The Sun
Lorber HT Digital | Release Date: November 20, 2009 CRITIC SCORE DISTRIBUTION
85
METASCORE
Universal acclaim based on 12 Critic Reviews
Positive:
11
Mixed:
0
Negative:
1
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Critic Reviews

Critic scorePublicationBy date
100
Time OutKeith Uhlich
Sokurov, who also acted as director of photography, films the character and his surroundings with the eye of a newly arrived visitor to another world. Read full review
100
The Hollywood ReporterRichard James Havis
This precision-controlled film once again highlights Alexander Sokurov's mastery of the medium. The third entry in his Men in Power series employs refined performances, a controlled script, excellent sound and fluid camerawork. Read full review
100
The A.V. ClubSam Adams
The result is not to make the emperor sympathetic so much as it is to tug at the mask of despotic glory. In the end, he is only a man. Read full review
100
Chicago ReaderFred Camper
This 2005 masterpiece by Russian filmmaker Alexander Sokurov transforms the story of Emperor Hirohito at the close of World War II into a melancholy meditation on power and its loss. Read full review
100
Chicago TribuneMichael Phillips
The Sun sheds only so much literal light on its chosen subject; it's a film of shadows and silence, the calm before and after the storm. But everything you see and hear carries weight and an eerie poetic undercurrent. Read full review
90
Village VoiceJ. Hoberman
Though he successfully humanizes Hirohito, who is shown happily shedding his divinity, Sokurov doesn't entirely exonerate him. He contrives a shock ending that, as measured as everything else in this engrossing, supremely assured movie, acknowledges one last blood sacrifice on the emperor's altar. Read full review
90
The New York TimesManohla Dargis
The movie is best understood not in banal docudrama terms but as an impressionistic portrait of a man who, stripped of power, is revealed as grotesquely human. Read full review
88
Boston GlobeWesley Morris
This emperor verges on dementia, having no apparent clue how to function. Read full review
75
New York PostV.A. Musetto
Fives us behind-the-scene looks at Hirohito, the man and the ruler. The diminutive leader comes off sympathetically, as a man concerned with the welfare of his people. Read full review
70
VarietyLeslie Felperin
As usual, Sokurov's unhurried pacing will test the patience of more fidgety viewers, although the script is more accessible than some of his recent efforts. Read full review
70
Los Angeles TimesGary Goldstein
The setting, largely confined to the laboratory building and underground bunker of the otherwise bombed-out Imperial Palace, makes for somewhat claustrophobic viewing but effectively enhances the hermetically sealed feeling of Hirohito's royal life. Read full review
30
Film ThreatMichael Ferraro
Reflecting on Sokurov’s other recent work – like “Russian Arc” for example – The Sun is a giant step down. It’s an outrageously long-winded drama that’s awfully directed with the skill of a high school play. Read full review
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