The Iron Giant (1999) Review

"You are what you choose to be."

"What if a gun had a soul and didn't want to be a gun?" That was the pitch Brad Bird gave to Warner Bros while working through personal trauma after discovering *The Iron Man*, Ted Hughes's story written to comfort his children after Sylvia Plath's suicide. It's a deep start for a film famous for its heart.

Produced in the wide 2.39:1 CinemaScope aspect ratio, as films from the 1950s often were, this movie became a battle between Bird and meddling executives intent on ruining it for merchandising. (For example: adding a hip-hop soundtrack, setting it in the modern day rather than the height of the Cold War, and adding a sidekick dog. Poochie lives on!)

The main character, a young boy unfortunately named Hogarth (Hughes, in honor of Plath's husband), really wants a pet. He once had a raccoon. It still makes Jennifer Aniston, who voices his mother, uncomfortable. He dashes off after losing his proposed new pet (a squirrel), which causes chaos. This seems to be Hogarth's way with animals.

The locals are having a discussion about a UFO one of the town's weirdos has found, as you do, in a diner. Hogarth sneaks out at night to find it and meets a giant robot screeching and tangled in electrical wires. Hogarth isn't afraid and shuts down the generators.

Hogarth's friends are on board with bombing the Iron Giant. The other two main characters are Dean, the junkyard owner, and Kent, the head of the government investigation.

Hogarth finds the Giant, figures out the bump on his head is why he's confused, and tries to talk to him. Like most Americans faced with someone who speaks another language, he just gets louder and repeats himself.

The Fed investigates relentlessly, but most of his sources are the town weirdos. It's a bit like the Beer Baron episode of *The Simpsons*. The Giant ate his car, but Kent didn't see it. He becomes obsessive almost immediately and even mocks Hogarth's name.

Hogarth introduces the Iron Giant to Superman. The Giant sees a terrifying evil robot in the comic and is concerned. Hogarth sweetly hides that page and tells him he's not a villain, he's a good guy, like Superman.

They accidentally set off a car alarm. The Giant's solution is to hurl it miles away. It's funny. Luckily, it belongs to Dean, the beatnik junk artist. The Giant meets Dean, who is only moderately terrified that a huge robot is eating his scrap metal. Hogarth wants to hide the Giant in the junkyard, but Dean isn't thrilled about committing several crimes for a kid and a robot from space.

The FBI agent harasses Hogarth until the boy snaps and tells him off. His mother insists Hogarth show this strange man around town. It was a different world in 1999. Kent gives a deranged, yelled speech to this small child in the middle of a diner. No one intervenes. Some things never change. Kent appears to nearly soil himself.

When Hogarth finally reaches the junkyard, he convinces the Giant to act as a one-man amusement park. He almost immediately regrets it when the G-forces nearly kill him.

The film balances Cold War paranoia with the fact there really is a giant robot. The newspapers and TV constantly highlight global fear.

The Giant sees a deer killed and is traumatized. The animators do an excellent job conveying this through his movements and eyes. Seeing the gun turns his eyes into red points of light until Hogarth snaps him out of it. "Guns kill." About half of America is frothing at the mouth by this point.

We glimpse the Giant's purpose, broadcast through TV, a vision of a world torn apart by a legion of Iron Giants.

The Fed bullies Hogarth again after finding a photo with the Giant in the background. The Army plans to arrive in the morning. The Fed has nailed Hogarth's windows shut. He's committed several crimes yet is still being outwitted by a not-particularly-bright child.

Dean's inspired idea is to tell the Army the Giant is a sculpture he made. The mother flirts hard with Dean. His soul patch is doing the work. Kent is fired for wasting millions on the Army trip.

The Giant refuses to be Atomo, the evil robot, and crafts himself an S crest, declaring himself Superman. But when he sees a toy gun in Hogarth's hands, his eyes go red and his heat vision fires. Dean saves Hogarth and realizes the Giant's response was defensive, sort of. Obliterating a child holding a toy may stretch "reasonable force."

A child falls from a building, and the Giant reveals himself Superman-style by leaping and catching them midair.

"I am not a gun," the Giant says quietly before the Army attacks in force.

Kent lies to the general, even though many witnesses heard Dean say the kid was with the Giant. Add that to Kent's many crimes.

Avoiding traffic, the Giant falls off a cliff and discovers he can fly. For those counting, that's super strength, heat vision, leaping tall buildings, faster than a car or train, and flight.

The Army succeeds in shooting him down while he's protecting Hogarth and refusing to retaliate.

The Giant breaks down, believing Hogarth is dead. When the Army attacks again, he doesn't hold back and obliterates them. It's hard not to side with him.

Hogarth is fine. When he reaches the Giant, the robot stands down, horrified. The Army doesn't care. Kent stays unhinged. Even the General realizes he's insane. Kent grabs the radio and authorizes a nuclear launch. After everything, he's a coward and tries to run.

We get one of animation's most emotional scenes. The Giant bends down and tells Hogarth, "You stay. I go. No following." He leaps into the sky, arms outstretched toward the sun, and whispers one word as he closes his eyes.

[IMAGE:images/reviews/iron-giant-1999/image-iron-giant-1999-2.gif]

A strange visitor to our world sacrifices himself to save a town and an army that feared him.

A statue of the Iron Giant stands proudly in a park, made by Dean, who's now dating Hogarth's mother. The general sends the one remaining part of the Giant to Hogarth. It's unlikely they'd mail part of an alien war machine to a child, but they nearly destroyed a city, so maybe it's hush money. The piece rolls off, hinting at the Giant's return.

There's a reason *The Iron Giant* is often called the best Superman film ever made.

The animation was done on a low budget due to WB's failure with *Quest for Camelot*, but Bird's obsessive planning kept it on track. The team visited small towns in Maine and photographed them to capture the tone, or "vibes," as the kids say. The Giant, however, was CGI, built from 7,000 parts.

I will ruin the movie for you, as it has been for me, with this simple meme:

[IMAGE:images/reviews/iron-giant-1999/image-iron-giant-1999.webp]