August 1945, the United States drops atomic bombs on Hiroshima and
Nagasaki, effectively ending World War II and ushering in the Atomic Age.
And what began with dreams of nuclear power providing clean energy conversely
grew into fear and paranoia.
Nightmares of nuclear Armageddon plagued the '50s and '60s,
creating the Cold War and leaving the world on edge.
You can see the influence of the atomic era reflected in the science fiction
of the time.
Whether it was the Japanese expressing their grief of atomic warfare through
a giant radioactive lizard- >> Godzilla king of the monsters!
>> Or the Americans worry that their bombs would be turned against them like
the mutated ants in Them.
Such films clearly made an impression on Pixar bigshot Brad Bird in his 1999
cult classic The Iron Giant.
But did you know that it's an adaptation?
That movie you love to love is based on a short children's novel written by English
poet Ted Hughes.
The book was published in 1968 under the title the Iron Man,
but it was released in America as The Iron Giant for obvious copyright reasons.
The novel uses fairytale structure to explore the fears of the atomic age.
But how does a story written by a poet who experienced the atomic age firsthand
change when it's adapted by a filmmaker who witnessed it through the science
fiction movies of the time?
Grab yourself a rusty metal snack because it's time to ask what's the difference?
>> Atomic holocaust.
>> If you were to write a log line for both The Iron Giant and The Iron Man,
you would come up with very similar results.
A young boy befriends a giant metal man during an age of violence and paranoia.
>> Should bomb it to smithereens before >> Hughes connects with children through
poetic prose and characters reminiscent of classic fairy tales.
You've got a giant, a child, a father, a village.
Hell, even a dragon shows up by the end, but we'll get to that.
The movie however doesn't rely as much on fairy tales familiarity,
instead making direct references to classic science fiction.
So while the film keeps the giant and the boy, it replaces the fairy tale father
figure with Annie, a single mom who works long hours at the local diner.
>> And while the book includes various one-dimensional farmers and military men,
the movie fleshes them out into fully realized characters.
There's Dean, the lovable Beatnik.
A fastidious secret agent named Kent Mansley.
And General Rogard, one of the army's top brass.
>> Hell you get me a photograph of this thing and
I could probably get some troops over there.
>> And with these new characters come familiar Sci-Fi tropes as well.
The moment the movie starts it lets us know that the Iron Giant is
definitely from outer space.
Eventually, we learn that he is an alien weapon built for
the purpose of world domination.
And who among us does not love a good old fashioned alien invasion?
The book, however, leaves the Iron Man's origins a mystery.
And by doing so, Hughes expresses the amorality of science and technology.
The Iron Man has no past fueling his motives any more than atomic energy
itself.
What's worrisome is how mankind reacts to and uses such advancements.
And that's where Hogarth and the townsfolk come into play.
In the movie, Hogarth is an excitable kid with an overactive imagination and
an affinity for science fiction, duh.
So of course, when he finds his antenna bitten off, along with farming equipment,
he grabs his alien hunting gear and follows the path of destruction.
He stumbles upon the Iron Giant consuming metal at the local power station,
in a not so subtle reference to the promise of atomic energy.
But Hogarth is able to save him.
And so begins their friendship, which blossoms in a very ET sort of way.
Like I found this alien and now I have to keep it a secret from the adults who
would probably just wig out anyway.
>> That we might live in peace, amen.
>> Amen.
>> Book Hogarth is a simple farmer's son who spots the giant upon a cliff.
Rather than curiously seeking it out and gaining its trust,
book Hogarth immediately tells his father, who subverts our expectations and
actually believes his son.
>> I believe you, laddy.
>> I don't know why he's Irish.
In both mediums, the Iron Giant snacks on the town's fences,
cars, and equipment, which makes the townsfolk paranoid and confused.
But it's only the book that Hogarth rallies the village to capture
the giant in a large hole.
It's only after the giant is buried alive that Hogarth
feels guilt about when he's done.
He feels like he'd betrayed a benign creatures trust.
So when the giant digs itself out from inside the earth sometime later,
Hogarth approaches it with humility.
The townspeople learn to live in harmony with the giant, who is permitted to stay
at the local scrap yard, where it can eat all the metal it desires.
So like Atomic Energy, the Iron Man is neither good nor bad.
