The Great Scenes: “Liberation of the internment camp” from EMPIRE OF THE SUN
by Graham Flanagan on Aug.26, 2010, under The Great Scenes
The Movie: Empire of the Sun
Spoiler Level: Moderate
The Setup: Many would agree that, along with Walt Disney and Alfred Hitchcock, Steven Spielberg is one of the most famous filmmakers of all time. He’s made movies like “Jaws,” “E.T.” and “Schindler’s List” that quickly cemented their places in the pop culture lexicon. However, upon closer examination of Spielberg’s storied career, there exist a few entries on his filmography that, for some, might have slipped under the radar.
The most unfortunate example of this might be his 1987 drama “Empire of the Sun,” which only grossed $22 million at the domestic box office. The only Spielberg film preventing it from being the director’s all-time worst box-office performer is “The Sugarland Express,” which grossed only $7.5 million in 1974. You might call “Empire of the Sun” (along with “1941”) Spielberg’s only true box office flop. Despite it’s disappointing commercial performance, many Spielberg fans – myself included – consider “Empire” to be one of his finest works.
A very young Christian Bale stars as Jamie Graham, or “Jim,” an English boy separated from his parents in Shanghai, China at the outbreak of World War II. Jim, along with many more prisoners from the Allied nations, is sent to a Japanese internment camp where, in order to survive, he is forced to endure a sped-up transition from childhood to adulthood. One day, the prisoners finally regain their freedom when a group of Allied fighter planes – specifically P-51 Mustangs – swoop in and liberate the camp.
Why It’s Great: Ever since I first saw this film when I was 15, this scene has resonated with me so much that I consider it to be my favorite movie-scene of all time. Lots of people would categorize Spielberg as a cinematic master, and this sequence supports that notion. He masterfully combines acting, production design, sound, cinematography and music to produce a result that makes you forget that any of those artificial elements are even involved in the first place.
There’s a moment (at 1:30 in the provided clip) where Spielberg cuts to a slo-mo shot of a P-51 flying towards Jim. He applies a haunting music cue by John Williams that, for a moment, removes you from the dangerous chaos of the action surrounding Jim and places you inside his mind, allowing you to appreciate the beauty of what’s happening. Thanks to Spielberg’s handling of this scene, the viewer truly empathizes with how Jim feels. Jim’s subsequent burst of emotion always impacts me powerfully, even after repeated viewings. The scene reaches its peak when,at 2:27 in this clip, Jim yells “horsepower!” followed by a almost-primal scream.
Jim is then accosted by an adult who runs up to rescue him from danger, simultaneously removing him from this living-dream and bringing him back to reality. When Jim does indeed “come down” from this high, he says “I can’t remember what my parents look like,” thus emphasizing the immense toll this whole experience has had on him.
Every time I watch this scene, it’s nothing short of absolutely breathtaking. It makes an even stronger impact when viewed in the context of the entire movie, which is highly recommended – not just to Spielberg fans, but to fans of film in general.
September 30th, 2010 on 9:44 pm
Matt you are 100% correct this is a vastly under appreciated Spielberg accomplishment. Unlike your ‘Horsepower!” quote what I’ve always recalled was the line “P-51 … Cadillac of the skiiiiieeeeees!”
The ensemble cast is also excellent Malkovich, Nigel Havers and the Japanese actors are excellent. Tom Stoppard’s adaptation of JG Ballard’s novel was done with great sensitivity, preserving almost all the sense of unreality of the era. Incidentally my favourite JG Ballard novel was The Drowned World .. I cannot belive no-one has filmed that yet …
By and large I’m not a consistent fan of Spielberg, I do like Duel & Jaws in particular, but his blockbuster stuff never connected with me (Raiders trilogy aside).
He’s too prone to veer into childish schmaltz over substance, though interspersed amongst the likes of ET and The Goonies are excellent serious films as well like Amistad, The Colour Purple and of course Schindler’s List.
No doubt to the above serious films you can add the astounding Saving Private Ryan, which in my mind re-invented and modernised the depiction of WWII in cinema. With his heritage it’s not surprising to see Steven return to stories from this period. Not only does SPR stand alone as in my opinion, one of his very best films, but it triggered the production of Band of Brothers which is quite possibly the best TV mini series ever made. (Now *there’s* a blog topic huh ? )
And yet, Saving Private Ryan also contains in my opinion, his single worst work ever. 99% of SPR is exceptionally handled, wonderfully realised in all ways. Except that the two modern-day scenes that bookend the movie are so crashingly inappropriate I could not comprehend how they made it to final cut.
The level of mawkish sentimentality displayed in those scenes, the clumsiness of the acting made it appear to me, as if they were shot by a different director … like a weird Tarantino/Rodriguez style mash up gone horribly wrong. Or perhaps the sort of butchery often forced on a low powered directors by the studio following ‘test screenings’.
Of course being Spielberg that is not what happened, we know that is exactly what he wanted … after all, you can do whatever you want when your initials are in the name of the studio.
Maybe it’s just me. But if you just snip those two scenes off you have a flawless movie. Seewhat I just did there ? … that’s *me* giving film making advice to Steven Spielberg. GRIN
October 4th, 2010 on 7:23 pm
Dean, thanks for another excellent post (keep them coming, you are the MVP of FilmNerds blog posters right now!) but I just want to point out that this particular post comes from our contributor Graham Flanagan.