Empire of the Sun (1987)

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Wikidata Q271281, film, IMDb tt0092965, TMDB 10110: matched by corpus:resolve, told apart by the only film by that title.

What a model would be handed about it, for corpus:ask.

In the store as #134, Empire of the Sun (1987).

Who talked about it

Blank Check with Griffin & David

The Big Picture

Came from

What the speakers say it drew on. Each is a speaker's account: “the maker said so” when they report the maker's own words, “the host's read” when the read is theirs.

David Lean: 1 line the host's read ×1

  1. lineage (origin of project): David Lean ⇒ Empire of the Sun (the host's read). Lean asked Spielberg to check on the rights, then lost interest and handed the novel to him.
    “He asks Spielberg to check in on the rights for him.”
    Blank Check with Griffin & David · Empire of the Sun with Bilge Ebiri · 0:57:53 · Griffin Newman (0.50 sure it was them)

Gone with the Wind: 1 line the host's read ×1

  1. unmapped (scene reference): Gone with the Wind ⇒ Empire of the Sun (the host's read). Jim stands before the Gone with the Wind poster, echoing Spielberg's remark to Alice Walker that it is one of his favorites.
    “I mean, you have that moment where he's standing in front of the giant gone with the wind poster, right?”
    Blank Check with Griffin & David · Empire of the Sun with Bilge Ebiri · 1:31:05 · Griffin Newman (0.60 sure it was them)

J.G. Ballard: 1 line the host's read ×1

  1. lineage (source): J.G. Ballard ⇒ Empire of the Sun (the host's read). The novel is darker than the film, which sanitized it and condensed characters.
    “There is definitely a lot of sanitizing happening and a lot of kind of condensing of characters and turning them into more of a more of a Hollywoody plot element.”
    Blank Check with Griffin & David · Empire of the Sun with Bilge Ebiri · 1:01:53 · Bilge Ebiri (0.75 sure it was them)

Jaws: 1 line the host's read ×1

  1. craft (shot design): Jaws ⇒ Empire of the Sun (the host's read). Spielberg reveals Malkovich in pieces like Jaws and Indiana Jones, withholding the hero shot.
    “he introduces him both like he's Jaws and like he's Indiana Jones”
    Blank Check with Griffin & David · Empire of the Sun with Bilge Ebiri · 1:38:17 · Griffin Newman (0.50 sure it was them)

Raiders of the Lost Ark: 1 line the host's read ×1

  1. craft (shot design): Raiders of the Lost Ark ⇒ Empire of the Sun (the host's read). Same slow reveal as Indiana Jones in pieces before the hero shot.
    “which similarly has the like Spielberg taking 5 minutes to show you Indiana Jones in pieces before you really get the hero shot”
    Blank Check with Griffin & David · Empire of the Sun with Bilge Ebiri · 1:38:17 · Griffin Newman (0.50 sure it was them)

Led to

What the speakers say drew on it, marked the same way.

Schindler's List: 2 lines the host's read ×2

  1. contrast (method contrast): Empire of the Sun ⇒ Schindler's List (the host's read). On Schindler Spielberg refused to storyboard, almost as a reaction to criticism of the puppet-show control in Empire.
    “Schindler, the infamous thing, is that he was like, I won't storyboard this.”
    Blank Check with Griffin & David · Empire of the Sun with Bilge Ebiri · 0:31:40 · Griffin Newman (0.50 sure it was them)

Tropic Thunder: 1 line the host's read ×1

  1. lineage (inspiration): Empire of the Sun ⇒ Tropic Thunder (the host's read). Ben Stiller, on the Empire set as a young actor, was inspired by actors playing at suffering to make Tropic Thunder two decades later.
    “Which, of course, this is one of this movie's greatest, like, lasting legacies is that this, this is what inspires Tropic Thunder.”
    Blank Check with Griffin & David · Empire of the Sun with Bilge Ebiri · 1:49:05 · Griffin Newman (0.60 sure it was them)

Connected to

Schindler's List: 2 lines unmapped ×1 contrast ×1

  1. contrast (method contrast): Schindler's List → Empire of the Sun. On Schindler Spielberg refused to storyboard, almost as a reaction to criticism of the puppet-show control in Empire.
    “Schindler, the infamous thing, is that he was like, I won't storyboard this.”
    Blank Check with Griffin & David · Empire of the Sun with Bilge Ebiri · 0:31:40 · Griffin Newman (0.50 sure it was them)

