Steven Spielberg's 'Empire Of The Sun', based on the autobiographical novel by J.G. Ballard, stars Christian Bale as Jim Graham, a British schoolboy separated from his upper-class colonial parents when the Japanese sweep into Shanghai during World War II. Temporarily orphaned, Jim attaches himself to Basie (John Malkovich), a fast-talking American opportunist determined make a buck off the spoils of war. Later, when the two are interned in a prison camp, Jim's boyish fantasies are fueled by the grace and daring of the Japanese fighter pilots whom he comes to idolise despite their enemy status. Spielberg's visually spectacular wartime epic is a testimony to the human will to survive and a child's ability to find wonder even in the midst of horror. Thirteen-year-old Welsh actor Christian Bale is brillant as Jim in his feature film debut. Spielberg himself identified more with Jim, a boy who is obsessed with flying and who experiences the death of his innocence, than with E.T.'s Elliott. After a year of negotiations with the Chinese, Spielberg and his crew were allowed to film in Shanghai, which was virtually unchanged since World War II.
Now considered a trial run for the more moving, horrifying and involving Schindler's List, Steven Spielberg's drama, set in China during the Second World War, is a glossy and rather tame affair, based on JG Ballard's semi-autobiographical novel. Christian Bale plays 11-year-old Jim, who is separated from his family in Shanghai and ends up in a Japanese internment camp. As you'd expect from Spielberg, the film has its fair share of heroic moments and scenes that depict the horror of war through the eyes of a child, but, despite the presence of such talents as John Malkovich, Miranda Richardson and stiff-upper-lip Brit Nigel Havers, this only scratches the surface and never really conveys the true effects of armed conflict.
Halliwell's Film Guide
Intelligent and thought-provoking movie about the loss of childhood innocence through the horrors of war. Bale, as the boy, gives an extraordinarily believable performance
Premiere
Malkovich walks a line between sentiment and grit in his relationship with the young Christian Bale, and brings it off
Radio Times
