Beautiful journey

Rating: 9/10 (30 September 2007)

Empire of the sun is the second most underrated movie I have ever seen - right after Oliver Stone's "The Doors". Furthermore it is perhaps the best movie Steven Spielberg has done. Just like with "The Doors", you have to keep wondering why it has been accepted so poorly.
In the end whether you like this movie or not, goes back to the question of how you think about its perspective on the events of WW2 in the "Empire of the sun". Some people might not even have consciously noticed that the emotional perspective of the movie is purely guided by a child's few but felt just uncomfortable about its lack of realism - and those who did consciously notice, might have neglected it merely for the fact itself.
As defense those who did like the movie have pointed out the deep symbolism, others have for good reason referred to its uniquely beautiful imagery. But there is something far more valuable about this movie: It is just the perspective mentioned above. What you may notice as beauty inside this movie, what others may have felt irritated about, is just its emotional point of few, which seems "out of this world" in the true sense of the word. In a child's mind everything you see gets a meaning different of what we are used to and often shines bright for seemingly no reason. Like this the time in an internment camp can seem like a joyful adventure, while life's disappointments can easily break your world. Like this the borders between the sides might blur as well as between right or wrong. And like this you will finally see, and have to see, the absurdity of the witnessed events, of the war itself.
Like this and only like this, the movie develops a slow and highly surreal maelstrom of narration, which together with breath taking images might seem almost meditative. A seldom experience of a movie!