Christian Bale, John Malkovich and the Steven Spielberg film ‘Empire of the Sun’

British, American and other expatriates were in Shanghai, China during the time surrounding the Japanese occupation of the city during the Second Sino-Japanese War. That war lasted longer and occurred at the same time that many in the west understand as World War Two, though the film Empire of the Sun (1987) looks at the period that can be roughly understood as 1941 to 1945.

(Christian Bale as Jamie ‘Jim’ Graham and Takatarô Kataoka as Kamikaze Boy Pilot in the film Empire of the Sun).

The film Empire of the Sun tells the story of spoiled British child Jamie Graham, played by Christian Bale, who starts the film living with his parents in diplomat accommodations in Shanghai prior to the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor. Jamie has lived an exceptionally privileged life with Chinese servants serving his every wish, having grown up in diplomatic circles in China with an apparent understanding of communicating in both English, the form of Chinese spoken in Shanghai, and Japanese.

(Left to Right, Emily Richard as Mary Graham, Rupert Frazer as John Graham and Christian Bale as Jamie ‘Jim’ Graham in the film Empire of the Sun).

In the chaos following Japan occupying Shanghai and the attack on Pearl Harbor, Jamie is separated from his parents as the occupation begins. Following some desperate actions in the aftermath of that chaos, Jamie becomes entangled in the occupation with American expatriates Frank Demarest and Basie, as portrayed by John Malkovich and Joe Pantoliano.

(John Malkovich as Basie, left, and Joe Pantoliano as Frank Demarest in the film Empire of the Sun).

In creating a trade network within the camp where the prisoners exist, and in coming of age in a fashion that instills hope among the adult prisoners where all are held, Jamie takes the abbreviated name Jim from Basie and Frank. Hope comes in the form of the successes in acquiring street smarts, flat out bravery in pushing boundaries with his captors for his own good as well as the benefit of the prisoners, and the support Jim acquires through the course of the movie’s telling.

(Nigel Havers as Dr. Rawlins, left, and Christian Bale as Jamie ‘Jim’ Graham in the film Empire of the Sun).

While in the camp, Jim also forms a sort of father and son relationship with camp physician and British expatriate Dr. Rawlins, as portrayed by Nigel Havers. The bond formed by the two is palpable and convincing, offering a sweet glimpse into the emotionally possible within the context of the utterly miserable conditions of captivity. It is in part that Jim can maintain an optimism and growth in the face of a military occupation that hope is as strong a message for Empire of the Sun as is captivity.

(Christian Bale and Empire of the Sun director Steven Spielberg on set of the film Empire of the Sun).

The film Empire of the Sun is based on J.G. Ballard‘s autobiographical novel, also named Empire of the Sun. The film ends during the 1945 liberation of the prison camp, with glimpses of the atomic bomb in Nagasaki catching Jim’s attention. The heavy truths are shared in typically tasteful Steven Spielberg fashion, and the story eventually resolves in emotionally compelling fashions on that larger stage as well as on the personal stage of the relationships forged through the film. Empire of the Sun, rather to my unexpected pleasure, works on an emotional level in the storytelling that allows me to give the film 4.00-stars on a scale of one-to-five.

Matt – Wednesday, January 8, 2020

Danny Glover, Whoopi Goldberg, and ‘The Color Purple’

Alice Walker‘s book The Color Purple won the Pulitzer Prize for fiction and the National Book Award for fiction in 1983. Two years later, the film The Color Purple (1985) premiered in December 1985 with a more general release in the following year. Steven Spielberg directed and partly produced the film, which was nominated for eleven Academy Awards. (Much of this review includes spoilers).

(Alice Walker, the writer of the book The Color Purple, winner of the Pulitzer Prize and the National Book Award).

The Color Purple tell the story of life in African-American women in the Southern United States. The movie gets into some of the upbringing and forcibly separate lives of sisters Celie Johnson and Nettie Harris, who are forced to confront incest, rape, and then premature familial separation at the hands of the man they knew as their father. Celie, portrayed by Whoopi Goldberg after being forced to marry Albert Johnson, moves into a horrific and controlling situation after giving birth to two children at the hands of her purported father.

(Whoopi Goldberg as Celie Johnson in the movie The Color Purple).