Steven Spielberg: 2 lines career ×1 theme ×1

  1. career (career theory): Empire of the Sun → Steven Spielberg. Bilge argues Spielberg's 70s and 80s films are seen through a child's eyes and his later ones through a parent's eyes.
    “I have this theory that early period of his career, you know, 70s, 80s, that his films really can be best be understood as being from the point of view of a child.”
    Blank Check with Griffin & David · Empire of the Sun with Bilge Ebiri · 0:22:49 · Bilge Ebiri (0.90 sure it was them)

Tom Stoppard: 2 lines unmapped ×1 people ×1

  1. people (people): Empire of the Sun → Tom Stoppard. Stoppard's screenplay is praised as literate and morally ambiguous.
    “I find the screenplay by Tom Stopper to be the most, one of the more literate and intriguing and ambiguous, morally ambiguous screenplays that Spielberg's directed.”
    The Big Picture · Steven Spielberg's Top 5 Movies With Bill Simmons and Chris Ryan | The Big Picture (Ep. 57) · 0:15:20 · Chris Ryan (0.85 sure it was them)

1941: 1 line contrast ×1

  1. contrast (technique contrast): Empire of the Sun → 1941. After 1941's show-off scale, Empire is the first time Spielberg orchestrates huge long takes without them feeling like playing with toys.
    “it is the 1st time in his career, he can orchestrate something like that and not make it feel like he's playing with toys”
    Blank Check with Griffin & David · Empire of the Sun with Bilge Ebiri · 0:33:08 · Griffin Newman (0.70 sure it was them)

Christian Bale: 1 line people ×1

  1. people (people): Empire of the Sun → Christian Bale. Bale and Malkovich deliver some of the best performances in any Spielberg movie.
    “And I think has some of the best performances in any Spielberg movie, Bail.”
    The Big Picture · Steven Spielberg's Top 5 Movies With Bill Simmons and Chris Ryan | The Big Picture (Ep. 57) · 0:16:50 · Chris Ryan (0.85 sure it was them)

Come See the Paradise: 1 line unmapped ×1

  1. unmapped (historical context): Come See the Paradise → Empire of the Sun. A reminder that America had its own internment camps, as in Alan Parker's film.
    “America did that to you, Japanese citizen.”
    Blank Check with Griffin & David · Empire of the Sun with Bilge Ebiri · 2:24:31 · Griffin Newman (0.40 sure it was them)

David Lean: 1 line lineage ×1

  1. lineage (origin of project): David Lean → Empire of the Sun. Lean asked Spielberg to check on the rights, then lost interest and handed the novel to him.
    “He asks Spielberg to check in on the rights for him.”
    Blank Check with Griffin & David · Empire of the Sun with Bilge Ebiri · 0:57:53 · Griffin Newman (0.50 sure it was them)

E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial: 1 line unmapped ×1

  1. unmapped (dark twin): Empire of the Sun → E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial. Griffin pairs E.T. and Empire as two stabs at the same childhood material at the front and back of the 80s.
    “I do think they're like him sort of like at the front and end of the 80s taking 2 stabs at a similar thing.”
    Blank Check with Griffin & David · Empire of the Sun with Bilge Ebiri · 1:55:03 · Griffin Newman (0.60 sure it was them)

Gone with the Wind: 1 line unmapped ×1

  1. unmapped (scene reference): Empire of the Sun → Gone with the Wind. Jim stands before the Gone with the Wind poster, echoing Spielberg's remark to Alice Walker that it is one of his favorites.
    “I mean, you have that moment where he's standing in front of the giant gone with the wind poster, right?”
    Blank Check with Griffin & David · Empire of the Sun with Bilge Ebiri · 1:31:05 · Griffin Newman (0.60 sure it was them)

Haruki Murakami: 1 line theme ×1

  1. theme (thematic context): Empire of the Sun → Haruki Murakami. Bilge learned about Japan's wartime atrocities in China from Murakami's novel The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle.
    “it's really a book about Japan's ignorance of it, the atrocities it carried out in China”
    Blank Check with Griffin & David · Empire of the Sun with Bilge Ebiri · 2:25:00 · Bilge Ebiri (0.80 sure it was them)

