Barnes & Noble

Empire of the Sun, Steven Spielberg's beautiful tale of World War II victims, was at best faintly praised as another Spielbergian tale of childhood adventure. But this earlier work by the director of Schindler's List emerges on reexamination as a celebration of enduring innocence and imagination in the face of the horrendous desperation and brutal reality of war. Like a deceptively simple symphony, its joys are revealed in repeat experiences, the subtleties that lie beneath the wide-eyed set pieces that often define Spielberg's work. Jim (Christian Bale) is the privileged child of wealthy British merchants in Shanghai in the years before World War II. He idolizes the pilots and aircraft of the war between Japan and China and dreams of soaring through the clouds, blissfully ignorant of the danger so close to his home. But when the Japanese army storms the port city, Jim is separated from his parents and faced with the bleak reality of life alone in a war zone. Falling in with an American scrounger named Basie (John Malkovich), Jim braves the hostile streets of Shanghai before being captured and dragged to the forbidding prison camps of the Japanese army. Jim's struggle to find his parents becomes secondary to the need to save himself and those around him. Adapted for the screen by Tom Stoppard (Shakespeare in Love) from J. G. Ballard's autobiographical novel, Empire of the Sun is not only one of Spielberg's most soulful movies, but also among his best. Matthew Johnson

All Movie Guide

Based on J.G. Ballard's autobiographical novel, Empire of the Sun stars Christian Bale as a spoiled young British boy, living with his wealthy family in pre-World War II Shanghai. During the Japanese invasion, Bale is separated from his parents. With the help of soldier-of-fortune John Malkovich, Bale learns to survive without a retinue of servants at his beck and call. By the time Malkovich and Bale are tossed into a Japanese prison camp, the boy has picked up enough street-smarts and developed enough intestinal fortitude to regard his imprisonment as an exciting adventure. The story ends during the 1945 liberation: on the verge of manhood, the 13-year-old Bale will never again be the pampered, privileged brat whom we met in the early scenes. Hal Erickson

Washington Post

There isn't a moment in the film that is blandly or routinely directed. And in some of the movie's big set pieces, especially his staging of an American attack on a Japanese airfield, you feel his technical mastery in every frame, and the sheer raw energy he packs into his compositions can make you feel breathless, intoxicated by motion and speed. Hal Hinson

Product Details

• UPC: 085391175322
• Source: WARNER HOME VIDEO
• Region Code: 1
• Presentation: Wide Screen
• Sound: Dolby Digital, stereo
• Language: English, Français
• Subtitles: English, Français, Español, Portugais, Japanese
• Time: 2:33:00
• Sales Rank: 13,654

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