Anxiety in the Atomic Age
Iron Giant Tells Cold War Allegory

Stories often have a deeper meaning, something besides the pure entertainment value of their story. Even animated movies (that realm where Disney has reigned for most of this century) have told their share of moral tales. But no animated film has dared to work on as many levels as the new Warner Bros. release, The Iron Giant.

At the height of the Cold War, The Iron Giant is set in a small, isolated town in Maine. Sputnik rules the sky, showing the world the USSR's dominance in the space race. Children in school watch films reminding them to "duck and cover" in the event of nuclear war. In spite of all this, it's still America, and life goes on.

But when Hogarth Hughes (Eli Marienthal) has his television antenna eaten off his roof by some unseen force, he grabs his BB gun and marches off into the dark woods in search of the rumored monster from space. To his surprise, he finds not a monster but a machine.

Hogarth befriends the metal giant and tries to bridge the gap in their languages and cultures. As one expects in a time of Cold War paranoia, however, the rumors of a giant metal man have put the U.S. government and its military on alert. They don't care if the giant came from Russia or from the stars. They perceive it as a threat.

Like a lot of science fiction of that time, the alien is used as a substitute for the unseen menace of Communism. Standing sixty feet tall, the metal giant is a visible threat, something we can -- as a country -- stand up and fight. But in this story the perceived threat isn't really a threat at all. The danger comes from ourselves, and our blindness to see past our fears.

The Iron Giant is, in fact, a modern revision of those old 1950s War of the Worlds kind of movies. The young boy is independent and a paragon of American virtue. His single mother (Jennifer Aniston) works to support him and -- as a result -- leaves him to his own devices most of the time. The only break from the old sci-fi formula is Harry Connick, Jr.'s character of Dean McCoppin, who is a struggling artist instead of the obligatory pipe-smoking scientist.

Rather than retaining the original ideals of the 1950s, The Iron Giant has a more enlightened point of view. It shows that our unwillingness to accept others is as dangerous as any nuclear threat. There is also a wonderful message that teaches children they can be anything they choose to be.

MY RATING: 8 out of 10.

RATED: PG
RUN TIME: 86 min.