The Iron Gaint (1999) Review

 

The Iron Giant is a movie of friendship and how that can weather the storm of criticism and fear. It embraces the fear of the unknown and evaluates our reactions to it. Do we embrace the unknown or do we rely on our own limited understanding to dictate our reactions to it?

The year is 1957 and the world is obsessed with Outer Space. Sputnik has just been launched into orbit and everyone is in awe of what man has been able to accomplish. The thoughts of aliens or foreign governments spying on them is occupying a spot in everyone's minds. And everyone, at least to a certain extent, is afraid of what the future may hold. This is where The Iron Giant comes in.

One evening, Hogarth, a 9 year old kid, sees something fall from the sky. Grabbing a helmet, flashlight, and his trusted BB gun he sets off into the woods to investigate. Upon reaching a power station out in the woods he spots him, the 100 foot tall metal man. The Iron Giant, however, has a problem. In an attempt to eat the metal of the power plant he ends up getting caught in it and is being electrocuted by it. Seeing this, Hogarth runs towards it and is able to flip the switch and turn it off, saving the Iron Giant’s life. At that moment the two became friends. The only problem, now, is how Hogarth was going to hide him.

With this happening, however, the Government, as you would expect, received calls from people who claimed to have seen something. Usually not the Iron Giant itself but mostly his trail of destruction, i.e. the bite marks and tracks that he left behind. Although, the Government, at first at least, not taking it seriously sent in an investigator. Think Fox Mulder but without the charm. At first, he too did not believe the stories but upon seeing the Giant for himself his attitude quickly changed. It just took some convincing to those in higher positions to believe him.

The film evaluates people’s fears and how we react to them. How we react to the unknown and the assumptions we make based on our own ignorance. Most just assumed the Iron Giant was evil. An evil from a rival country or one from the planet Mars. They assumed it was there to take over the world when in actuality, the Iron Giant just wanted a friend.

This movie is a movie of friendship. It is a movie of how we can endure what seems like the impossible and how we need each other to survive. It's a story of why we should be brave and accept others despite our differences. How some of the scariest things in the world aren’t always as bad as they seem and that all a friendship needs to get going is an act of kindness.

9.5/10