the first time i saw it, i didn’t know what it was…wonderful movie, brilliant…and kind of required if youre a Christian Bale fan…:rolleyes:
I just want to say
P-51 Mustang…Cadillac of the skies…!!!
Same author, different movies; but I wonder what if David Cronenberg had made “Empire of the Sun,” and Speilberg had made “Crash.”
The only thing I liked about either movie was the J. G. Ballardness under each story. EOTS’s is buried under Speilberg’s schmaltz, Crash’s under Cronenberg’s ickiness.
Watching “Spider,” I was glad to see Cronenberg has outgrown his ickiness. Everybody thinks Speilberg did the same thing ten years ago, putting schmaltz aside with “Schindler’s List,” but just resisting the urge to put a kid on a bike who lives happily ever after in the center of the movie isn’t really the same as maturing as a storyteller.
More than the movie itself, I remember loving the soundtrack. Good ole John Williams stuff. I like his work on this movie more than the bigger flicks like the new Star Wars prequels, Jurassic Park, etc.
I still have the CD and love to listen to it occasionally. Y’all are giving me reason to go dig it up and fire up the player…(and, btw, “Cadillac of the Skies” is one of the song titles).
I loved the film. Wrought with symbolism and pure teenage adrenaline. Especially for a boy growing up in a Japanese Internment camp. I liked all aspects of the film. Especialy when the dead woman looked at Jim…
“Only for a moment”
How did they see the atomic bomb blast (over hiroshima) from China?
It is across the Sea of Japan at one of it’s narrowist points. But I think a little imagination is going on in that bit.
It was actually more of a shockwave-type thing, not the actual blast. Kind of like a ripple of light.
I liked this movie when I saw it on TV.
Very interesting note- My great-uncle happened to be living in Shanghai as a boy during the Japanese occupation, he was put in a camp and spent the war as a prisoner. Its fascinating that many of the events in the movie really happened to one of my relatives.
Another memory…remember the japanese kid who wanted to be a suicide pilot? Little Jimmy helped him…the japanesej
kid was mad because he couln’t get the plane to start…then he went looking for someone to behead him…that part was pretty weird.
What I couln’tunderstnd…the kid is separated fromhis parents for 5 years, then they are reunited…and there is no emotion.
Considering all that happened to them over the past 4 years, I think they were all beyond emotion in that scene.
What’s really shocking…but realistic at the same time…is how Jim and his parents don’t even recognize each other at first. Yowch.
You need to understand that this film speaks in a series of ‘reversals’. This final scene is one of them.
First let us recall the P-51 attack. It is a key scene because it starts with that song. Then as the P-51s attack Jim runs up to the top of a building. In each shot of the adults awakening to the attack Jim is somehow in the background or reflected in glass. The Doctor runs up to try and pull Jim to saftey. Jim does not give a damn that all these planes are flying around shooting stuff up and is really excited that soon the Americans (his new ‘race’ will be in controll of the runway he helped to build.
Then he makes the dramatic confession that he does not remember what his parents look like. All he has is a Norman Rockwell image taken from a magazine (which looks a lot like a scene from the film) for a subtitute family photo.
Then the doctor takes him in his arm. Jim rests his head over the doctors left shoulder and Jim in order not to think so much runs over his latin lessons. He is saying in latin that ‘he was loved’ but he is not loved now. He also does not close his eyes, which is the normal thing to do when you are hugged by someone.
At the end of the film as the all the kids get excited Jim does not because he doesn’t remember what his parents look like. Of course the song starts and then him mother calls him Jamie. He slowly recognizes her and basically he moves in slow motion. (to be inrythm with the song) and as he puts his head on him mom’s right shoulder, there is a deliberate shot of him closeing his eyes. And that is all you need. Jamie can finally rest now because he is BEING loved.
Jimmy expierenced what beyond his age could bear…he saw the war himself…he saw his friend being killed…
he saw people fled from the war…he learnt to know how to fight for life…“should do everything for potato”…
he lost his happy childhood…far away from his parents…at last …when he met his parents…he became unconscious…
imaging how darkness of the war impact him so…his vision at last shocked me…the war is cruel…led to a boy’s life fading…
I like the doctor in the camp…he is a real doctor…to protect his patients,he endured the Japanese officer’s rough treat and heavily hit…