Uploaded August 2026 | Updated September 2026, 1 hour ago
Roger Ebert reviews Empire of the Sun, Steven Spielberg’s 1987 World War II drama starring Christian Bale, John Malkovich, Miranda Richardson, and Nigel Havers.
Based on the novel by J. G. Ballard, the film follows a young British boy separated from his parents in Shanghai during World War II and forced to survive inside a Japanese internment camp. Spielberg blends the scale of a war epic with the emotional point of view of a child, creating one of his most visually striking and underrated films of the 1980s.
In this review, Ebert discusses the film’s ambition, visual power, and
Christian Bale’s breakout performance as a young boy trying to understand war, survival, fear, and imagination in a collapsing world.
Roger Ebert reviews Empire of the Sun, Steven Spielberg’s 1987 World War II drama starring Christian Bale, John Malkovich, Miranda Richardson, and Nigel Havers.
Based on the novel by J. G. Ballard, the film follows a young British boy separated from his parents in Shanghai during World War II and forced to survive inside a Japanese internment camp. Spielberg blends the scale of a war epic with the emotional point of view of a child, creating one of his most visually striking and underrated films of the 1980s.
In this review, Ebert discusses the film’s ambition, visual power, and
Christian Bale’s breakout performance as a young boy trying to understand war, survival, fear, and imagination in a collapsing world.
