The Last Emperor (1987)
Watching The Last Emperor again, after what must have been decades – it's possible I last saw it shortly after it became available on VHS because I'm fucking ancient – I'm impressed both by how different it is from the film in my memory, and how similar. I remembered that it took place over time, of course, with the Emperor at many different stages of life and influence. But I'd completely forgotten about the cross-cutting between eras, a choice that is startling effective and disappointingly undercopied.
These days (as in GoodFellas, a movie I'll write about shortly), movies too often open with a scene from some point farther along its arc, then snap back to the story’s origin in the past before proceeding chronologically. This is also effective (as in GoodFellas), but it's become so standard as to be nearly immediately obvious. Watching this film open with the middle-aged former Emperor in a prison camp, I assumed it would follow that roadmap. Thankfully, and arrestingly, it doesn't.
The story is fascinating, even ~30 years later; the movie has aged quite well. Interestingly, it's of a man whose life, nearly entirely, was spent imprisoned - the war ultimately frees him from his confinement, but also of his power.
The performances, even by some of the kids, were great. And its cast, happily, appears to be stocked with actors of the appropriate races. The sets are brilliant and so is every pair of glasses....
I don't have much to offer here, really. However something occurred to me during the chronologically-early scenes with the young emperor trapped within the Forbidden City's walls:
John Kennedy remarked that we've learned from the past that "those who foolishly sought power by riding the back of the tiger ended up inside." The thought I had was related, but from a slightly different angle: it must be uncomfortable for a tyrant, regardless of whatever form his or her tyranny takes, to ponder, in moments of reflection, that the people they control will one day come for their head. If the tyrant is harsh or benevolent enough, maybe they'll escape life before the hangman comes, before the forbidden knocking at the door comes as a furious pounding. But that daunting thought must linger. And when it festers into the paranoia which invariably rankles tyrants, it must be overpowering. Putin must know it as surely as Stalin did, and Assad does.
There may be one, but I can't think of a time that this (or some charitable impulse) impelled a tyrant to reconsider his (for they have always been men) power in favor of broader, deeper freedoms for his people. You might offer George Washington, a could-have-been tyrant, and you'd have a point, but an ugly one: I’d counter that he traded the tyranny of state for the local tyranny of his plantation. So fuck him, too.
This thought isn't related to the movie. The protagonist here, slips from power officially first, drifting into governmental irrelevance which softens his termination later. But the thought gave me pause.
Anyway, it’s a great movie that holds up under the weight of time. That’s an achievement, too.
終
TV; April 8; 4 stars