This review originally appeared on the Chicagoland Bicycle Federation’s “Roll Film” movie review site (http://www.biketraffic.org/content.php?id=219_0_6_0). Each film was also reviewed by my CBF colleague, Greg Borzo, who focused more on the bike content.
EMPIRE OF THE SUN
2 1/2 Wheels
It goes without saying that Steven Spielberg is one of the truly great directors in the history of cinema. His best films are among the all-time greats, but even a filmmaker as gifted as Spielberg may go through dry spells. He's smack dab in one now. His last three films – Munich, War of the Worlds and The Terminal – have been among his weakest and least inspired. If history is a guide, he will recover.
Spielberg had a similar dry spell in the late eighties, and it began with the film we now review, Empire of the Sun. Back then we had to endure the sugary fluff of Always and Hook before he returned to form with the devastatingly powerful Schindler's List. Empire of the Sun is better than most of the above-mentioned slump films, but it's the perfect example of how Spielberg's attempts to move beyond popular entertainment toward serious filmmaking have led to some works being well below his own very high standards.
Empire of the Sun was Spielberg's second attempt at a "serious" film. The first was The Color Purple, which was significantly better. My guess is that he relied on his strong source material in filming the Alice Walker novel, so his usual "signatures" were limited to the visual look of the film. Empire of the Sun, on the other hand, suffers because he overly relies on his traditional theme of childlike wonderment, which served him so well in classics like Close Encounters of the Third Kind and E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial, for a story that does not necessarily lend itself to that message.
Christian Bale, in an outstanding performance, plays Jim, a British lad living in Shanghai at the outset of World War II. Japan had been occupying this area of China and, at the time of Pearl Harbor, all American and British citizens were sent to prison camps for the duration of the war. Jim, separated from his family, is soon befriended by a shady American mercenary played by John Malkovich. Jim must grow up fast in this brutal environment as he witnesses the horrors of war.
To demonstrate this forced journey into adulthood, Spielberg uses Jim's bike as shorthand for his innocence. He is first seen riding around his family's wealthy estate carrying a toy plane, which tips us off to his ultimately bizarre obsession with flying. Since he cannot fly, he rides. After his parents are captured, he cycles through the empty rooms of his former home. Just before his own capture, his bike is stolen, never to be recovered, just like his childhood.
While Empire of the Sun's subject matter is grim, at this stage of his career, Spielberg could not subjugate his own optimism. The result is an expertly made film with beautiful cinematography that doesn't really know what it's about. It could have been a rousing adventure story or a tragic meditation on war, not both at the same time. In 1987, Spielberg wasn't yet ready to make this film, but Empire of the Sun can now be seen as a curious transitional work of an important director.
EMPIRE OF THE SUN
2 1/2 Wheels
It goes without saying that Steven Spielberg is one of the truly great directors in the history of cinema. His best films are among the all-time greats, but even a filmmaker as gifted as Spielberg may go through dry spells. He's smack dab in one now. His last three films – Munich, War of the Worlds and The Terminal – have been among his weakest and least inspired. If history is a guide, he will recover.
Spielberg had a similar dry spell in the late eighties, and it began with the film we now review, Empire of the Sun. Back then we had to endure the sugary fluff of Always and Hook before he returned to form with the devastatingly powerful Schindler's List. Empire of the Sun is better than most of the above-mentioned slump films, but it's the perfect example of how Spielberg's attempts to move beyond popular entertainment toward serious filmmaking have led to some works being well below his own very high standards.
Empire of the Sun was Spielberg's second attempt at a "serious" film. The first was The Color Purple, which was significantly better. My guess is that he relied on his strong source material in filming the Alice Walker novel, so his usual "signatures" were limited to the visual look of the film. Empire of the Sun, on the other hand, suffers because he overly relies on his traditional theme of childlike wonderment, which served him so well in classics like Close Encounters of the Third Kind and E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial, for a story that does not necessarily lend itself to that message.
Christian Bale, in an outstanding performance, plays Jim, a British lad living in Shanghai at the outset of World War II. Japan had been occupying this area of China and, at the time of Pearl Harbor, all American and British citizens were sent to prison camps for the duration of the war. Jim, separated from his family, is soon befriended by a shady American mercenary played by John Malkovich. Jim must grow up fast in this brutal environment as he witnesses the horrors of war.
To demonstrate this forced journey into adulthood, Spielberg uses Jim's bike as shorthand for his innocence. He is first seen riding around his family's wealthy estate carrying a toy plane, which tips us off to his ultimately bizarre obsession with flying. Since he cannot fly, he rides. After his parents are captured, he cycles through the empty rooms of his former home. Just before his own capture, his bike is stolen, never to be recovered, just like his childhood.
While Empire of the Sun's subject matter is grim, at this stage of his career, Spielberg could not subjugate his own optimism. The result is an expertly made film with beautiful cinematography that doesn't really know what it's about. It could have been a rousing adventure story or a tragic meditation on war, not both at the same time. In 1987, Spielberg wasn't yet ready to make this film, but Empire of the Sun can now be seen as a curious transitional work of an important director.
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