Danny Glover plays Albert Johnson in The Color Purple. Albert agrees to marry Celie after Alphonso, the father to Celie and Nettie, comes to an agreement with Albert to have Nettie keep house and raise his kids after being widowed. Albert physically, sexually, verbally, and emotionally abuses Celie from roughly 1907 through the 1930s. Albert’s kids join in the verbal abuse and act with much emotional disdain towards Celie throughout the film.

(Danny Glover as Albert Johnson in the movie The Color Purple).

After Alphonso’s sexual advances toward Nettie after Albert and Nettie’s arranged marriage, Nettie fleas to Celie seeking refuge. Albert attempts to force himself upon Nettie. Nettie fleas this, and when forced out of the Johnson household at a young age she leaves, crying. Nettie promises to write until her death. As Albert guards against Celie seeing any correspondence coming to Johnson household, Celie goes on for many years never hearing from her sister. Akosua Busia plays Celie’s sister, Nettie Harris.

(Akosua Busia as Nettie Harris in the movie The Color Purple).

As the story progresses toward the 1930s, Albert’s son Harpo and Sofia have become pregnant. Oprah Winfrey plays Sofia while Willard E. Pugh plays Harpo. Sofia is the stronger character of these two and takes pains to have defended herself against the physical, sexual, and emotional violence of male family, Southern United States culture, and being financially poor in Georgia. (Much of the movie is set in Georgia).

(Oprah Winfrey as Sofia in the movie The Color Purple).

Against the will of Albert Johnson, Sofia and Harpo get married. A total of three kids are born to Sofia and Harpo between physical fights and disagreements, with Sofia leaving Harpo for lack of respect and fair treatment while the third child is newly born. Much later in the larger story, Sofia justifiably strikes a condescending white man and, as a result, must work as a servant to a white family in the Southern United States with no rights of self-determination or free movement. Sofia is separated from her kids for more than eight years, and Celie then raises Harpo’s kids at Albert Johnson’s home.

(Willard E. Pugh as Harpo Johnson, left, and Oprah Winfrey as Sofia in the movie The Color Purple).

Albert Johnson takes transparent, brazen interest through much of the above story taking romantic interest in Shug Avery, a beautiful woman that for much of the movie entertains men through dance and singing in speakeasies while entertaining in private as well. Margaret Avery portrayed Shug Avery. Shug did spend time in the Johnson household, and Celie was forced by her husband to see to housekeeping and food preparation services to Shug. Later in the movie, it was Shug that takes sympathy with Celie’s longstanding suffering and sets Celie onto the course of freedom; this occurs after Shug is properly married and intervenes in such matters as finding the cache of letters that Albert had hidden in the house yet never shared with Celie.

(Whoopi Goldberg as Celie Johnson, left, and Margaret Avery as Shug Avery in the movie The Color Purple).

Some tense scenes for The Color Purple reveal themselves between the finding of the letters and the resolution of the film. Harpo and Sofia come to some semblance of a civilized relationship, which occurred after Celie took the outcome of her 8-year banishment to white Southern America culture as a punishment for a relatively minor infraction against a white southern male. Celie had considered taking revenge upon Albert Johnson more than once, yet was dissuaded from the course at each point where that thought arose. Ultimately, Nettie Harris returns home to Georgia from Africa with a husband, Celie’s two kids, and news that Alphonso was stepfather to Celie and Nettie. The sisterly bond of Celie and Nettie is restored, and the reestablishment of a morally uplifting reunion after all the bitter ugliness in the film offers some sense of hope.

(Whoopi Goldberg, left, and producer/director Steven Spielberg between takes of the movie The Color Purple).

Critical reception of the film includes the underlying point that films by Steven Spielberg tend to emphasize of points of more clarity without delving into points of uncomfortable sexual storytelling. Alice Walker‘s book is properly read through the lens of feeling the discomfort and agony of the emotional pain that comes from the incestuous of forcible sexual situations. The added emotional wounds of physical and emotional pain were downplayed as a matter of tone in The Color Purple. That diminished the impact of the film. In fairness to Spielberg, none of his movies have confronted emotionally charged subject matter such as this in as direct a manner as I am suggesting.

The experience of the movie was important. Carefully considered, much of the larger message was expressed. Given the style points raised in the last paragraph, my rating of the movie The Color Purple is 3.50-stars on a scale of one-to-five stars.

Matt – Wednesday, March 13, 2019