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Rating: In the midst of the Cold War, the fear of the atomic bomb, the Soviet enemy, and foreign technology is always latent in the peaceful American town of Rockwell, Maine. One night, when something leaks from the stars and crashes into the sea, a strange psychosis seems to spread first among the citizens and then within the Government. The “thing” turns out to be a thirty-meter-tall robot that devours metal and hides in the forest. Hogarth, a child like many others, a lively and imaginative orphan, accidentally meets this sort of giant toy and even saves it from probable destruction. This marks the start of their friendship.
Brad Bird is a kind of family animation genius, someone who had already won two Oscars by his fourth film. It's no surprise that his talent is behind one of the best animated films of the last twenty years. The Iron Giant was naturally a resounding box-office flop (after all, the equation ignorance=stratospheric success works quite well in Hollywood...), but it's a wonderful film, bordering on masterpiece.
The graphic magic, which combines warm pastel colors, purely Disney-like tones and lines with the digital perfection of the alien robot, is the perfect setting for this simple and direct story but with some unexpected twists, making it even more interesting. The successful 1950s setting also inspires the robot's design, which with just the movements of its eyes and large jaw is more expressive than many live-action actors, while Hogarth is a non-petulant protagonist, lively, friendly, and imaginative, full of fantasies and technological-comic suggestions. The comedic exchanges between him and the robot, combined with the latter's inherent clumsiness, are extremely entertaining and enhance the sense of affectionate wandering that permeates much of the film.
Those who know what imagination is have no trouble accepting the presence of the android that came from the stars; besides Hogarth, its first friend will indeed be Dean, a little-understood conceptual sculptor. However, the fear and psychosis of the outsider will steer the story down an increasingly risky path, endangering Rockwell's existence and life on the planet itself. Developing the story, Bird creates a curious interplay of roles. The robot, in fact, is not just a simple oversized dummy, but a deadly alien weapon designed to destroy humanity and presumably pave the way for an invasion; therefore, those trying to stop it would, in theory, be in the right. However, the loss of memory and contact with the innocence and sincerity of some humans will reveal to the mind of metal and circuits that there can be another way, another choice, while those who should protect society end up doing exactly the opposite.
The film’s main moral is that you can choose what to do with your life and resources; a simple, clear message, without moralism. However, there is something more ambiguous. The film has been labeled as an anti-militarist fairy tale, and apparently, it is so; but if an incredibly powerful weapon is what saves the city, is it really right to totally condemn the technology of destruction? After all, it's just about using it the right way... And here things get complicated, because certainly the villains in the story are not the military, who actually show, with General Rogard's character, a certain empathy and discernment in evaluation. Something that is lacking in the Government envoy, who only cares about eradicating the foreign element at all costs to bring everyone back to their blissful and ignorant tranquility. As if to say that the soldiers are good people, and it’s their leaders who are the real enemy, distant from reality by light years. After all, it takes the citizens of Rockwell very little time to accept the bizarre and cumbersome presence of the monster, who, in the end, hasn’t harmed anyone. It would have been curious to see how the story would have worked just a couple of years later, in post-9/11 America...
Beyond personal interpretations, the film is worth watching; it is simply too well made, everything works. I admit, it still moves me today, because the formation-redemption of the cold being created to destroy, who understands what sincerity and transcendence are, gives further meaning to its final choice. The dry and direct tone greatly helps in conveying an optimistic and constructive message and makes up for some slight slips into rhetoric, almost intrinsic in a Hollywood film and especially in a cartoon.
The depiction of the robot is very successful, both for the prudent and creative use of CGI and for its design between steam-punk and B-fiction. Its warrior metamorphosis is memorable, a real treat for mech enthusiasts and the like, always harking back to 1950s sci-fi, “The War of the Worlds,” and a hint of manga imagery.
I don't believe this film will ever be defined as a classic, partly because the public ignored it, partly because its message is not as obvious as it might seem. However, I have a strong feeling that other filmmakers were somehow influenced by it. The opening scene of “Pacific Rim,” for example, closely resembles the arrival of the robot on Earth (the stormy Ocean, the night, a lonely fishing boat...). Meanwhile, in the last, mediocre Batman by Christopher Nolan, the entire finale, including the statue of the fallen hero, seems very much a reference, much more garish and forced, to the glorious destiny of Rockwell's giant. Coincidence? Perhaps, but I have no doubt that this film has left a certain mark.
Maybe it won't move you, but it will certainly entertain you. It's a sensitive film, with heart and soul, and this, in the vulgar firmament of digital and non-digital stars of our 2010s, is pure gold. “Souls don’t die,” Hogarth tells the giant. And indeed, I like to think that, in some way, good souls really don't die and that they can guide us. Unfortunately, no hero will ever come from space to save us or show us the way. But a film like this can make us a little more optimistic: the giant's final smile, waiting among the ice for the moment to return, leaves a little hope, if not in alien aid, at least in our own good choices.
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