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June 20, 2003
By Veronica Mixon
I've always been stumped
by the Hulk's superhero status since
he is so unlike any of the other Marvel
Comic action heroes. Clearly, his creators,
Stan Lee and Jack Kirby meant for the
Hulk to be a subversive character smashing
the most powerful forces that tried
to make ordinary men feel weak. However,
Ang Lee's ambitious interpretation of
the Hulk centers
on repressed male rage and the effects
of a deeply traumatized childhood. Well,
you can't more relevant to the human
condition than that! Hulk
is an intriguing journey into paranoia
about megalomania, government intrusion
and unbridled anger and violence.
From the opening frame, Ang Lee, who
is best known for Crouching Tiger,
Hidden Dragon, informs
the audience of scientist Bruce Banner's
(Eric Bana) early childhood with his
pretty mom and obsessed dad. The mild-mannered
Bruce has destroyed his romance with
fellow scientist Betty Ross (Jennifer
Connelly) because of he's emotionally
distant however his groundbreaking work
still keeps them connected and has attracted
outside interest of the snaky Glenn
Talbot (Josh Lucas). When an accident
releases a deadly emission of gamma
radiation, Bruce bravely saves a life
and seems unscathed by the exposure.
Betty is stunned as Bruce insists that
he's fine.
However, when Bruce gets a surprise
visit from his father, David (Nick Nolte),
who explains why he didn't die from
the gamma radiation, he begins to question
everything he has known up to that point.
Upset, confused and irritated by the
mounting pressure over his work and
memories of his past, Bruce flies into
a rage.
"You'll have to watch that temper,"
dad tells his son after witnessing his
transformation. Bruce doesn't remember
turning into a hulking green giant that
angrily destroys his own lab. But things
change. Betty's father, a military General
(Sam Elliot) who knew David usurps Bruce's
lab and shuts Talbot out. When Talbot
attacks Bruce, all of his repressed
rage explodes and he becomes the Hulk.
Ang Lee has always been fascinated
by American cultural especially those
elements that dictate behavior. His
brilliant film, The Ice Storm
looks at emotional isolation in an affluent
suburban community and the less enthralling
Ride With the Devil explores
the emotional conflicts of the Civil
War. In the Hulk,
Lee's Bruce Banner represents the mental
damage of many domestic situations like
drug abuse and spousal murder. Certainly,
repressed male anger has always been
a major theme in the movies and most
recently, comic films like Anger
Management. But Lee's thoughtful,
artistic approach to such heavy emotional
baggage peels away the obvious cheesiness
of the Hulk cartoon and in fact, helps
the audience to accept the CGI version
of the Hulk
who grows larger as he gets angrier.
You'll find that your stomach lurches
as you watch the Hulk bound over great
distances! He has a great need to connect
to the woman in his past as well as
the woman in his present.
True, newcomer Eric Bana (Black
Hawk Down) and Jennifer Connelly
(Oscar winner of A Beautiful Life)
are quite good but the big Green guy
steals the show! Also, Josh Lucas, who
was so cute in Sweet Home Alabama,
does a complete one-eighty as the evil
Talbot and he's only surpassed by the
excellent performance of the deluded
Nick Nolte as Bruce's father. Looking
like his crazy real-life arrest photo
from last year, Nolte is still charming
despite the fact that he hasn't aged
well.
Hulk is not
necessarily a film for kids but I think
teenagers will identify with his conflict
as easily as adult. Ang Lee was correct
in giving this complex character an
intriguing interior life to make his
emotional explosions more interesting.
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