"Empire of the Sun"

Rating: 10/10 (31 January 2007)

Before he was chopping up prostitutes on Wall Street, Christian Bale was the boy standing on top of an air-traffic control tower, cheering as American bombers laid waste to the airstrip of the Japanese POW camp he was currently a resident of. As a pampered British boy named Jim "Jamie" Graham who is separated from his parents following the fall of Shanghai before American involvement in World War II, Bale is simply astounding. A young performer at 12, he is forced to grow up fast as a prisoner of the ruling Japanese forces, making friends wherever he can, including American Basie (John Malkovich), his pal Frank (Joe Pantoliano), and even the young Kamikaze pilot who lives in the barracks on the other side of the fence. "Empire of the Sun," an adaptation of the novel by J.G. Ballard, is often cited as one of director Steven Spielberg's weakest films, but I beg to differ. It is well known that he has a special place in his heart for WWII, and it's something he loves and loathes. It's a coming-of-age tale that really understands the grueling nature of the reality it depicts, and despite its "PG" rating, is still something for a mature audience. We're with Jamie the entire way, who is only 12, remember, yet he has already seen enough to last a lifetime. The only major gripe with this picture is its running time, and some scenes do tend to drag on for far too long, but that's only a minor grievance in a tale that is truly epic.
10/10