Therapist Reacts to THE IRON GIANT

preview_player
Показать описание

How do you learn to make choices for yourself?

Licensed therapist Jonathan Decker and filmmaker Alan Seawright react (and cry) to The Iron Giant. They talk about choosing who you want to be and how the movie tackles life and death in a mature and age-appropriate way. Jonathan explains how the giant’s transformation from following programming to making its own choices mirrors our psychological journeys. And Alan talks about the innovative combination of CGI and hand-drawn animation and how animators articulate the giant’s emotions on a robot face.

Support us!

Cinema Therapy is:
Written by: Megan Seawright, Jonathan Decker, and Alan Seawright
Produced by: Jonathan Decker, Megan Seawright, Alan Seawright, and Corinne Demyanovich
Edited by: Nathan Judd
Director of Photography: Bradley Olsen
English Transcription by: Anna Preis

Connect with us!
Рекомендации по теме
Комментарии
Автор

Interesting fact: The premise of the movie is based on a question, the question being is "What if a gun didn't want to be a gun?".

Jonathan_Collins
Автор

This is a relatively minor thing, but I have always appreciated Hogarth not begging Giant not to go, not to do it. He just... lets Giant choose. It lends so much authenticity to the moment, and made it even more impactful than a big dramatic goodbye. So much of this movie avoid heavy handed tropes and just lets the characters BE. I love it so much.

darthbek
Автор

The part where Hogarth was explaining how everything dies was so exactly how a parent says this to their child. You can tell he's been on the receiving end of this conversation before

yannismorris
Автор

"It's bad to kill, but it's not bad to die" is SUCH a good line

GamesAreGood-reeq
Автор

As a grown man when he sacrifices himself it makes me cry every time. Superman would definitely give Giant his own uniform. To quote Superman "In the end the world didn't need a Superman, just a brave one."

sergioruiz
Автор

The Iron Giant was also based on a book "The Iron Man" by British novelist and poet, Ted Hughes.
When the movie was in pre-production, Brad Bird either met with Hughes or researched into the novel's background and learned that Ted Hughes wrote the story for his children to console them in the aftermath of their mother's suicide (Sylvia Plath). With the knowledge that life and death were the story's main drivers, Brad Bird applied his own feelings to the mix with his sister's murder by gun violence and set the film's theme and thesis: "What if a gun had a soul, and it didn't want to be a gun?"

NobodyC
Автор

I have so much respect for grown men who allow themselves to be silly, serious and emotional. This is SUCH an amazing channel.

puppypoet
Автор

My husband is retired military and this is one of his favorite movies. The military made him into a weapon too, and this message was/is powerful during his deconstruction.

melodycook
Автор

The fact that Iron Gigant doesn't actually die at the end is actually key. He didn't have to sacrifice himself to stop that missile. He could have very easily blasted it out of the atmosphere with any of his weapons. He used himself because he chose to rebel against his nature. He didn't have to die to be a hero, but was willing to, to show how much he was willing to sacrifice for the family and friends he’d made on a foreign world.

Jonathan_Collins
Автор

Honestly the moment where the Giant sees the toy gun and immediately goes on the offensive hits so hard to anyone who's been traumatised to that degree that everything is a threat, you HAVE to strike first to survive, weakness is death, etc etc. I remember being that way for such a long time, and still am in a way, after suffering some pretty horrendous shit in my childhood and through to college, about 17 years. Its easy to slip into that feeling that you have to fight or die at the slightest perceived threat when you lived in a place where there were no "perceived" threats, there was just threats. I felt like a monster for so many years, people were afraid of me just because of the way I walked, because I had that much anger that people could sense it. And when I see people bragging about being feared, or that a man should be feared, I can tell immediately they've either never been feared or they're fucking psychopathic, because it is literally the worst feeling in the world. Knowing you can hurt people, knowing that you have hurt people, knowing that a tiny part of you actually enjoyed it cause you felt like you were taking back some control in your life just by taking control away from someone else. I feel genuinely ill to this day thinking about it. And through time and therapy, even though I know I HAD to do those things, that I had to survive, I still hate myself so damned much. I never wanted to be a monster, but I became one anyway. People brag about pretending to live the life I actually lived and it pisses me off, because trust me, there's nothing cool about seeing genuine fear in someone else's eyes, when they think you're going to kill them, when they realise that they went too far and things just got serious. I didn't like what I saw of myself reflected in those eyes.

I'll never understand people who brag about killing someone, or hurting them, even in self defence. Hurting others is not something to be proud of. It's something nobody should ever have to do. And when you do have to do it, trust me, you'll spend the rest of your life wondering if you really had to.

alertedcoyote
Автор

This is my FAVORITE ANIMATED FILM OF ALL TIME exactly for this reason: its moral isn't "believe in yourself" or "true friendship is x" but "you are who you choose to be" and I firmly believe that it should be required viewing for all human beings during their development.

Jackalgirl
Автор

I feel like that corporate synergy actually serves the story: because it's WB, they are allowed to just use Superman, show a comic, etc, and that makes the story seem more real. No suspension of disbelief for a figure *like* Superman existing, just actual Superman as a culture icon. That actually grounds it, without being product placement.

In short, corporate synergy has done exactly one good thing, and it's this movie

kuno
Автор

Vin Diesel dosen't get enough credit for his voice acting abilities. He made me feel big feelings about a robot and a tree-man...incredible work

briannaking
Автор

As someone who suffered some severe childhood trauma this movie really resonated with me as a kid. I couldn't define why back then. I found myself whispering "Superman" when I was confronted with making a good decision or a bad decision. This movie may have made the most impact on my life more than any other.

frankmiller
Автор

The Iron Giant is my go to of "What if a childhood movie is just as good as you remember, if not better?". It's aged so incredibly well and to me it's the best Superman movie we've gotten to date as well (If Iron Giant was an Elseworlds Superman)

UnchartedMedia
Автор

Solidarity to everyone crying, and who will always cry, over this movie. Let us never become so cynical and jaded that an honest, good act does not move us.

hallaloth
Автор

Also shoutout to the General for being suprisingly not gun-ho about all this. Other movie generals would've sent an entire army day 1 and carpet bombed the town, meanwhile this guy was level headed even when standing directly infront of the giant and was willing to hear everyone out. It literaly took sleezebag lying to him multiple times and then stealing the radio to issue the command himself for the nuke to be launched.

LivingFire_BurningFlame
Автор

Another subtle message in this movie is actually displayed by the contrast between Mansley and Dean. Mansley has been stated to have been modeled on the ideal man of the era, who everyone in town would have expected to wind up Hograth's stepfather; Dean on the other hand is a beatnik, a subgroup looked down upon by society at large and who is clearly something of an outcast in town.
However, Mansley turns out to be the biggest villain of the story and Dean is a good and kind man who is the perfect role model and mentor for Hograth. A perfect metaphor for how what people SAY is the truth isn't necessary actually the truth.

Universeofmany
Автор

The “Superman” at the very end never fails to make me cry omg

catchives
Автор

I want to comment on the end. Right before the Giant collides with the missile, the head tilting back as the eyes close never came across as just "joy" for me but instead "bliss". He was going out, not only with a bang, but completely content with who he had decided to be. He could die with no regrets, knowing he did the right thing. Man, I loved this movie as a kid, but I appreciate it even more now. I can relate really strongly with the Giant's arch.

Side note: The moment when the Giant goes full scifi murder mode actually reminds me a lot of the moment when Christopher Reeves Superman finds Lois' dead body and he screams in anger and sorrow before reversing time. They're both similar moments of grief that cause the character to lose control, which is very relatable as someone with anger management issues.

PhoeniixFiire