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I have the CD. It's not one of my favourite Williams scores; I only bought the CD last year and I've only seen the film once. Bits of it are great, but I can't get too excited about it....
NP: STAR TERK: THE MOTION PICTURE (Goldsmith)
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Absolutely one of John Williams' most under-rated works. This music is totally wonderful. John Williams is being evocative and progressive and sublime all in one score.
I honestly felt on seeing the movie that John's music TOTALLY eclipsed Spielberg's visuals, they were on 2 different plains.
Get the CD, it's an investment, a totally worthy one
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I loved it, from when Williams seemingly went for big ideas, big statements, big characterisations, big actually-compelling-melodic lines that had flow and momentum, and let it go way loud and romantic. From when the atonal parts had drama and subtlety instead of just piping out loud crashing Harry Pottery and impersonal textural decorations without emotional grounding...
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The movie was a major surprise of Christmas 1987, a serious effort from Spielberg. I've always thought of it like a doughnut: the first and last sections are wonderful, while all the stuff in the prison camp rambled into cliche' territory. There are still intense sequences I remember: All the English colony in costume on their way through a panic-stricken Shanghai, in as strong a metaphor of people out of touch with reality as I've ever seen. Christian Bale staying forlorn in the house abandoned by his family. That wonderful toy plane landing next to armed Japanese troops. The atomic bomb viewed as a vision of Heaven. And, of course, the most affecting, seeing Bale from his parents' eyes at the end, and realizing how much his experiences have made him unrecognizable.
Loved the score; still play it occasionally. It's lyrical, moving, memorable. It and the film it accompanies have been much underrated.
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Posted: |
May 4, 2005 - 12:12 PM
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By: |
Thor
(Member)
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Yeah, dogbelle, "let talk"! 
I relistened to this yesterday, and it's a fine soundtrack that varies radically in mood. There are a couple of tracks that are more jubilant and upbeat in nature, that sort of celebrate the human spirit (such as "Cadillac in the Skies" and the "Exsultate Justi" pastiche). But for the most part, it's really a profound psychological journey. The music for these passages aren't exactly "horrorey" although they are frequently dissonant. No, I would much rather say that they are "mysterioso" in nature; that they make you step back and LINGER in certain moods with a certain therapeutic effect.
The CD boasts to be "a digital recording", which is hardly impressive by today's standards, so it is actually become dated already.
An underrated gem, both film and score.
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My all-time favorite John Williams score. I bought this one on cassette tape back in 1987, then on CD in 1990 and haven't grown tired of it yet. Beautiful, transporting music.
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'Empire of the Sun' is my FAVORITE Film of all time.(Not the Best Film of all time, just my favorite film!)
I have always liked to think that back in the year it was up for it's numerous Oscar Nomintations, and won none, that a contributing factor in this was this: that the voting member who was aged/and lacked the grey matter got confused. That that year two films were set in China and had the (similar sounding) names of 'EMPEROR' AND 'EMPIRE'. So, perhaps some votes went the way of 'The Last Emperor' instead of to 'Empire of the Sun'. (How else can you figure out how the music of Ryuichi Sakamoto and Cong-Su, nice as it was, beat out this superb John Williams score?)
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Posted: |
May 4, 2005 - 2:18 PM
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By: |
SheriffJoe
(Member)
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Christian Bale's performance in this film absolutely mesmerized me. It was brilliant, from beginning (childhood innocence and naivete) to end (war-torn, disheveled, hallow). The most amazing thing about this film, the one thing that makes it a classic in my eyes, is this:
Jim's parents were a MAJOR part of the entire first half hour of the film. We see them, hear them and watch them as their lives are shattered by the Japanese invasion. Then, they are gone. When they return an hour and a half later, I, like Jim, didn't even recognize them. I had no idea what his parents looked like anymore...it was their shocked attention to him, they recognized his outer shell (barely) and came to him.
It was a seminal moment of filmmaking and storytelling for me...and Williams' sparse music at that moment only added to the emptiness that Bale's performance portrayed.
Absolutley BRILLIANT film and score.
SheriffJoe
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The most amazing thing about this film, the one thing that makes it a classic in my eyes, is this:
Jim's parents were a MAJOR part of the entire first half hour of the film. We see them, hear them and watch them as their lives are shattered by the Japanese invasion. Then, they are gone. When they return an hour and a half later, I, like Jim, didn't even recognize them. I had no idea what his parents looked like anymore...it was their shocked attention to him, they recognized his outer shell (barely) and came to him.
I can testify to that. I felt exactly the same. Who were these people? One of THE Spielberg scenes in history.
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