In Their Own League#MentalHealthMonth Retrospective: The Iron Giant
Year: 1999
Runtime: 86 minutes
Writers: Tim McCanlies, Brad Bird, Ted Hughes (based on his book, “The Iron Man”)
Actors: Eli Marienthal, Harry Connick, Jr., Jennifer Aniston, Vin Diesel, Cloris Leachman, James Gammon, Christopher McDonald, John Mahoney, M. Emmet Walsh
By Joan Amenn
Appearing in most lists of favorite childhood movies, “The Iron Giant” (1999) is pure comfort via nostalgia and thank the animation deities for that. The origins of the book the film is loosely based on, and the film itself can however be traced back to great personal tragedies. Author and poet Ted Hughes wrote the book “The Iron Man” to comfort his children after the suicide of his wife, poet Sylvia Plath. Much has been written about their relationship and her death so we will not delve into that here. Director Brad Bird has said that his inspiration for making “The Iron Giant” was the thought, “What if a gun has a soul and doesn’t want to be a gun?” This came to him after the horrendous loss of his sister to domestic violence when her estranged husband shot her.
In either case, trying to make sense of the inexplicable through a narrative fantasy is an attempt at healing for both children and adults alike. That “The Iron Giant” remains as loved as it is nearly three decades after its initial release shows how profoundly heartfelt that attempt was even if it was not successful in its first box office run. The story seems to be a spoof on 1950’s B-movies that capitalizes on Cold War paranoia at first blush but is so much more complex than that. No doubt studio marketers were baffled at how to sell it, but it was critically acclaimed from the start.
By now everyone knows (or should) that the cast for “The Iron Giant” was outstanding. Jennifer Aniston was wonderfully believable as single widowed mom Annie Hughes, trying to hold onto shreds of normalcy for her son Hogarth at a time when kids were routinely taught to hide under their desks at school in case of nuclear attack. Eli Marienthal was the kid with the unusual name that every kid in the audience otherwise identified with. He was smart, a little weird, and kind of an outsider among his peers. Vin Diesel made playing a character with an extremely limited vocabulary an art form long before he was Groot. Harry Connick, Jr. oozed Beat Generation sex appeal much more than junkyard proprietor/industrial sculptor Dean McCoppin has a right to. As an outsider to society himself, he knows a bit about how to thumb his nose at authority when the military inevitably shows up to investigate reports of strange goings on in town.
The animation is a stunning combination of hand drawn and early CGI with especial attention to detail on the Giant when he reveals all the weaponry he was originally designed to use. But as Hogarth explains, he is who is choses to be. That message is the heart of the film and why “The Iron Giant” still resonates with audiences. The hope of breaking through limiting expectations held by others, generational trauma, or any other hurdle to one’s own personal growth is what viewers come away with. In this “The Iron Giant” is timeless and deserves the devoted following it enjoys. We all can be the heroes of our own stories.
#Animation #BradBird #ColdWar #HarryConnickJr #IronGiant #JenniferAniston #MentalHealth #RetrospectiveReview #ScienceFiction #VinDiesel
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