Give the Tin Man a Heart

[eumelia]

****This is a review of "Iron Man" Spoilers Ahoy!****

Ever since getting the insight of the analogy between the Tin Man of Oz and Marvel's Iron Man I can't get it out of my head.

A formal disclosure; usually when I go to comic book movies I know the characters. With Iron Man being a Marvel character, I went in to the movie as a blank slate knowing absolutely nothing other than that Tony is an industrialist ala Bruce Wayne, that he has a mechanical heart, that he's a member of the Avengers and that he is good friends with Captain America.
That is all.
It doesn't even brush the surface of who Iron Man a.k.a Tony Stark actually is.

And with this blank slate a whole slew of understandings and insights sailed through my head as I watched the movie.

One of the things that has been said to characterize comic book movies (and comic books in general) is the fact that they are more plot and image driven than character. And that the morality (and often ethics and ideology) depicted in this particular medium is binary - Good and Evil.

"Iron Man" touches on that, because Stark Industries (SI) is a weapons manufacturer. The movie is put in a universe parallel to our own in which the US is fighting The War on Terror. We are not sure who the enemy is other than that they are somewhere in central Asia between Mongolia, Iran, Afghanistan, Pakistan and other places in that region of the world. That region has lots of mountains, caves and villages that do not benefit from technology in any way other than everyone having guns (none of them Russian as far as I could tell, not an AK in sight). In the interest of making this easy I'm going to call that place Clalistan*.

Tony has inherited an arms business and a business partner; Obadiah Stane, his father's right-hand man.
From the beginning you can see the strain of keeping that corporate facade of "The Best Weapon is One You Only Have To Use Once" which Tony sublimates in reckless behaviour in his personal life, treating everyone around him as nothing more than functionaries, from the women he sleeps with to his business partners and even his friends Pepper Potts (his Girl Friday) and James Rhodes (his military liaison).

When he is in Clalistan with the military to show off his spankin' new toy (a cluster missile by the apt name of Jericho - incidentally, it is well known that cluster bombs, along with land mines, cause the highest percentage of collateral damage in conflict areas... that means they hurt civilians more than they hurt combatants) he is injured and kidnapped by an international coalition of terrorists whose motivation - other than killing as many people as possible - is unclear. The injury, in beautiful metaphor, shows us the change that Tony goes through during his captivity.

Despite Tony's clear disregard to himself and the people around him, he seems to genuinely believe that what he does is for the Greater Good. This illusion is very quickly shattered when he sees the terrorists use his SI weapons to fight his fellow Americans.
The change of heart is literal.

There is nothing controversial about the movie, not really. Whatever controversy there was about Tony's weapons dealing was set straight by his change of heart and loss of control over his business after his release from captivity.

The bottom line of it all, it's a feel good movie, I enjoyed it very much and if you like comic books movies, special effects movies or just enjoy bright colours in general, then this is the movie for you.

I'm writing that because within the context of it being a cool movie with a likable hero, likable sidekicks, likable robots and AI personality there are major, and I do mean Major flaws, which can go unnoticed if you wish, but I can't ignore the things that made me go *stabitty*.

Like the sexism, my GD the sexism.
It's one thing when it comes from Tony, as it is his disposition and I'm inclined to believe that it's because he considers everyone as a functionary to his own aims and not specifically any kind of inherent chauvinism towards women - he thinks he's superior to everyone.
But the movie's attitude is just, ewwwww.

The movie itself has only two women characters of any significance: Pepper Potts, Tony's personal assistant/Girl Friday, there's a flirtation between them, though it seems to be a regular thing and the Vanity Fair reporter he sleeps with thus establishing his sexist image and the shrew-ness of this particular reporter who is now a "Woman Scorned".
Tony is a playboy, how he views women shouldn't be the way the movie views them. A movie of this kind shouldn't be attached to the hero's perspective, there are too many details the audience needs to know that Tony doesn't. Add to that there was only one female soldier (who dies) and no woman in a power suit and the only other women were those fawning over Tony or other wealthy men and refugee mothers and wives who scream and cry as their husbands and sons are taken away by terrorists to be shot.
Not good gender representation.
Unless you're an assistant, then you are required to perform heart surgery on your boss.

The corporatism. Yeah, yeah, greed is bad, but look how much good private corporations can do! Tony saves people from his own guns, oh the circularity of it all. There was no mention of the US government involvement in the conflict, other than Tony criticizing the lack of culpability overall, though even then I suspect he was talking about SI and not the US goverment which is very much not there other than the military which seems to be working independently.

I have lots more to say, but this entry is kind of gigantic so I'll understand if you want to skip it. [smugness]Though it's a really cool review, if I do say so myself [/smugness].
Also it took me a long time to write it, so take that into account, I don't only write for myself ya know!
:-D

*Clali - כללי is "in general" in Hebrew