Empire of the Sun (1987, PG)

Director: Steven Spielberg

Grade: B—

 

Steven Spielberg did call Empire of the Sun his most incredible work upon the loss of innocence.  Granted, I couldn’t really take it as anything more than a sad though realistic and atmospherical, coming of age drama set during World War II.  The plot revolves around a young, spoiled rotten English lad named Jim living near Shanghai, China, right at the height of the Sino-Japanese War, which would eventually lead into World War II.  During the Battle of Shanghai, his family is forced to flee, and he unfortunately gets left behind.  Thus begins an incredible, life changing experience for him as lives off on his own to fend for himself in the brutal, Japanese-controlled internment camps in China.

After the opening sequences that introduce us to the main characters and set the somewhat dehydrated plot into motion, the film can only rapidly, in an unfortunate way, transcend down into a monotonic tone with a sense of dullness.  I will have this to say about it: Empire of the Sun, at 154 minutes total running length, is dangerously overlong, which could be a big component as to why it didn’t fare all too well with American audiences, and also why it’s ‘sense of dullness’ becomes an important blemish.

I for one would recommend this movie only to those deeply willing to watch it.  It’s a movie that deserves deep concentration from the viewer; in other words, it’s a movie that really forces you to think and then reflect upon what is happening and what has just happened.  Spielberg deserves commemoration for achieving this in his film; many other pieces from the notable film director, such as Jaws or Jurassic Park, lack that command for honor, but otherwise they are superbly entertaining.  Unfortunately, that commemoration that Spielberg truly deserves for his work here does not always fit into Empire of the Sun’s overall entertainment value, which is sometimes static, and then other times unflinching.

For what it’s worth, Empire of the Sun is a movie that’s well-acted, well-directed, and well-done, but yet, it is also a movie that found limited appeal to audiences.  This is apparent due to the fact that it was a major flop domestically, but did, however, gain it’s budget back internationally, qualifying it as somewhat of a box-office success overall.  As I sat and watched the whole of this two and a half hour epic, there were times where I was totally engaged to the beautiful cinematography, the music and whatever else was going on, and then other times were I just really wanted to doze off and sleep until the next good scene.  In other words, Empire of the Sun could be viewed as a meaningful collection of first-class and poorly constructed sequences, but thankfully, it’s no big mess to worry about when we think about what kind of a movie this really is. 

Something that really deserves noteworthy praise is the incredible child performance delivered by Christian Bale in his first, major starring role.  Bale proves his talent in this film, and this would be what would lead him to eventual stardom to make him one of the bigger (and by far more talented) stars working in Hollywood today.  Seriously, if it weren't for Bale's performance, I wouldn't have cared about what happened to the kid.  Another appreciative point to make here is for John Malkovich, who performs his character well even without a whole lot of enthusiasm. 

Empire of the Sun is an excellent look at life in the Japanese-controlled Internment Camps, where captured civilians (mostly Americans and British) were forced to live under deprived and meager conditions for a good portion of the war.  Empire of the Sun shows just how unforgiving living in those Internment Camps would be, and we can learn a little more a little known aspect about World War II in watching the film, and I gained respect for the people who went through all of that.  We are in this case presented forth with a totally different look at World War II: previously, we had all seen grimacing battles involving foot soldiers (like the Big Red One, Saving Private Ryan, or the Thin Red Line), commandos with a target (like Where Eagles Dare or the Guns of Navarone), lovers caught in the madness of war (like Shining Through) or POWs attempting to escape (like the Great Escape).  Never had we really seen the other side of things that took side stage to the real action, like the internment camps shown in explicit detail here or other stuff similar to that.  Granted, Spielberg would go on to direct Schindler’s List in 1993, but that was about the Holocaust involving the Nazis.  Empire of the Sun involves the Japanese with their own kind of Holocaust. 

Empire of the Sun is a solid effort from Spielberg and his team.  The flaws in most of Spielberg’s film are all too present in Empire of the Sun from the beginning to finish, and there certainly are several other imperfections, most of which are more then a little noticeable, but even so, this is a different kind of Spielberg film that deserves its own kind of recognition, because it's just a little more passionately made then some of Spielberg’s other motion pictures. 

Overall, I found Empire of the Sun worthwhile for it's production value, scenery, direction and acting but not entirely for it's plot and characters.  The setting is undeniably distinctive, but there's limited sensation to feel over the course of the entire piece.  Some critics have lauded this as one of the finest motion pictures of 1987, and even of the whole decade.  Seriously?  Some movies were made to purely entertain, and some were made to teach us something, while others, like this one, were made to show how serious, pragmatic and rational life ever gets to be.  B—