Good choice, Father Victor, if you are reading this review.  As I left Mass this evening, I lingered outside to say hello to the priest I have probably known longer than any other man of the cloth.  Nobody else is coming to mind, so he must be it.  Anyway, as I waited, I thought, why not ask my pastor for a film suggestion for my Saturday night?  At first, he suggested Asteroid City, he being a fellow Wes Anderson fan.  We simultaneously recalled that I had seen it and covered it, which is when he realized my true intention.  After a moment’s commiseration, he gave me The Iron Giant (1999).  My eyes lit up at the suggestion, memories of positive things said about this film from other friends floating to the surface.  I am happy to report that neither their words or Father Victor’s promotion proved good ones.

From the deep recesses of space, The Iron Giant (voiced by Vin Diesel) splashes down off the coast of Maine.  He does so in the middle of a storm, running into a fisherman, Earl Stutz (voiced by M. Emmet Waslh), in his doomed boat.  The old salt thinks he is near the Rockwell Lighthouse, but it turns out to be the eyes of the 100-foot-tall title robot.  Before panic can set in, the Iron Giant sets Earl on shore and moves inland.  Later that morning, young Hogarth Hughes (voiced by Eli Marienthal) enters the local diner with a surprise for his single mother, Annie Hughes (voiced by Jennifer Anniston), who works there as a waitress.  It is yet another pet that she is wanting to say no to owing to her son’s lack of ability to keep the animals under control.  Case in point, the squirrel escapes the box just as Earl arrives with tales of his incredible encounter the previous night.  Nobody believes him, but Hogarth is mesmerized.  The spell is broken, though, when the squirrel crawls out of the pants of Dean McCoppin (voiced by Harry Connick Jr.), the owner of the local junkyard.  This may sound like a strange occupation, but he uses the material for art.  The resulting chaos means Annie must take an extra shift, leaving Hogarth at home by himself.  In the middle of one of the scary movies on television that he is not supposed to be watching, he hears a loud noise outside.  Upon investigation, he notices evidence of something quite large that had lumbered through the area.  He then does what any sensible boy in 1957 would do: grabs a helmet and his BB gun, and goes looking for the source of the destruction.  He catches up to the Iron Giant at the nearby power station.  The robot proceeds to eat adjacent metal before moving on to the energy coils.  In the process, it gets tangled in the lines and appears to be in pain.  Conveniently, there is a giant “On/Off” switch nearby that Hogarth throws, freeing the Iron Giant.  The boy then runs away when the automaton revives, his mother frantically finding him.  The next day, though, Hogarth returns with a bit of scrap metal, hoping to lure out the Iron Giant and snap a picture.  Meanwhile, getting to town is Kent Mansley (voiced by Christopher McDonald), a government agent sent to investigate reports of an abnormally tall robot.  Initially, he treats these rumors as nonsense until his car disappears, the result of the Iron Giant consuming it, which fits with what he sees of the devastation to the power plant.  Now it could be aliens, or the Soviet Union, but in any case he perceives a threat to everything for which the United States stands.  I cannot emphasize enough his paranoia.  He also finds a clue when he comes across Hogarth’s mangled BB gun.  Speaking of the kid, he manages to befriend the Iron Giant, beginning to teach it some rudimentary communication.  Indeed, his new pal refuses to stay behind, following Hogarth all the way to his house.  Despite his protests, the Iron Giant will not stay put, and inadvertently causes a train derailment that knocks a few pieces off the robot.  Luckily, it has the ability to reintegrate itself, doing so as Hogarth hides him in the barn.  Not only is Hogarth keeping the Iron Giant secret from Annie, but he also does not trust Kent, who comes knocking at the Hughes’ door.  With the Iron Giant’s still disembodied hand floating around, he manages to get rid of the agent.  Yet, he knows that he must find some place else to keep the Iron Giant.  This is when Hogarth takes the metal chomping robot to Dean’s scrapyard.  While the artist is not keen at first on having the enormous alien on his property, soon he, too, sees the Iron Giant’s gentle side and allows it to stick around.  Kent, though, has not given up, and locates Hogarth’s camera with a picture of the kid and the robot in the background on the film.  This is the evidence Kent had been looking for to call in the army to deal with what is assumed to be a dangerous monster.  He also interrogates Hogarth, forcing the boy to reveal where the Iron Giant is staying.  Fortunately, Hogarth is able to phone Dean to get the artist to dress up the robot as a sculpture.  This is what General Shannon Rogard (voied by John Mahoney) sees at Dean’s junkyard, and accuses Kent of wasting his time.  However, soon thereafter Hogarth discovers that the Iron Giant is a weapon when the robot confuses a toy gun for the genuine article.  He almost kills Hogarth, prompting Dean to tell the Iron Giant to leave.  It does so, but on the way out he hears a cry for help in town.  He rushes to save two boys from falling from a building, but reveals his presence to the rest of the town.  This heroic act is also noticed by the army, who open fire on the Iron Giant.  The violence brings out his, for lack of a better term, beast mode.  The Iron Giant would have destroyed them all if not for Hogarth’s intervention.  Unfortunately, Kent is gonna Kent, ordering a nuclear strike on the Iron Giant.  This foolish decision dooms the town until the Iron Giant blasts off into the stratosphere to stop the deadly detonation.  It looks like he has sacrificed himself, for which the town seems eternally thankful.  Thankfully, the final scene is of the Iron Giant putting itself back together somewhere in Greenland.

So far, you might be thinking that The Iron Giant sounds pretty standard.  If you will forgive me, but I got a little carried away detailing the events of the plot.  What makes it special for this Catholic reviewer is the bond that forms between Hogarth and the title character.  Specifically, it is what this boy teaches the robot that is endearing.  In the Bible, a few times Jesus makes reference to the innocence of children as being something to emulate by His disciples.  He points to this as evidence of their knowledge of the Kingdom of Heaven.  The Iron Giant behaves in a like manner because he has a bump on his head, which seems to cause a bout of amnesia.  As such, he has forgotten the deadly purpose for which he has been sent to earth.  In his interactions with Hogarth, the child tells the robot that he has a soul, and that it is good.  I can think of few better ways of explaining that which nothing can destroy, the only eternal aspect of ourselves, and that which is destined for God if we so choose.  To be clear, the path to Heaven is not simple.  It is the result of the sum of our choices in life, and the effect they have on ourselves and others.  It is for this reason that Hogarth tells the Iron Giant that he must not kill, reminding the automaton at the climactic moment that he is not a gun.  Like all of us, we can choose God.  What makes the film’s message great is that it talks about this in the context of having a soul.  Because of its connection with God, this is what gives our good deeds meaning.  It also adds weight to the Iron Giant’s sacrifice at the end.

I have no reservations recommending The Iron Giant to any audience.  It is an objectively good movie in its own right, even if it is animated.  If such content is not your style, which I can understand, give it a try anyway.  It is just a good story.