Context: Encountering Conflict
Theme: War
Prompt: In times of conflict the individual is transformed.
Style: Expository
Empire of the Sun – Steven Spielberg
Spielberg’s Empire of the Sun views conflict through the eyes of Jim, a pre teen who was separated from his British Imperial parents during the Japanese invasion of Shanghai to then become a prisoner of war. In search of new role models he soon develops an admiration for his captors, especially for the young pilots known as the “kamikaze” who willingly sacrifice their life for the glory of the Japanese Emperor. Jim also befriends a group of American marines and is eager to prove his worth. He idolizes the marines by mimicking their persona. Jim wears aviator sunglasses, dog tags, a pilot’s bomber jacket and pants that are oversized and held up by both a belt and suspenders.
Jim is mesmerized by the adult world swirling around him and is a naïve participant who side steps his childhood and in doing so loses his innocence.
He is oblivious to the seriousness of the conflict and is happy to go-between both the Japanese and the POW’s. Jim does not realize the desperate nature of the conflict. For example, Basie is plotting to escape from the POW camp. So when Jim later learns of the escape he is disbelieving, “he can’t have”, wondering how Basie could ever leave without him. For Jim it’s akin to losing his father all over again.
Jim’s romantic interpretation of war climaxes with the explosive arrival of an American squadron of P-51’s (Spielberg also uses the same planes toward the end of Saving Private Ryan’) that set about destroying and liberating the POW camp. In awe of the spectacle and with total disregard for his own safety Jim climbs atop the highest building in an attempt to be as near to the action as possible. He is enraptured by the awesome display of firepower and the experience culminates in a slow motion flyby by one of the fighter planes and its pilot who waves to Jim from an open cockpit. Spielberg frames this euphoric moment by employing slow motion and a musical score that sounds divine. Jim has always been fascinated by flight as seen near the beginning of the film when he plays with a glider while riding a bicycle. To actually witness the awesome firepower of the P51’s is a dream come true for the young Jim. The planes continue to wreak havoc as they release their deadly cargo of bombs that detonate and erupt into fireballs. Yet through Jim’s wondrous childlike eyes the event is all at once beautiful. Reality exists down below in the form of Rawlins, the camps English doctor, who screams at an oblivious Jim to get down from the roof. Once Rawlins arrives at the top of the tower he struggles to contain Jim who is still entranced by the episode. Jim is even capable of poetically describing the experience to Rawlins, “I felt their heat! I can taste them in my mouth, oil and cordite”! Undeterred, Rawlins grabs and then shakes Jim who finally comes around and then admitting in an emotional and breaking voice, “I can't remember what my parents look like”.
For Jim the conflict has robbed him of a childhood that would typically have been spent with a mother and father. Like the suitcase, filled with his childhood trinkets, Jim has been forced to drift in search of an identity and sense of self.