The Hero With A Thousand Pieces

Rating: 10/10 (27 November 2004)

Like all great stories The Iron Giant works on a number of different levels. In the simplest sense, it's a first-rate adventure story for kids with a nice balance of action and humor. There's a "moral" to the story but very little actual moralizing and none of the groan-inducing variety. The artwork and the music use familiar elements without falling into cliché.
But there's more. The Iron Giant also works as a re-telling of myth, combining elements as old as storytelling itself. In Joseph Campbell's landmark book, The Hero With A Thousand Faces, he shows how certain themes are constantly recurring in mythology, religion, psychology and literature. Campbell's work leans heavily on the writings of Carl Jung, who believed that these ideas are part of our human heritage and understood on a deeper level (often without our awareness). While this may seem like a lot of baggage to be strapping onto 90 minutes of family entertainment, it works. Furthermore, poet Ted Hughes, the writer of the story on which the film is (loosely) based, knew his mythology as well.
While a small book could be written on the themes running through The Iron Giant it's important to avoid the "this = that" sort of allegory found in Cliff Notes and high school English courses. The giant does not "stand for" this or that figure in religion or myth. There are elements of Osiris, the Egyptian figure whose body is scattered and re-assembled and Iron John, from the European folk tale collected by the Brothers Grimm and the subject of Robert Bly's generally misunderstood book. There are lots of interesting twists on the classic themes. The character of "Dean" functions partly in the Iron John role and partly as the Old Wise Man. This figure is often a wizard in folklore (think of Merlin or Gandalf) but the writers turned him into a twenty-something Beatnik sculptor. The list goes on and we haven't even mentioned Hogarth.
If this all seems a bit too much like a Required Reading list or a homework assignment ignore this and see the movie. If, however, this all sounds interesting, read Joseph Campbell and see the movie. Ten or twelve times.