Hope and Glory: 1 line industry ×1

  1. industry (same-year rival): Empire of the Sun → Hope and Glory. Hope and Glory, another child's-view war story that year, ate Empire's lunch with critics.
    “is Hope and Glory not also this same year when it kind of eats this movie's lunch on this sort of or from the perspective of a child thing, at least at the time?”
    Blank Check with Griffin & David · Empire of the Sun with Bilge Ebiri · 0:49:21 · David Sims (0.40 sure it was them)

J.G. Ballard: 1 line lineage ×1

  1. lineage (source): Empire of the Sun → J.G. Ballard. The novel is darker than the film, which sanitized it and condensed characters.
    “There is definitely a lot of sanitizing happening and a lot of kind of condensing of characters and turning them into more of a more of a Hollywoody plot element.”
    Blank Check with Griffin & David · Empire of the Sun with Bilge Ebiri · 1:01:53 · Bilge Ebiri (0.75 sure it was them)

Jaws: 1 line craft ×1

  1. craft (shot design): Empire of the Sun → Jaws. Spielberg reveals Malkovich in pieces like Jaws and Indiana Jones, withholding the hero shot.
    “he introduces him both like he's Jaws and like he's Indiana Jones”
    Blank Check with Griffin & David · Empire of the Sun with Bilge Ebiri · 1:38:17 · Griffin Newman (0.50 sure it was them)

John Williams: 1 line craft ×1

  1. craft (score): John Williams → Empire of the Sun. Williams' score is his most classical, with a big motif that is a hymn he did not write.
    “One, the biggest motif in it is one that he did not write.”
    Blank Check with Griffin & David · Empire of the Sun with Bilge Ebiri · 0:30:04 · Bilge Ebiri (0.80 sure it was them)

Lincoln: 1 line people ×1

  1. people (people): Empire of the Sun → Lincoln. Compares Empire's dialogue with Kushner and Zaillian's Spielberg work.
    “Kushner, obviously, is another, he's worked with great people, Kushner or Steve Zalen, but I love the dialogue in Empire of the Sun.”
    The Big Picture · Steven Spielberg's Top 5 Movies With Bill Simmons and Chris Ryan | The Big Picture (Ep. 57) · 0:15:32 · Chris Ryan (0.80 sure it was them)

Raiders of the Lost Ark: 1 line craft ×1

  1. craft (shot design): Empire of the Sun → Raiders of the Lost Ark. Same slow reveal as Indiana Jones in pieces before the hero shot.
    “which similarly has the like Spielberg taking 5 minutes to show you Indiana Jones in pieces before you really get the hero shot”
    Blank Check with Griffin & David · Empire of the Sun with Bilge Ebiri · 1:38:17 · Griffin Newman (0.50 sure it was them)

Saving Private Ryan: 1 line theme ×1

  1. theme (audience reaction parallel): Saving Private Ryan → Empire of the Sun. Bilge finds Saving Private Ryan like Empire: incredible first 30-40 minutes, then merely liked.
    “is actually not dissimilar to some people's response to Empire of the Sun”
    Blank Check with Griffin & David · Empire of the Sun with Bilge Ebiri · 2:19:11 · Bilge Ebiri (0.80 sure it was them)

The Color Purple: 1 line craft ×1

  1. craft (aesthetic shift): Empire of the Sun → The Color Purple. Both are death-of-childhood movies; Empire is where Spielberg starts bending his shiny style so it does not make everything feel magical.
    “This feels like the 1st movie where he successfully, to your point of what you're getting at, figures out how to shift his aesthetic a little bit”
    Blank Check with Griffin & David · Empire of the Sun with Bilge Ebiri · 0:32:29 · Griffin Newman (0.70 sure it was them)

The Fabelmans: 1 line unmapped ×1

  1. unmapped (psychology key): Empire of the Sun → The Fabelmans. Griffin reads Empire through The Fabelmans: Spielberg's core trauma was being pulled into the adult world, like Jim in the camp.
    “I mean, here's here's my big post-fableman's take on this movie.”
    Blank Check with Griffin & David · Empire of the Sun with Bilge Ebiri · 1:50:40 · Griffin Newman (0.80 sure it was them)

