LET'S FIGHT 4 A RE-RELEASE

Rating: Null/10 (22 July 2000)

OK, all you 'pay-check critics' and 'insightful media people'....whether you want to admit it or not....your ----- ummm.."negative comments" are being thrown back in your face!!! Mr. Ebert, I hope you come to the comment section of this movie one day and realize the mistake you made when talking %&@$ about this flick. Now, about the movie.....
1) I've made EVERYone I know so far watch "Empire of the Sun". The movie is SO MUCH a part of me that I feel people will understand me better if they watch this movie.
2) It's extremely addictive. I can't even COUNT how many times I've seen it... but I ALWAYS CRY during the same certain scenes. Like when the British guy (on the roof) shakes Jim and tells him not to think so much. The way Jim reacts. Sniff! I also cry when Basie tries to take the dead woman's shoes. How 'bout when the Japanese dude can't get his plane to start; his culture thereby branding him a loser? There's certain scenes-and this is what I feel makes the film truly unique- where you look back and think you should have felt sad, but you didn't. This is intentional; like toward the end, when one of Basie's crew shoots Jim's Japanese friend. This is because Jim has transformed into a more bitter, cold, but even stronger person, so the scene should not be so emotional, as much as a bit hopeful, accepting, but still dreamy(when Jim performs the CPR on his dead friend.)
3)What about when Basie wouldn't take Jim w/ him to the airfield camp, the way Jim would do ANYTHING to get in the truck w/him. "Suzhou?! I know the way! My parents are members of the country club!"
4) The "song", which I later heard for an Amex card commercial & sung by Charlotte Church on her Cd- Suo Gan- was best sung in this movie (just curious to know if 'teenage Jim's' salute while singing was actually sung by Christian Bale; I already know the choirboy solo in the beginning wasn't sung by him.)
5) When I first saw this movie about 12 YEARS AGO(I'm gonna break the trend here, guys), I remember my favorite scene being the American pilot waving to Jim...man, how visually memorable. When I went to see it again, the kid in me connected w/ what the kid in Jim was supposed to connect with(I think):.............I'm not sure how to put it in words, okay, but something glorious. People keep saying things like 'that wonderful actor Bale' was 'just as great ' as a younger kid actor'....Umm...If you ask me, the way he impresses filmmakers (or the honeys) is to pop in his "empire of the Sun" tape and they'd think, "oh, well this prodigy actor has been asleep between then and now, but we'll give him another chance because we love what he did 13 ys ago".
In short, Bale(though I LOVED Newsies & Swing Kids), will probably NEVER have a better performance than he did in "Empire."
This is definitely one of my favorite movies of all time.