Imagine the way war looks from the eyes of a child. To a child, the politics don't matter. What matters simply is that big men with guns are killing people all around you and the ones you love are the ones in the crossfire. To paraphrase a line from Black Hawk Down, even before the first bullet goes past your head, politics don't matter to a kid.

That's the world for Jim Graham (Christian Bale), a ten year-old British boy living in an upscale area of Shanghai in December 1941. Jim lives with his parents and has adventures of the type that most ten year-olds have. His life is largely innocent and idyllic even with the clank of the Japanese war machine in the background. But that innocence will soon be wiped out.

That loss of innocence is the central theme of Empire Of The Sun, the 1987 film by Steven Spielberg. Released two years after Spielberg experienced massive success with The Color Purple, it succeeded in proving that the man could handle serious dramatic moviemaking and make films that didn't involve aliens and temples of doom. It also set the stage for Schindler's List and Saving Private Ryan. Like the two later films (although not to the same brutal extent), the film is honest in its depictions of war.

Unfortunately, Empire Of The Sun has sadly become the Spielberg film that time forgot. This is primarily on account of the fact that it got released in the shadow of Bernardo Bertolucci's (overlong and overrated) The Last Emperor. While Empire did receive much critical praise and did pick up some Oscar nominations, nowadays most cinephiles remember it as either Christian Bale's film debut or "that other Spielberg movie about World War II".

That's a shame too, for Empire is truly a wonderful movie. The central focus of it is war, yet it is less a traditional war film and more a parable about survival and loss of innocence (Spielberg would later return to the loss of innocence theme with diminishing results in 1991's "Hook").

The film begins with young Jim (Bale was 13 at the time the movie came out) living with his mom and dad in the upscale area of Shanghai that is full of people from all over the world. It's December 1941 and the Japanese are about to unleash a reign of death on Pearl Harbor. Meanwhile, they are also planning an attack on Shanghai, which occurs almost concurrently with the Pearl Harbor one. In the ensuing confusion, Jim is separated from his parents and winds up homeless on the streets of occupied Shanghai. Before long he meets up with American merchant seaman Basie (John Malkovich) and his friend Frank (Joe Pantoliano, late of The Sopranos). Basie and Frank at first try to sell Jim to street profiteers. But when that doesn't work out, Jim takes them back to his old home. Unfortunately, the Japanese have taken up residence there and all three of them are captured and wind up in a concentration camp. The remainder of the film follows Jim's life in the camp up until the end of the war.

Spielberg films the movie (written by Tom Stoppard and based on a semi-autobiographical novel by JG Ballard) in a style that goes from calm one moment to chaotic the next. Almost like an epic poem in a way. There is a scene late in the film of Jim watching an aerial bombardment that's pure poetry. As is the scene where Jim sees the blinding light of the atomic bomb exploding over Nagasaki and thinks it's the soul of a recently deceased fellow prisoner going up to heaven.

Yet Spielberg doesn't shrink back from showing certain brutal realities. We see the Japanese beat up on the camp doctor (British actor Nigel Havers) after an allied plane goes down at the camp airfield. We see several other scenes of war related violence. In addition, the scene where Jim is separated from his parents in a crowd of terrified civilians and marching soldiers affected me at age 10 (the first time I saw this movie) the same way the opening scene of Saving Private Ryan did 12 years later.

(Side note: As I previously noted, I first saw this movie when I was ten years old. It was my favorite movie at the time and remained so for about a year after that. This may explain part of the reason why it holds a special place in my heart.)

The acting is good all around. Bale showed a great deal of talent in his debut role. As the war changes Jim from an innocent child to a mature, tired, yet still optimistic adult, he shows all signs of the change quite well. Malkovich is also quite good as the amoral, yet not completely evil Basie. Pantoliano is decent, even if his character is overshadowed by Malkovich. Havers is good, as is Miranda Richardson in an extended cameo.

Empire Of The Sun is a truly great film that has few flaws (aside from being a tad overly long perhaps). It's a shame that most of the general public has forgotten about it. Hopefully more people will discover it, for it should be seen.

Recommended:
Yes

Viewing Format: VHS
Video Occasion: Better than Watching TV
Suitability For Children: Suitable for Children Age 9 - 12