Empire of the Sun

Empire of the Sun
by Steven Spielberg

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DVD details

Actor: Christian Bale, Joe Pantoliano, John Malkovich, Miranda Richardson, Nigel Havers
Director: Steven Spielberg
Brand: Warner Brothers
Producer: Chris Kenny
Producer: Frank Marshall
Producer: Kathleen Kennedy
Producer: Robert Shapiro
Writer: J.G. Ballard
Writer: Menno Meyjes
Writer: Tom Stoppard
DVD: Region Code 1
Audio: English (Original Language); French (Original Language); Chinese (Subtitled); English (Subtitled); French (Subtitled); Japanese (Subtitled); Korean (Subtitled); Portuguese (Subtitled); Spanish (Subtitled); Taiwanese Chinese (Subtitled)
Format: Closed-captioned, Color, Dolby, DVD-Video, NTSC, Subtitled, Widescreen
Picture Format: 1.85:1
Running Time: 153 minutes
DVD Release Date: 2001-11-06
Audience Rating: PG (Parental Guidance Suggested)
Studio: Warner Home Video
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Empire of the Sun

DVD Reviews of Empire of the Sun

DVD Review: great condition, thanks!
Summary: 5 Stars

Movie was in great shape. It is a classic. Great history intertwined with the story.

DVD Review: It's worth repeated viewings...
Summary: 5 Stars

But note that for a few bucks more, amazon.co.uk has a 2-disc Special Edition with a documentary about China. If you don't have a region-free DVD machine yet, now is the time to get one!

DVD Review: Empire of the sun,A movie
Summary: 5 Stars

i was looking for this movie all over .someone told me that I could find it on amazon.com and there it was . Thank You, Lorene Seal

DVD Review: A airplane nuts kid weathers the war in China
Summary: 4 Stars

There is some fine acting, a very fine script and great photography
in this griping epic of a young boy's survival against the odds in an
internment camp. The amazing thing is that through his eyes we see
a very Catch 22Catch-22 like SURREAL world
in which the adults act worse than children
and just keep dying all around him. He has a twisted wish to be in the Japanese air force...

DVD Review: Spielberg's and Bale's Best
Summary: 5 Stars

This is a wonderfully constructed and acted movie.

Based on J. G. Ballard's autobiographical book of the same name, the movie is actually better than the book.

It has the virtues of a REALLY good novel.

The characters are sharp and interesting, and they develop believably. Basie and Christian Bale and Bale's parents and the Japanese prison-camp commandant and the boy-Kamikaze all leave indelible after-echoes in the mind.

And all evolve believably, and painfully.

The movie shows how British interests in pre-WWII China were little different from the Japanese imperialism of the time.

Christian Bale grows up, in all senses, in the prison-camp, and (tragically) finds that he is a completely different person from the one he was when snatched away from his parents years before. Neither he nor they recognize each other in their haggard reunion.

The movie is a stunning indictment of war--even the "good" war, WWII. War is seen as simply the slaughter of contending empires, who are really out for territory and dominion, not freedom or liberation.

In a bitter irony, Christian Bale witnesses (from China!) the explosion at Hiroshima. He thinks it is a second sunrise, and it is, but not the mystical or metaphysical sunrise he believes. It is instead the dawn of a new, dubiously peaceful postwar era of dread.

And the movie contains by far Christian Bale's best acting: he actually moves and displays emotion. Too bad that when he got older he went to the Keanu Reeves "one (dead) expression fits all" school of (non) acting.

Description of Empire of the Sun

A young boys experiences after the army of imperial japan invades china following the december 1941 pearl harbor attack shape steven spielbergs spectacular inspiring and acclaimed tale about growing up in a time of war. Studio: Warner Home Video Release Date: 09/26/2006 Starring: Christian Bale Miranda Richardson Run time: 153 minutes Rating: Pg Director: Steven Spielberg

Roundly dismissed as one of Steven Spielberg's least successful efforts, this very underrated film poignantly follows the World War?II adventures of young Jim (a brilliant Christian Bale), caught in the throes of the fall of China. What if you once had everything and lost it all in an afternoon? What if you were only 12? Bale's transformation, from pampered British ruling-class child to an imprisoned, desperate, nearly feral boy, is nothing short of stunning. Also stunning are exceptional sets, cinematography, and music (the last courtesy of John Williams) that enhance author J.G. Ballard's and screenwriter Tom Stoppard's depiction of another, less familiar casualty of war.

In a time when competitors were releasing "comedic," derivative coming-of-age films, Empire of the Sun stands out as an epic in the classic David Lean sense--despite confusion or perceived competition with the equally excellent The Last Emperor (also released in 1987, and also a coming-of-age in a similar setting). It is also a remarkable testament to, yes, the human spirit. And despite its disappointing box-office returns, Empire of the Sun helped to further establish Spielberg as more than a commercial director and set the standard, tone, and look for future efforts Schindler's List and Saving Private Ryan. --N.F. Mendoza

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