The Last Emperor: 1 line industry ×1

  1. industry (same-year rival): Empire of the Sun → The Last Emperor. Two epics shot in China in 1987, both sold as firsts for China, about the same era; Bilge alternated seeing them in theaters.
    “it is very strange that the last emperor and Empire of the Sun, these 2 movies that are like both kind of being sold with the like, no one's ever filmed in China before”
    Blank Check with Griffin & David · Empire of the Sun with Bilge Ebiri · 0:49:03 · Griffin Newman (0.40 sure it was them)

Tropic Thunder: 1 line lineage ×1

  1. lineage (inspiration): Empire of the Sun → Tropic Thunder. Ben Stiller, on the Empire set as a young actor, was inspired by actors playing at suffering to make Tropic Thunder two decades later.
    “Which, of course, this is one of this movie's greatest, like, lasting legacies is that this, this is what inspires Tropic Thunder.”
    Blank Check with Griffin & David · Empire of the Sun with Bilge Ebiri · 1:49:05 · Griffin Newman (0.60 sure it was them)

War Horse: 1 line theme ×1

  1. theme (theme: learning unjust rules): War Horse → Empire of the Sun. Spielberg returns to the idea of navigating the rules of a world you do not understand, as Jim does in the camp.
    “the idea of sort of trying to learn to live by the rules of a world you don't quite understand.”
    Blank Check with Griffin & David · Empire of the Sun with Bilge Ebiri · 1:44:48 · Bilge Ebiri (0.75 sure it was them)

Where it came up

What was said about it, by kind

career (1)

  1. career (career theory): Empire of the Sun → Steven Spielberg. Bilge argues Spielberg's 70s and 80s films are seen through a child's eyes and his later ones through a parent's eyes.
    “I have this theory that early period of his career, you know, 70s, 80s, that his films really can be best be understood as being from the point of view of a child.”
    Blank Check with Griffin & David · Empire of the Sun with Bilge Ebiri · 0:22:49 · Bilge Ebiri (0.90 sure it was them)

contrast (2)

  1. contrast (method contrast): Schindler's List → Empire of the Sun. On Schindler Spielberg refused to storyboard, almost as a reaction to criticism of the puppet-show control in Empire.
    “Schindler, the infamous thing, is that he was like, I won't storyboard this.”
    Blank Check with Griffin & David · Empire of the Sun with Bilge Ebiri · 0:31:40 · Griffin Newman (0.50 sure it was them)
  2. contrast (technique contrast): Empire of the Sun → 1941. After 1941's show-off scale, Empire is the first time Spielberg orchestrates huge long takes without them feeling like playing with toys.
    “it is the 1st time in his career, he can orchestrate something like that and not make it feel like he's playing with toys”
    Blank Check with Griffin & David · Empire of the Sun with Bilge Ebiri · 0:33:08 · Griffin Newman (0.70 sure it was them)

craft (4)

  1. craft (score): John Williams → Empire of the Sun. Williams' score is his most classical, with a big motif that is a hymn he did not write.
    “One, the biggest motif in it is one that he did not write.”
    Blank Check with Griffin & David · Empire of the Sun with Bilge Ebiri · 0:30:04 · Bilge Ebiri (0.80 sure it was them)
  2. craft (aesthetic shift): Empire of the Sun → The Color Purple. Both are death-of-childhood movies; Empire is where Spielberg starts bending his shiny style so it does not make everything feel magical.
    “This feels like the 1st movie where he successfully, to your point of what you're getting at, figures out how to shift his aesthetic a little bit”
    Blank Check with Griffin & David · Empire of the Sun with Bilge Ebiri · 0:32:29 · Griffin Newman (0.70 sure it was them)
  3. craft (shot design): Empire of the Sun → Jaws. Spielberg reveals Malkovich in pieces like Jaws and Indiana Jones, withholding the hero shot.
    “he introduces him both like he's Jaws and like he's Indiana Jones”
    Blank Check with Griffin & David · Empire of the Sun with Bilge Ebiri · 1:38:17 · Griffin Newman (0.50 sure it was them)
  4. craft (shot design): Empire of the Sun → Raiders of the Lost Ark. Same slow reveal as Indiana Jones in pieces before the hero shot.
    “which similarly has the like Spielberg taking 5 minutes to show you Indiana Jones in pieces before you really get the hero shot”
    Blank Check with Griffin & David · Empire of the Sun with Bilge Ebiri · 1:38:17 · Griffin Newman (0.50 sure it was them)

industry (2)

