Seriously I had never seen it. It's a great flick and Christian Bale is really, really good. Anybody else miss out on seeing this film?

Great movie, very underrated.

Another John Williams score to boot.

Truly awesome movie.

I think about it every time I find weevils in my cereal.

Plus John Malkovich.

So there's that.

I watched that for the first time a few weeks ago too. Christian Bale was incredible. Funny seeing Ben Stiller pop in for a little bit.

Met the Christaim Bale character at the Tanglin Club in Singapore. Quite the drinker but he said as a boy it was one of the greatest times of his life.

Met another who was a child in a Manila camp, Ametican whose father was a business man there. I ask him about it and he, embarrassingly said the same thing

I saw it when it came out in December 1987. Loved it. It inspired me to read the book by JG Ballard. I watched it with my wife not too long ago, she had never seen it but thought it was fantastic. It does have another great John Williams score. And Christian Bale, I believe that was his first role, was memorable (until he grew up to play Batman, his best work IMO).

that Bale guy has only done 2 good movies.


Reign of Fire and Newsies

Every thing else has been derivative trash

I thought he was great in Ford vs Ferrari.

Duncan Idaho said:

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that Bale guy has only done 2 good movies.


Reign of Fire and Newsies

Every thing else has been derivative trash

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He is one of the best actors of the last 20 years.

Currently reading Last Boat Out of Shanghai so this movie looks really interesting. Thanks for another good rec Entertainment board.

Damn. Never realized that was Christian Bale. Saw that movie years ago and to this day had no clue.

Spielberg and WWII go hand in hand:

Empire of the sun
Schindlers list
Saving private Ryan
Indiana Jones

Blatant Disregard said:

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Spielberg and WWII go hand in hand:

Empire of the sun
Schindlers list
Saving private Ryan
Indiana Jones

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What, no love for 1941?

Don't forget the opening of Close Encounters of the Third Kind, where he referenced a WWII-era story of Flight 19 (the Grumman Avengers and Hellcat found in the desert), or Always, where Richard Dreyfuss and John Goodman fly WWII aircraft to put out forest fires.

And he was one of the producers of the HBO mini-series Band of Brothers and The Pacific.

Kanyes psychiatrist said:

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Duncan Idaho said:

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that Bale guy has only done 2 good movies.


Reign of Fire and Newsies

Every thing else has been derivative trash

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He is one of the best actors of the last 20 years.

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I think it was sarcasm...

Young Christian Bale was great in the TNT version of "Treasure Island"...amazing cast. Charlton Heston as Long John Silver.

BTHOthatguy said:

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Seriously I had never seen it. It's a great flick and Christian Bale is really, really good. Anybody else miss out on seeing this film?

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Try The Power of One with Morgan Freeman and Stephen Dorff if you havent already. Good movie about apartheid South Africa that came out around the same time.

The fact that he thought it was a serious post explains a lot of his other posts

If you said I could watch 1 movie before I die, Empire of the Sun might be it.

Something about that movie hits a nerve for me. I am guaranteed to tear up when we see the Cadillac of the Skies and when the enemy kid's promotion goes bad. I will cry like a baby at the end of that movie. I did when I saw it in the theater and I did when I made my kids watch it for the first time a few months ago.

I remember watching it when I was younger and being dazzled by the fighting scene and the Hershey bar scene. I watched it a month ago and damn it's so good. The movie just tells a good story that doesn't have a whole lot of depth but is just interesting.

Thomas Ford 91 said:

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If you said I could watch 1 movie before I die, Empire of the Sun might be it.

Something about that movie hits a nerve for me. I am guaranteed to tear up when we see the Cadillac of the Skies and when the enemy kid's promotion goes bad. I will cry like a baby at the end of that movie. I did when I saw it in the theater and I did when I made my kids watch it for the first time a few months ago.

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Pretty much my reaction as well, especially when Jim is reunited with his mom at the end. Using spoiler tags there because apparently there are those who have not seen this movie (and I was once griped out when I made a statement about the end of the prequel to John Carpenter's The Thing, also called The Thing, when I stated that the ending of the newer movie was clearly going to be bad due to Kurt Russell et al finding all those Norwegians dead.

I also get an emotional response during the P-51 strafing sequence, and even when Jim goes to inspect the Japanese warbird (probably supposed to be a Zero) and the Jap aviators recognize a fellow aviation nut, transcending the conflict they were in, and give him a salute.