to deal with the untimely murder of a Son, Father, Brother, Uncle and friend, and the outrageous miscarriage of justice that followed in it's wake. Indeed there is a True story out there. Unfortunately, in our rush to sympathize with the poor newcomers to our shores, it has never been "Truly" told. My Uncle was indeed a Vet, but did not serve in Vietnam, he also was a Charter Fishing Captain, he was in a long marriage to a loving and supporting wife, he was father of three children and yes a crabber. After approaching the law on several occasions for help after harassment by Vietnamese Refugees, and not getting any help, he was shot in the chest and again in the back as he fled his armed murderers. He was UnArmed. In a Mock Murder Trial, the Van Nguyen brothers, the murderers, were acquitted on self-defense. Even though they openly admitted leaving the scene of the eventual crime to go home and get their rifles to Kill my uncle. How convenient for President Carter. Maille, Arlsen as well as Marie Shriver (liberal democrat who contributed to the making of this film) should all be shamed and ashamed. An American was murdered in his own town by Wards of the Federal Gov't! I do not recommend this film for viewing or for DVD. Enough blood money has been made off my Uncle's innocence.

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.

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.