What matters is how you approach it.
>> In the movie Hogarth also relocates The Iron Giant to a scrap yard,
not to facilitate peace with the giant but for food and shelter from the public view.
Well, except the owner of the scrap yard Dee.
But he's an artist, so he's hip to the whole robot scene.
Can you dig?
Hogarth teaches the robot Earth culture and
delves into more complex matters like weapons and debt.
Our main characters are content, of course,
until the antagonist gets in the way.
>> But my office in Washington received a call from someone who reported an actual
encounter with the object.
>> Agent Kent Mansley is sent to investigate the bitten equipment and
mysterious reports of an invader.
In both mediums, Hogarth betrays the robot's trust.
But rather than tricking him into a hole,
movie Hogarth gives Agent Mansley the Iron Giant's location.
But the guilt that's so
well expressed in the novel is missing in its moving counterpart.
Come on, he was drugged and interrogated by the government.
Cut him some slack.
>> Hey, call me old fashioned, but I want the children to suffer in my fairy tales.
>> Yeah, okay, you're old fashioned, you old coot.
>> This brings us to the confrontation,
when the two mediums go in wildly different directions.
>> I'm going in.
>> In the book, Earth is threatened by a celestial creature described
as a SPACE-BAT-ANGEL-DRAGON from the Orion constellation.
Its body is the size of Australia.
All the countries of the world send their armies and even launched their nuclear
weapons, but fail to make even a dent in the dragon's hide.
So Hogarth asks the Iron Man to confront the dragon as the Earth's champion.
But rather than turning to pointless violence,
both agree to super-heat their bodies til one of them succumbs to the pain.
The Iron Man lies on flames of burning petroleum,
while the massive dragon does a little sunbathing on the surface of the sun.
And just as you're about to sneer at the villain who has been burned to a crisp,
the space bat Angel dragon breaks down into tears.
Truthfully, it didn't even want to conquer the world at all.
It simply become excited by mankind's cries of war.
In this case,
the dragon represents nature responding to mankind's destructive prowess.
And like the once menacing Iron Man who, by the end of the story is a hero,
the space bat Angel dragon returns to the stars where it sings a cosmic
song of tranquility, bringing peace to the nations of the world.
The movie also expresses anti-war sentiments by shining a light on cultural
reactions to technology.
The Iron Giant is a gentle creature who poses no threat on his own, but
once our culture of war and violence is introduced,
such as Hogarth's toy gun, his destructive programming kicks in.
Some accidental laser discharge attracts the military,
who react to the giant with hostility, injuring Hogarth in the process.
>> Remember when he learned about death?
>> It's still alive.
>> Just shoot at it!
>> Confronted with the death violence brings, The Iron Giant completely reverts
back to his original programming, and it's all lasers and explosions.
>> Let's get out of here!
>> I know this movie is teaching me that violence is never the answer, but
it is a really cool action sequence.
Anyway, thanks to director Brad Bird,
we get this point in moment as Hogart regains consciousness and
attempts to reach his friend >> It's bad to kill.
Guns kill, and you don't have to be a gun.
You are what you choose to be.
You choose.
>> The giant chooses not to be a gun, and the army general chooses not to fight.
>> It's a trick, launch the missile.
>> Are you mad, Mansley?
>> But of course, the moment is ruined by Agent Mansley,
who impulsively launches a nuclear weapon at the Iron Giant's location.
So the Iron Giant jets off into the sky to meet the missile in one of our favorite
movie goodbyes of all time.
With a little denouement,
we see that our human protagonists live happily ever after.
And like a last minute emotional life preserver, we see the Iron Giant is alive.
Albeit, scattered in Iceland.
>> See you later.
>> In the end, both mediums do a great job familiarizing children with the hopes and
fears of the atomic age.
They both share morals of peace, friendship, and identity.
But while the book uses allegories and
fairy tale characters to tell children how to responsibly react to power, the movie
imparts its lesson with superhero imagery and science fiction references.
>> So the next time you come into possession of great power,
how will you respond?
>> Yeah.
>> Teddy Roosevelt said quote, that's all for this episode, but
be sure to subscribe to Cinefix for more what's the difference.
And let us know what you'd like to see next in the comment section below.
End of quote.