The Iron Giant
Year: 1999
Rating: PG
Length: 86 minutes / 1.43 hours
There’s something magical about a coming of age story where a young boy befriends an alien entity. The Iron Giant (1999) is among the ranks of E.T. – The Extra-Terrestrial (1982) and How to Train Your Dragon (2010) for these similar stories with equally magical results. I’m not sure if the moral of these films is that adults are more likely to want to kill what they don’t understand or if there’s an inherent peaceful nature to every creature—at least until it’s threatened with violence.
What works well for The Iron Giant is the Red Scare of the 1950s providing a backdrop for the fear of unknown technology. Having just demonstrated the power of nuclear weapons in World War II, the titular giant can be seen as both a helpful and extremely dangerous entity. The ability of children to assume the innocence of things they don’t understand sits in stark contrast to the cynical assumption that the unknown is dangerous and must be destroyed. Unfortunately, things spiral out of control because nobody listens to the child.
There are still some tropes in this kind of movie that I don’t particularly care for. The bathroom-related plotline isn’t really as funny as I think it’s meant to be. And while I still don’t know why these kids always have to be in single-parent homes, I appreciate there’s at least a mentor available for the main character to stand in for that missing parental figure. Still, The Iron Giant is a magnificent film that fuses 2D and 3D visuals in a way that doesn’t look too dated by today’s standards. And it’s not even from Disney!
A metaphor for nuclear energy wrapped in a charming iron exterior, I give The Iron Giant 4.5 stars out of 5.
1/2
This film appears in the following posts:
Cinema Connections #353. Iron Men
Cinema Connections #354. Gigantic!
