Rating: 
Summary: Fantastic film!
Review: I don't know why EOTS didn't win Best Picture of 1987; it was excellent, real, moving. The evacuating crowd scene where Jamie is separated from his mother is scary enough for even an adult to witness. The quiet scene where he watches Mr. and Mrs. Victor attempt intimacy shows us the young man he's becoming in the midst of camp life. And the end scene always makes me cry: his parents barely recognize him because they're searching for a boy, not a young man. This whole film, cinematography, music score, and performances, is a fabulous winner.
Rating:
Summary: A Classic
Review: This is a very underrated and forgotten film that I've learned to love at the first viewing of the film. I consider this to be one of Spielberg's best films; with beautiful scenes, a great score, and top-quality performances from its cast---Christian Bale is excellent as the young Jim who is forced to reach maturity at a time when he's not ready---as well as Nigel Haver's superb Dr. Rawlins.
Overall this is one of the most poignant dramas I have seen up-to-date, a wonderful film that improves with the passing of years.
Rating: 
Summary: Empire of the Sun
Review: One of the few DVD's I truly regret buying. This film is full of overacting, poorly integrated scenes that have little or no apparent connection to each other, and an annoying misty quality to the cinematography. It is a prime example of the strategy that if you can't make a good, small film, make a long film with lots of extras. It is amazing to me that anyone would have invested money to make this film.
Rating:
Summary: EXCELLENT !
Review: EPIC IN NATURE, BUT VERY WELL PERFORMED STORY LINE. IF IT SOMETIMES A LITTLE SLOW, IT'S BECAUSE STEVEN WANTED IT THAT WAY FOR EFFECT. I BUY VERY FEW MOVIE DVD'S BUT THIS ONE I OWN.
Rating:
Summary: A Truely Touching Film
Review: Due to the lack of success of this film at the box office and general reputation, it took me a very long time before deciding to sit down to watch "Empire of the Sun". When it comes to drama, Speilberg is well known to be, bluntly, a tear-jerking sentimentalist. And there are times in his movies where I actually felt that my tears were robbed rather than earned. Although that does not mean those moments I shed tears for were not worth it, it is just somehow I did feel stupid afterwards. However, "Empire of the Sun" gave me a totally different impact. To say this is a war film, I would much rather to think of it as a story of a boy whose innocence was stripped away piece by piece during a time we all hope to forget. The most precious assest of this film is that, the world was seen entirely through the eyes of young Jim Graham, who was wonderfully player by Christian Bale (and I can't believe I actually thought Haley Joel Osment is the only great child actor), and it definitely benefited from not taking any sides, but subtly pace out the transformation of Jim. Towards the end of the film, you may easily find yourself surrender to its emotion, and still haunted even long after the credits stopped rolling. I admit it is slow at times, but I could not take my eyes off the screen, nor could I help to feel for the boy. With so many movies on the market today that claim to be "thought-provoking" and "deep & meaningful", seldom offers as much humanity as this one. Without the thrills and high-techs, this is Speilberg at his best, and I only hope to see the great director tops it, even though it will be a tough task.
Rating: 
Summary: The most effective of Spielberg's many (bad) films
Review: This is the only film in Spielberg's ouvre that truly moulds his obsession with the wonder of childhood (Christian Bales strandedness in a world of left over, empty adult remnants)all the while melding it with aspects of his other seemingly inextricable, perrenial obsession: WW2. It is the better half of his other late eighties drama's (the awful 'The Color Purple' is one to forget as soon as possible) and a career high, aesthetically and thematically, at that point. Tellingly, Spielberg left this film by the wayside the minute it bombed at the box-office, he never mentions it these days as if embarrassed. Someone should write a letter to Herr Spielberg: "It wasn't that bad, you greedy guts!".
