Movie Description: Recounting the last years of China’s Ching Dynasty, this Oscar-winning epic charts the life of Pu Yi, who ascended the throne when he was 3 years old.
Starring: John Lone, Joan Chen and Peter O’Toole
Directed By: Bernardo Bertolucci
My Thoughts: Alright, I’ll admit I chose to watch and review The Last Emperor first because it looked pretty boring and I wanted to get it out of the way. Well, it turns out I shouldn’t judge a movie by it’s Netflix description.
While the movie was a little long, and maybe one or two of the accents were a little thick, I found myself enjoying the movie the entire time. I am a firm believer that any movie that attempts to tell the life story of a real person who actually lived should never be under 2 hours, and in this case The Last Emperor did not disappoint. The version I watched had a run time of 2 hours and 42 minutes, and I hear legend there’s also a version that runs well over 3 hours (in my opinion the 2 hour 42 minute is sufficient).
Unsurprisingly, the mostly Asian lead actors in this film aren’t famous faces to the American general movie going public, but this isn’t a problem. Some of the acting was so good it really makes you wish you could saw more of these actors in today’s movies. One actor most will recognize though is Peter O’Toole. In the movie he plays the child emperor’s Western tutor and friend. Needless to say O’Toole is fantastic in the role as he is in most of his acting roles.
All in all, I have to say I liked The Last Emperor a lot.
Which leads to…
Should This Movie Have The Academy Award For Best Picture?: In 1987 The Last Emperor was up against Broadcast News, Hope and Glory, Moonstruck, and Fatal Attraction. At the risk of sounding uninformed I have never seen Hope and Glory. I wasn’t crazy about Broadcast News, I think James L. Brooks has done much better work. Fatal Attraction was good, but I’m not sure I feel it as an Oscar winner. The same things with Moonstruck, I like the movie (which is hard to type because usually I hate Cher), but when it comes right down to the gut truth it wasn’t as good as The Last Emperor.
So “yes”, The Last Emperor should have won the Academy Award for Best Picture in 1987.
No comments:
Post a Comment