This weekend, David O. Russell’s “Amsterdam” hits theaters, marking his third collaboration with star Christian Bale. It was Russell’s 2010 boxing film “The Fighter” that earned Bale his first, and so far only, Academy Award, for best supporting actor (streaming on Paramount+), and Bale also co-starred in Russell’s 2013 ensemble movie “American Hustle” (streaming on Starz). “Amsterdam” is yet another period ensemble romp, this time taking place in the 1930s, and loosely based on a true story.
Bale, who has been working as an actor since childhood, rarely misses, and he has had fruitful working relationships with many prestigious filmmakers over the years, starting with his breakout role in Steven Spielberg’s epic 1987 World War II drama “Empire of the Sun” (streaming on Apple TV+ or available to rent). Bale was only 12 when he was cast in the film, which follows a young British boy who becomes a POW in a Japanese internment camp during the war.
He made a few more period pieces in the early ‘90s—the 1992 musical “Newsies” (streaming on Disney+ or available to rent), based on the true story of a group of newsboys unionizing at the turn the century, and 1993’s “Swing Kids,” about teens embracing forbidden swing music during the advent of Nazism in Germany (rent it on all platforms). Bale followed that up with a turn as Laurie in Gillian Armstrong’s 1994 adaptation of “Little Women” opposite Winona Ryder, Claire Danes, Kirsten Dunst, and Susan Sarandon (streaming on HBO Max).
