Movie Review: The Iron Giant (1999)

The Iron Giant (1999) co-written and directed by Brad Bird

Hogarth Hughes is a young boy living in 1950s Rockwell, Maine. He's a smart kid who loves comic books, scary movies on TV, and his mom. She works at the local diner and loves him too, though she has a hard time putting up with all the pets he brings home (usually animals from the forest). Things change when a seeming asteroid crashes into the ocean. One sea captain at the diner claims there was a hundred-foot monster. Everyone else laughs except Dean, a beatnik-ish artist who runs the local scrap yard (and makes his art from the scraps). One night, Hogarth loses his TV reception and discovers the rooftop antenna is missing. He sees a trail of destruction leading off into the woods. He follows the trail and winds up at the local power plant where a giant robot (the titular Iron Giant) is eating metal. The robot gets caught in the power lines and Hogarth shuts down the electricity, causing a blackout. He befriends the alien robot and starts to teach it. Meanwhile, some locals have called Washington and a federal agent who is consumed with Cold War paranoia comes to investigate. Hiding a hundred-foot robot is not easy, so lots of comedy and some drama ensues.

The story is fairly straightforward and follows a familiar arc. The execution is so well done, it's hard not to love the film. Hogarth is very sympathetic and easy to identify with. The Iron Giant is mostly friendly though it does turn to violence to protect itself. It seems like some sort of weapon but Hogarth encourages it to be a hero like Superman. The Iron Giant can and does use its abilities for good. It becomes a threat when the federal agent convinces the military to fight it (because anything unfamiliar must be evil, right?). The artist is cautious about the robot but much more sympathetic as he sees its genial nature. The general who comes to town with the military follows the bad intel from the agent at the beginning. He switches once he sees the cravenly nature of the agent and that the robot only acts in defense. The robot rises to the occasion at the end, sacrificing itself for Hogarth and the town. The whole package is a very touching, well-executed, boy's adventure tale. We just listened to an audiobook version of Robert Louis Stevenson's Treasure Island, Hogarth is very much like Jim Hawkins, and their stories follow a similar pattern of action, comedy, and drama. The robot reminds me of Babe, the pig who rose above his porcine nature to be a sheep dog through his love and kindness for the other animals on the farm. What's not to like about this film?

Highly recommended.

There's a great commentary on A Good Story is Hard to Find Podcast #280.