Empire of the Sun - PG
Common Sense Note
Parents should know that kids will see bombing, shooting, clubbing, looting, stealing, dead bodies and starving prisoners of war reduced to eating insects.
Families who see this movie might discussthe young protagonist's perception of war before and after it touches him directly. Why does Jim glamorize the airplanes he sees flying overhead? How might he feel differently after fleeing bombs and tanks himself?
Common Sense Review
Reviewed By: Scott G. Mignola
Sheltered by a life of privilege, young Jim (Christian Bale) is more fascinated than threatened by the planes that drift high above his family's Shanghai manor. That life falls to pieces, however, at the outbreak of World War II when, fleeing tanks and gunfire, he becomes separated from his parents and has to fend for himself.
A Japanese POW camp teaches him the meaning of want. In this new world framed by barbed wire, Jim -- who has a better view of fighter planes now than he ever dreamed possible -- finds a father figure of sorts in Basie (John Malkovich), an American prisoner who turns him into a contraband runner, giving the boy a purpose that both threatens his survival and gives him a reason to go on living.
This is a war story that wants desperately to have a heart. Unfortunately, the humanity is lost among too-slick Hollywood theatrics, melodrama, and an overblown score that implores us to feel what the movie ultimately fails to deliver.
About a quarter of the way through watching Steven Spielberg's first serious war drama, one starts to feel that something's missing. It's like trying to make sense of a four-hour movie that's been randomly edited down to two-and-a-half. The cinematography is beautiful, the storytelling is compelling, but nothing really clicks.
Like the young hero in John Boorman's much better Hope and Glory, Jim finds a certain exhilaration in war, and even has moments of fun with it. These moments far outweigh the gravity of his situation, though, and rob the movie of vitality. Even the scene in which prisoners resign themselves to eating insects for their protein value lacks impact; the boy just looks too happy counting them with his spoon.
Spielberg hit the bull's-eye a few years later with the horrifyingly realistic Schindler's List, and again with Saving Private Ryan. But in 1987 he either wasn't a mature enough director to unveil the true horrors of war, or he was simply too protective of his feel-good audience.
Those interested in a lighter look at WWII might want to check out Spielberg's 1941 starring John Belushi and Dan Aykroyd. The Best Years of Our Lives, about the homecoming of veterans to a small town, brilliantly depicts the lasting emotional and physical wounds of war.
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ViolenceBombing, shooting, and clubbing. Civilians fleeing tanks and bombs. |
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Social BehaviorDesperate living conditions lead to looting and stealing, even from the dead. |
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