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Empire of the Sun Movie Review

Empire of the Sun is a 1987 epic war film directed by Steven Spielberg and starring Christian Bale. It’s a typical Spielberg period piece.

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“I can’t remember what my parents look like“

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It follows Jamie “Jim” Graham, a young boy who goes from living in a wealthy British family in Shanghai to becoming a prisoner of war in a Japanese internment camp during World War II. Spielberg has made throughout his career mostly two types of movies: a grandiose blockbuster and a historical epic. And this latter camp I never really cared for.

This belongs to his lesser efforts, suitably not receiving much attention back then and now as well. It’s just a rather regular coming-of-age tale of a boy living for some time in Japan during WWII and learning some valuable lessons. It’s so concerned with its protagonist that it never rose above its family tone.

The movie is probably most memorable for being the debut of Christian Bale. First off, I have to say that he’s very good here, and he instantly showed a lot of acting prowess and promise that obviously led to a great career later on. However, I’ve never personally liked him, and it’s funny how that stayed the same here as well. Not only does he look exactly the same as he looks now in terms of facial structure, but he was just as annoying back then as he is most certainly now.

I found his character here not that likable and I simply did not care for him in the slightest, and that’s kind of crucial for such a movie – to care for a kid protagonist. And me not caring brought this entire endeavor down significantly. The other characters are all very forgettable themselves.

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Empire of the Sun benefits from stellar technical aspects. That is its only obvious strength. The cinematography is great, the production design is splendid and the movie looks detailed and quite cinematic. Its score is particularly wonderful as this is one of John William’s most underrated efforts. It’s a moving, grandiose score that made the film more epic in feel and scope, but still its emotional moments were typically manipulative for Spielberg.

Empire of the Sun is a lesser Spielberg work that benefits from some terrific technical aspects – particularly the cinematography is great and the score is beautiful and grandiose. But the movie has forgettable characters, it’s overlong and emotionally manipulative per usual for the director. On a side note, it’s comforting to know that some things in life just never change with Christian Bale having been just as annoying as a kid as he is now.