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Summary: My Academy Award Winner for Best Picture and Best Actor
Review: The Motion Picture Academy really showed with this movie and actor how much politics play in their decisions and not talent. This is the best picture ever made by Steven Spielburg. Put out to the audiences today it would definately win. Of all the young actors in the history of the industry, Christian Bale comes across as a professional with the talent many adult actors don't have. It is amazing to see the difference between the choir boy we see in the beginning to the young man we see at the end. Would be nice to see another movie with these two combinations. With his love for flying, no doubt, "Jamie" would be an aviator in some time period. Besides seeing the movie, be sure to ge the CD Soundtrack. Between the planes and the musical score, this would be great on a DVD.
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Summary: One of the most incredible movie ever
Review: For starters- This movie has been one of my favorite movies ever since I saw it in the theater with mom and dad. Thirteen years later I'm still in love with this movie and still slightly upset that both the movie and Spielburg never got the credit they should have. For me personally the movie caught my attention always because of lingering thoughts about war and how one can be left with nothing. Hope is found in the strangest places in these time. The soundtrack (altough I don't listen to classical) is possibly even better than the movie. James Rainbird gives a stunning vocal proformance. How this movie ever got skipped over is truly beyond me. My guess is that art is secondary in America. BS is first and formost usually.
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Summary: Wonderful and Moving
Review: This movie came to me in a time in my life where I was feeling down and had no direction. One scene imparticular moved me and made me feel child like again. The scene where Jim climbs into the downed airplane and pretend fights againsts his glider. The music and the wonderful camera movements made me feel like I never have before. Watch this movie more than once. It touches the heart and you will never forget it. Just I hope it comes on DVD soon.
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Summary: Spielbergs best film... ever... hands down
Review: This is Spielbergs best film, nothing he did before or since has the feel and humanity as this film. Less hamfisted and artificial than Saving Private Ryan and more convincing than Amistad and less "POINT" filled as Schindler's LIst (which is my second favorite spielberg film). The Photography is simply amazing, and the cast is one of the best ever assembled, and the score is John William's best, the script (by Stoppard) is a wopnderful re-thinking of Ballards book. Everything about this film is worth watching. (BTW, it isn't really Christian Bale singing, it's a member of the welsh boy's choir)
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Summary: The movie tells the *right* story
Review: Although the book shows a negative view and the movie shows a positive view of the spirit, in my opinion Spielberg did the right thing in making the movie as he did. I had a customer in my cabs years ago who was a Japanese POW 30 miles away from Nagasaki when we bombed it and the sky turned blood red where he was. When the boy thinks he's seen the old lady go to heaven when it's the A-bomb going off, on top of all the other moments in the film that show the poor boy's confusion and growing up, you just have to cry. When the supplies are dropped and the boy finally gets something good to eat at the end of the war is a scene that really sticks with me. I grew up with the threat of war and was always ready to fight as we are on the coast of Oregon with one of the most secret and important naval installations here to detect the Soviet subs. I served in SAC as part of our nuclear command and control. I've studied war since I was 8. I'm telling you, this is one of the greatest movies ever made about war and the human spirit. Every time I watch it I cry...and feel good about it! If you've never seen it be sure you do at least once...it may start a habit!
Rating: 
Summary: A MASTERPIECE IN SEARCH OF A PURPOSE
Review: With the exception of Schindler's List and Jaws Steven Spielberg's films have always been a ham-fisted and manipulative exercises to get a heart warming "human" message across. Here working from dark material by J.G. BALLRAD wholly unsuitable for his purpose the film is wonderful almost despite his efforts to turn the story into sentimental slush. In fact I think this is the very reason why the film is so damn interesting, with the director going for a David Lean style picture complete with oval suns and an unbearable orchestral score from John Williams adapting what is an essentially nihilistic novel about a non-conformist boy who most of the time seems to be enjoying the war. This leads to many sureal moments, as when Jim stands over a building cheering as allied planes bomb the Japanese camp in which he is emprisoned. This is sureal because we know from the film that he is not cheering he allies on, but rather the B-51s, a bomber plane he would cheer on no matter which side it was bombing. Spielberg ofcourse ignores this and goes for a big emotional moment with swelling music and tearful close-ups. Yet to me the film very lack of a "message" was the best thing about it, it then simply becomes a story about a hugely fascinating(and slightly off-center) boy makes something out of being left behind in a camp. And for all my complaints about Spielberg's handling of the dramatic side of this film, the man is without a doubt a visual master. The film is a wonder to look at even when the impressive visuals are at complete odds with what is being said. Throw in a fixating performance by Christian Bale, and the always ace Malckovich and you have yourself a must see. Perhaps directors like Alan Parker or David Fincher would have stayed truer to the tone of the source material, but come to think of it, that would not have been nearly as interesting. P.S. Bale's singing in this film is simply mesmerising.
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Summary: Empire of the Sun
Review: Excellent movie! Christian Bale is wonderful as Jim, a young Briton forced to spend four years in a Japanese internment camp after he is separated from his parents. John Williams' score is magnificant, and Steven Spielberg delivers his usual top-notch directing job.
Rating: 
Summary: One-off
Review: This is an odd one from Spielberg, one of his few serious films from the eighties, and different in tone and look from all his others, before or since. It features some haunting images, and includes one of John Malkovich's best performances. It is largely depressing, but with moments of black comedy and hope. Nevertheless, I found it to be rather rambling and melodramatic in places, with curious unnecessary bits, and burdened with too many competing symbols.
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Summary: Without a doubt, my favorite movie.
Review: This is an excellent epic movie. It's visually stunning. It has a historical perspective of WWII that is different than the normal combatant slant. I identified with the main character, a British boy who spends his adolescence as a prisoner in a Japanese concentration camp. It truely is a portrait of the human spirit. I've watched this movie 5 times and enjoyed each time. It's a good addition to any DVD collection.
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Summary: Precursor to Schindler's List
Review: Christian Bale is magnificent and unforgettable in Steven Spielberg's memorable yet slightly flawed tale of lost innocence and maturity gained through tragedy. The raw coming of age tale of a aristocratic child growing into a somber and mature young man is a powerful denoucement of WWII and the attrocities committed during all wars. John Malkovich again plays a memeorable antagonist, and John Williams complements Spielberg's direction with a melancholic score. The film's searing first person perspective of the boy's instantanous losses and continuous attempts to stay alive add a forebodding intensity which is reminescent of Spielberg's best work. Though the film has some narrative and pacing issues, Empire of the Sun presents a dramatic flare that Spielberg eccentuates in later masterpieces Schindler's List and Saving Private Ryan. A very good film and a shining hint at thing to come. Watch this film for a good cry.
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