Tuesday, June 21, 2005
BALE BONDS
We saw Empire of the Sun (1987).
It is some picture! We had forgotten how powerful.
The main thing about it is the first appearance of Christian Bale as a young Brit lost from his family in Shanghai in WWII. You can see the expert adult actor in the boy's performance.
We also see John Malkovitch, Joe Pantoliano, Ben Stiller, Natasha Richardson and others just starting out their careers.
It is a strong 5 out of Netflix5.
They say it is Spielberg's overlooked film. Too bad. It is one of his finest, I think. Certainly beats what we see from him now.
It is way big in scale but the people are in strong focus. It is really a series of vignettes; a coming of age, loss of innocence picture. The story is simple. Boy lost, boy survives, boy found. It is the journey that matters, not the destination.
Did I say it was a FIVE! Yesss.
How many kid actors have succeeded as adults? I draw a blank. There are a lot that started working young in commercials and light parts. I mean kids who had a starring role as a kid. Not Macaulay Culkin. Not Haley Joel. Well, Natalie Wood. But that is a long time ago.