Rating:
Summary: Spielberg's Forgotten Classic...Worth Seeing
Review: In the behind-the-scenes featurette for Saving Private Ryan, director Steven Spielberg admits he has an "obsession" with World War II. More than half his movies - ranging from the comedy 1941 to the Oscar-winning Schindler's List - are set in the dark times spanning the mid-1930s through 1945. Spielberg's father Arnold was a radio operator aboard a B-25 in the China-Burma-India Theater, and by watching John Wayne war movies and his dad's home movies of his time in the Army Air Force, young Steven developed a life-long fascination with the Second World War. One of his best - if perhaps unappreciated - movies about wartime is Empire of the Sun. Based on J.G. Ballard's autobiographical novel, Empire of the Sun deals with the effects of the war on children. The story is told from the point of British schoolboy Jamie Graham (Christian Bale), a well-read if somewhat spoiled 12-year-old who lives in Shanghai, China, with his well-to-do parents in what was a geographical anomaly: the International Settlement. At the turn of the 20th century, the West's imperial powers had carved out sectors of Shanghai and transformed them into small, self-contained pockets of Europe and the U.S. Schools, churches, homes and businesses were built to serve this small yet powerful community of Westerners in one of China's largest cities. The strange thing about this International Settlement was that China has been at war with Imperial Japan for several years, yet this island of Americans and Europeans exists relatively untouched by the war. Pearl Harbor, of course, changes that, and on December 8, 1941, Japanese forces cross into the International Settlement, wrecking young Jamie's structured life of private school and a comfortable life with Mum and Dad. Separated from his parents in a particularly heart-wrenching scene, Jamie undergoes a hellish ordeal as he attempts to survive on his own. Screenwriter Tom Stoppard adapts Ballard's novel quite faithfully, and Spielberg's directorial talents carry us along Jamie's journey from the streets of Shanghai to the confines of a Japanese internment camp for civilian prisoners. Although Empire of the Sun is not a combat film, there are a few battle scenes that give us glimpses of the wider war. The December 1941 sequence is terrifying and technically challenging, while the Kamikaze Dawn scene is awe-inspiring yet tragic. In this amazingly beautiful scene, Jamie - who admires Japanese pilots and their planes - watches a pre-takeoff ceremony for a trio of kamikaze (suicide) pilots. In a solemn gesture of respect, this young British boy sings "Suo Gan" across the barbed wire that separates the internment camp from the Japanese airfield. At first surprised, the Japanese commander listens to this unlikely show of admiration, then watches his three planes take off into the morning sun...where they are immediately jumped by a squadron of American P-51 Mustangs. The cast includes John Malkovich, Miranda Richardson and Nigel Havers. Allen Daviau's cinematography, Michael Kahn's flawless editing, and John Williams' moving score contribute to the quality of this film, which was the first American production to be filmed in the People's Republic of China. Regrettably, unlike Spielberg's Indiana Jones series or later war movies, Empire of the Sun was largely ignored by audiences.
Rating:
Summary: GREATEST MOVIE I HAVE SEEN
Review: I had an Uncle who was taken prisoner in Shanghai and spent the entire war in an Internment Camp. From his tales to us after his return, in my imagination, I lived the war through with him.
I think Christian Bale was one of the greatest child stars of our time, and John Williams provided Music to still the soul and heighten the movie to it's zenith. I actually bawled tears of joy as the Thunderbolt swooped down over the camp,and was as elated as Christian, heightened by the music. I would really rate Empire of the Sun as 10 stars, but the hightest they would afford me is 5 stars. As Teddy Roosevelt might have said, BULLY! BULLY!
Rating:
Summary: Hmmm...
Review: I can understand why this one wasn't commercially successful. It is a bit slow in places. It's a World War II movie without Americans (for the most part). It's about a kid in a prison camp.
However, I would certainly rank it up there as one of Spielberg's better films. It proved that he could make a movie without being cutesie (like ET, Close Encounters and Raiders to a lesser extent). It also showed that he could shoot some fantastic scenes. The scene where the Kamikaze pilots go up is fantastic. As are the scenes of China falling.
Rating:
Summary: Stunning and Inspiring
Review: Drama, action, despair, wonder, suspense, joy, hate- Empire of the Sun has it all. Its' acting is excellent. Christian Bale conveys a sense of wonder amidst dire circumstances that only a young boy can hold. John Malkevich plays the semi-cynical Basie well. Nigel Havers adds much to some of the films finest moments as Dr Rawlins. Empire shows us a life turned upside down, but not fully changed. A Japanese invasion takes young Jim Graham from his secure home and throws him first into the streets, and later into a prison camp. Jim learns how to get by in prison, yet retains some elements of youthful innocence. Occasionally, he sheds his illusions and confronts his circumstances. His spirits soar in scene where he cheers American p-51 fighter planes, but quickly dive when he remembers his missing parents. He sees the brutality of the Japanese, yet remains friendly with them. He stays close to the American prisoners, but recoils at their disdain for Japanese life. Visually this film is stunning. You can almost smell the prison camp and feel the hunger and fatigue of the British as they march from it. The musical score by John Williams matches the feeling of each scene precisely. Its' humor is scant, but appropriate. Its' ending is most fitting. Jim never lost his spirit, and eventually finds what he misses most. This film is simply magnificent.
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