The Giant Nightmares

by Gabriel Castillo

“I grew up during the Cold War, when everything seemed tenuous. For many years, right up until the fall of the Berlin Wall, I had vivid nightmares of nuclear apocalypse,” tells American author John Cronin about his childhood during the Cold-War period. Let’s remember that the USA went through World War I in 1917 and World War II in 1941. Moreover, the country was involved in the Cold War which was a state of political and military tension between superpowers USA and the Soviet Union. Because of the USA involvement in war, the American society entered into a state of paranoia as regards any foreign affair. Not only can people tell about being affected by the country’s involvement in war, but also a film for children can narrate the everyday life that the American society was undergoing.

The right film to narrate that everyday life is The Iron Giant, an animated science-fiction film released in 1999 by Warner Bros. Animation, and based on the novel The Iron Man by Ted Hughes. The film tells the story of Hogarth Hughes, a nine-year old boy, who discovers a giant iron robot that falls from space. With the help of Dean McCoppin, a beatnik artist, they try to stop the U.S. military and Kent Mansley, a government agent, from finding and destroying the Giant.

Set in 1957 in the American state of Maine during the Cold War, the film does not only narrate the friendship between Hogarth and the Iron Giant, but also goes deep in its setting by showing how their characters´ behaviors and customs are affected by the USA involvement in war. In this sense, The Iron Giant criticizes the effects of the war by portraying a paranoid American society.

Having said this, we can look at Hogarth Hughes who is the main character in the film. When the boy sees that his tv antenna has been taken away, he looks around in his garden, trying to find some hint of the disappeared device. He sees that everything is a mess and gets scared. Immediately, he goes back into his house and prepares himself as if he were heading to a battle. He carries a helmet, a weapon, and what is more, he looks himself in a mirror and makes the military salute. Bear in mind that children were exposed to daily television and radio programs where war was the main issue to be treated. So many references to the war made people think that the best think they could do was being prepared for an attack. That is why, in any unusual situation, Hogarth sets himself ready for battle.

Now, look at the antagonist in the story, Kent Mansley. This government agent is told about the strange case of a giant robot in the city. Since neighbors said that a satellite fell from space, Mansley thinks that he is dealing with a menace for America. Then, he gets a picture of the robot and calls the US army to destroy it. Furthermore, when inquiring Hogarth about the giant robot, Mansley claims, “You think this metal man is fun, but who built it? The Russians? The Chinese? Martians? Canadians? I don't care! All I know is we didn't build it, and that's reason enough to assume the worst.” Exactly, the man has become extremely paranoid. It is worth mentioning that during the Cold War, Superpowers USA and the Soviet Union started creating new technological weapons which led countries to being suspicious of each other. In this way, Mansley is afraid of anything that comes from outside America, and can result in a possible threat to the country.

The film does not miss the opportunity of showing a common Hogarth’s day at school. In the classroom, Hogarth and the rest of the students are shown a video with a cartoon animal which sings: “Time to duck and cover, the bombs are comin' down. The radiation shower will pour throughout your town. Hands over your head; keep low to the ground. Time to duck and cover, the bombs are comin' down.” Pretty explicit and objective. The video is meant to teach children how to protect themselves in case of an atomic bomb falls. The paranoid created by the Cold war reached the American institutions, and made necessary some explanations about how the dropping of an atomic bomb was possible.

The Iron Giant depicts people who are not just afraid, but who become paranoid about a foreign attack on America at any time and at any place. On the other hand, the film shows us a certain moment in the character’s lives, but now, think about an altered life for many years, produced by the effects of the war. Similar to John Cronin’s comment on his childhood, Americans’ repeated nightmares about a nuclear catastrophe continued too.