  1. industry (same-year rival): Empire of the Sun → The Last Emperor. Two epics shot in China in 1987, both sold as firsts for China, about the same era; Bilge alternated seeing them in theaters.
    “it is very strange that the last emperor and Empire of the Sun, these 2 movies that are like both kind of being sold with the like, no one's ever filmed in China before”
    Blank Check with Griffin & David · Empire of the Sun with Bilge Ebiri · 0:49:03 · Griffin Newman (0.40 sure it was them)
  2. industry (same-year rival): Empire of the Sun → Hope and Glory. Hope and Glory, another child's-view war story that year, ate Empire's lunch with critics.
    “is Hope and Glory not also this same year when it kind of eats this movie's lunch on this sort of or from the perspective of a child thing, at least at the time?”
    Blank Check with Griffin & David · Empire of the Sun with Bilge Ebiri · 0:49:21 · David Sims (0.40 sure it was them)

lineage (3)

  1. lineage (origin of project): David Lean → Empire of the Sun. Lean asked Spielberg to check on the rights, then lost interest and handed the novel to him.
    “He asks Spielberg to check in on the rights for him.”
    Blank Check with Griffin & David · Empire of the Sun with Bilge Ebiri · 0:57:53 · Griffin Newman (0.50 sure it was them)
  2. lineage (source): Empire of the Sun → J.G. Ballard. The novel is darker than the film, which sanitized it and condensed characters.
    “There is definitely a lot of sanitizing happening and a lot of kind of condensing of characters and turning them into more of a more of a Hollywoody plot element.”
    Blank Check with Griffin & David · Empire of the Sun with Bilge Ebiri · 1:01:53 · Bilge Ebiri (0.75 sure it was them)
  3. lineage (inspiration): Empire of the Sun → Tropic Thunder. Ben Stiller, on the Empire set as a young actor, was inspired by actors playing at suffering to make Tropic Thunder two decades later.
    “Which, of course, this is one of this movie's greatest, like, lasting legacies is that this, this is what inspires Tropic Thunder.”
    Blank Check with Griffin & David · Empire of the Sun with Bilge Ebiri · 1:49:05 · Griffin Newman (0.60 sure it was them)

people (3)

  1. people (people): Empire of the Sun → Tom Stoppard. Stoppard's screenplay is praised as literate and morally ambiguous.
    “I find the screenplay by Tom Stopper to be the most, one of the more literate and intriguing and ambiguous, morally ambiguous screenplays that Spielberg's directed.”
    The Big Picture · Steven Spielberg's Top 5 Movies With Bill Simmons and Chris Ryan | The Big Picture (Ep. 57) · 0:15:20 · Chris Ryan (0.85 sure it was them)
  2. people (people): Empire of the Sun → Lincoln. Compares Empire's dialogue with Kushner and Zaillian's Spielberg work.
    “Kushner, obviously, is another, he's worked with great people, Kushner or Steve Zalen, but I love the dialogue in Empire of the Sun.”
    The Big Picture · Steven Spielberg's Top 5 Movies With Bill Simmons and Chris Ryan | The Big Picture (Ep. 57) · 0:15:32 · Chris Ryan (0.80 sure it was them)
  3. people (people): Empire of the Sun → Christian Bale. Bale and Malkovich deliver some of the best performances in any Spielberg movie.
    “And I think has some of the best performances in any Spielberg movie, Bail.”
    The Big Picture · Steven Spielberg's Top 5 Movies With Bill Simmons and Chris Ryan | The Big Picture (Ep. 57) · 0:16:50 · Chris Ryan (0.85 sure it was them)

theme (4)

