One of the Truly Great Films of Our Time

Rating: 10/10 (2 July 2008)

This film marked Steven Spielberg's first foray into 'serious' film-making. Serious meaning no aliens, man-eating sharks, or whip-wielding men in fedoras. It was also released in December which is prime Oscar season, and though young Christian Bale was not nominated for an Oscar, he really should have been. Several times he completely blew me away. He took Jim Graham through so many different places and was brilliant at all of them. From snot-nosed British brat to Japanese POW survivor, he was brilliant all the way. I only saw about the last twenty minutes of the film about ten years ago and was moved to tears by the end. I saw the entire film last night and was practically bawling by the end.
The camera work was a bit of a departure for Spielberg, with a lot of sweeping shots and slow pushes in, but it's all gorgeously done. The most beautiful example of how an amazing performance and great cinematography is a scene near the end when the camera very slowly pushes (almost creeps) in on Bale. It's just great film-making.
Bale is the absolute stand out performer in this film, which is good seeing as how he's the main character. It should be no surprise he made it out of the child star mold and became on of the most respected actors of his generation. The much lauded Malkovich is splendid as is British actor Nigel Havers. A young Ben Stiller makes a startling appearance to anyone who's only known him for his more goofy roles (not that he's entirely serious here). Spielberg also broke his own mold and made a great drama with almost no action. It's just an excellent film all around.