The Iron Giant
Director: Brad Bird
Year: 1999
Rating: 7.5
This animated feature is based on the 1968 children's novel the Iron Man:
A Children's Story in Five Nights by Ted Hughes. Along the way it was made
into a musical by none other than Peter Townsend in 1989 that appeared in
London. That strikes me as an odd idea, but you can find clips of it on YouTube
and a few songs were released as singles. The 1999 film differs from the
book in significant ways. In the book the Iron Giant crashes to earth in
rural England where upon it begins to eat all the farm machinery - it needs
metal to keep going - initially the community resists it but a boy makes
friends with it and the Iron Giant becomes a part of the community - and
saves it later from a dragon.
The film is still generally meant for children but it introduces some adult
themes - death, a soul, sacrifice - and its politics are tilted towards the
left - anti-gun ("a gun is death"), anti-establishment and anti-military/government.
That may be all a bit subliminal for kids but hopefully it will seep into
their unconsciousness. For children it is just a great adventure and for
adults a reasonable amount of fun. The animation feels old fashioned in a
good way and when war comes it suddenly explodes in imagery.
It is 1957 in the USA - a time of paranoia, the Red Scare, drills to hide
under the desk for when the big one comes and a military always on full alert.
An Iron Giant crashes to earth from where or for what purpose we never find
out. It lands near a small town called Rockville, as traditional as the name
implies. A young boy - Hogarth - discovers it in the forest and saves it
from being entangled in electrified power plant cables. They become friends
as Hogarth teaches it English and how things work on earth. But the government
learns of it and comes with an army, air force, ships and nukes and a shoot
first policy. At that point the Iron Giant shows that it is built for lethal
force. One might assume that it came to Earth for conquest and there is one
moment in which it seems that the memory of the Iron Giant is transmitted
to a TV and it shows a horrible invasion by Iron Giants. Maybe that would
have been in the sequel but this film crashed and burned at the Box Office
despite excellent reviews.
I wonder if the original book was inspired or influenced by the Japanese
manga Tetsujin-28 in which a boy controls a Giant Robot built by his father.
It was made into an anime in 1963 and released in the USA as Gigantor. A
terrific live action film of it was produced in Japan in 2005.