  1. theme (theme: learning unjust rules): War Horse → Empire of the Sun. Spielberg returns to the idea of navigating the rules of a world you do not understand, as Jim does in the camp.
    “the idea of sort of trying to learn to live by the rules of a world you don't quite understand.”
    Blank Check with Griffin & David · Empire of the Sun with Bilge Ebiri · 1:44:48 · Bilge Ebiri (0.75 sure it was them)
  2. theme (audience reaction parallel): Saving Private Ryan → Empire of the Sun. Bilge finds Saving Private Ryan like Empire: incredible first 30-40 minutes, then merely liked.
    “is actually not dissimilar to some people's response to Empire of the Sun”
    Blank Check with Griffin & David · Empire of the Sun with Bilge Ebiri · 2:19:11 · Bilge Ebiri (0.80 sure it was them)
  3. theme (thematic context): Empire of the Sun → Haruki Murakami. Bilge learned about Japan's wartime atrocities in China from Murakami's novel The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle.
    “it's really a book about Japan's ignorance of it, the atrocities it carried out in China”
    Blank Check with Griffin & David · Empire of the Sun with Bilge Ebiri · 2:25:00 · Bilge Ebiri (0.80 sure it was them)
  4. theme (theme): Empire of the Sun → Steven Spielberg. Unlike his other childhood films, Empire shows adulthood through a child's eyes.
    “But this is a film where you are seeing adulthood through the eyes of a child.”
    The Big Picture · Steven Spielberg's Top 5 Movies With Bill Simmons and Chris Ryan | The Big Picture (Ep. 57) · 0:16:01 · Chris Ryan (0.85 sure it was them)

unmapped (6)

  1. unmapped (dry run): Empire of the Sun → Schindler's List. Schindler's List is the more successful grown-up film that erased Empire of the Sun from memory; it was seen as the dry run.
    “Look back as this was the dry run before he totally cracked it on Shell.”
    Blank Check with Griffin & David · Empire of the Sun with Bilge Ebiri · 0:30:35 · Griffin Newman (0.40 sure it was them)
  2. unmapped (screenwriting): Tom Stoppard → Empire of the Sun. Stoppard became the sole credited writer and said it taught him where dialogue is unnecessary.
    “I learned a lot working on that in terms of like where you don't need dialogue.”
    Blank Check with Griffin & David · Empire of the Sun with Bilge Ebiri · 1:08:11 · Griffin Newman (0.40 sure it was them)
  3. unmapped (scene reference): Empire of the Sun → Gone with the Wind. Jim stands before the Gone with the Wind poster, echoing Spielberg's remark to Alice Walker that it is one of his favorites.
    “I mean, you have that moment where he's standing in front of the giant gone with the wind poster, right?”
    Blank Check with Griffin & David · Empire of the Sun with Bilge Ebiri · 1:31:05 · Griffin Newman (0.60 sure it was them)
  4. unmapped (psychology key): Empire of the Sun → The Fabelmans. Griffin reads Empire through The Fabelmans: Spielberg's core trauma was being pulled into the adult world, like Jim in the camp.
    “I mean, here's here's my big post-fableman's take on this movie.”
    Blank Check with Griffin & David · Empire of the Sun with Bilge Ebiri · 1:50:40 · Griffin Newman (0.80 sure it was them)
  5. unmapped (dark twin): Empire of the Sun → E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial. Griffin pairs E.T. and Empire as two stabs at the same childhood material at the front and back of the 80s.
    “I do think they're like him sort of like at the front and end of the 80s taking 2 stabs at a similar thing.”
    Blank Check with Griffin & David · Empire of the Sun with Bilge Ebiri · 1:55:03 · Griffin Newman (0.60 sure it was them)
  6. unmapped (historical context): Come See the Paradise → Empire of the Sun. A reminder that America had its own internment camps, as in Alan Parker's film.
    “America did that to you, Japanese citizen.”
    Blank Check with Griffin & David · Empire of the Sun with Bilge Ebiri · 2:24:31 · Griffin Newman (0.40 sure it was them)

Fun items about it

  1. fun, about Empire of the Sun: See the Cadillac of the sky, the saluting of the Japanese pilots and the sparks flying off the planes.
    “The Cadillac of the sky sequences, the saluting the Japanese pilots and the sparks flying off of the planes scene.”
    The Big Picture · Steven Spielberg's Top 5 Movies With Bill Simmons and Chris Ryan | The Big Picture (Ep. 57) · 0:16:41 · Chris Ryan (0.85 sure it was them)

Who the speakers said made it

As said on the shows, not checked against the real credits.