Empire of the Sun: we need a SE!
 

I saw this on the weekly ad for Circuit City, and I'm thinking... Spielberg's titles have pretty much all gotten great treatments... except... this one! From what I can read, the current release is "perfectly good", however I'd like to see a release with more special features. Anyone else?

That's no different from the R1 edition. it's just split onto two discs instead of one double sided disc.

Yeah, single documentary, no commentaries or anything else. Is the ~45 minute docu any good??

That gets a :thumbsup: for that alone. Double sided discs suck.

The flipper is a small price to pay to avoid the inevitable PAL speedup that the UK version will have, not to mention the fact that I've had my "Empire of the Sun" DVD for a few years now.

Also Always and Amistad...

I got the R3 version probably a year or two ago for $10 I believe. It's NOT a snapper AND it's 2 discs. ;) I think it's from HK.

Maybe something will come out on the new format

how bad do we need a .......SE?

on this very page.

It's one of the best "making of" documentaries ever made, in my opinion. LOTS of behind-the-scenes footage, and many scenes showing why Steven Spielberg is one of the greatest directors of our time. (Best part is when Christian Bale blows a very important, one-take, million-dollar shot, and Spielberg manages to step in and save the day.)

The doc is good enough that it doesn't really need any more special features. Unless they want to dig up a photo gallery, or bribe Spielberg into a commentary, which he's never ever done.

Best Ben Stiller movie ever.

If every film has a special edition, are they really all that "special" anymore?

I hope someday for a DTS mix because of Spielberg, but perhaps with the next format and lossless audio, it won't matter because everything won't be so compressed. This movie is my 2nd favorite movie of all time and the score and singing is just amazing.

I picked this up through the DVD Exchange area, and I respectfully withdraw my request. Yes, it's a super-old release, in a snapper, but the transfer was one of the better I've seen, and the old featurette was actually pretty comprehensive. What a great movie.

I usually hate movies about kids, or following kid, but this movie is great. A really interesting view of WWII, seeing big historical event from side, from a kids perspective. Great performances by the kid and john malkovich. In some respects it like a novel, there are some obvious, and not so obvious symbolism that goes throughout the movie. Its something you dont see that often.

The "kid" is, of course, Christian Bale -- one of the best and most highly respected actors of his generation. Great to see that he managed to break the child-actor curse....

But otherwise I'm with you -- a fantastic film, and still grossly underrated.

BTW, it's worth tracking down J.G. Ballard's original book, based on his own experiences. The novelistic quality of the film is probably due to Ballard's own considerable writing talents, as well as Tom Stoppard's. (Stoppard did the adaptation.)

Yeah, the featurette on the flip-side definitely made me want to track down that book, I think it'd be an interesting read!