Iron Man

Iron Man is a wake-up call to a generation that has enjoyed the excesses of the affluent West, unencumbered by the morals of their parents. When a person comes to the end of their life it is their deeds, not their words, by which they will be judged.

As the latest in a long line of comic heroes crashing through to the big screen, Iron Man qualifies as an excellent Saturday night guy’s film. There were plenty of explosions, fast cars and multi-barreled weaponry to satisfy the multi-generational group I took with me. That said, when the smoke clears there are some prodding thoughts for a generation seldom spoken to by the mainstream cinema.

Builders and Baby-Boomers coping with the changing world, or their changing bodies are familiar topics for Hollywood, both as comedy and drama. Who could forget Grumpy Old Men or its latest, more thoughtful incarnation, The Bucket List? Similarly, there are plenty of films addressing the social and moral transience of Gen Y, beginning with The Beach and continuing on most recently Hey, Hey It’s Esther Blueburger. But Iron Man is a feature that has the X Generation firmly in its sights.

Our hero, Tony Stark, played by Robert Downey Jnr, is the ne’r-do-well son of a billionaire arms manufacturer. Dad made guns to fight the Nazis; Tony makes higher tech weaponries to allow governments to pursue ‘evil doers’ around the globe. He may not appear to be the average member of the X-Gen, but the parallels become pretty obvious after awhile. Playboy Stark is reaping the benefits of decades of effort to which he didn’t contribute, and consequently he lacks the moral compass to use his resources wisely. His father is absent by death, but it appears there was no real relationship even before that, with Tony regretting the lost opportunities to gain guidance regarding the big moral questions he now faces. He’s even a little bitter and suspicious about the empire his father built up, but he still enjoys its largesse.

Stark is no ‘Peter Parker / Spiderman hard-luck story’. He’s used to having access to everything and places very little value on anything. The casting of Robert Downey Jnr was sublime. The producers could have gone for the younger hero type but Downey’s age says everything – he presents the perfect jaded businessman whose is amusing to his friends, but ultimately bemused by his life’s own lack of meaning. Asked to justify the huge weapons industry he is part of, his quip ably displays the lack of personal responsibility that characterizes a wealthy West: “It’s an imperfect world. Peace means having a bigger stick than the other guy”. His generation’s need to acquire combined with an inability to ultimately enjoy what they have is ably summarised by his off-handed purchasing of art desired by other people, followed by directions to put it in storage. As one insightful character tells him, “You are the man who has everything and nothing”.

Iron Man is basically a film about legacy. Predictably, a situation arises that makes Stark come face to face with the use that tyrants can make of his weapons. There are lots of sub-plots about US foreign policy, militant Islamism and global terror, but when all is said and done, Stark must decide what it is he will be remembered for.  Life is presented as the chance to act; death as the end of all action. Proverbs might well agree, because the grave brings an end to all opportunity. Stark, having grown up with everything, including a distaste for the generation that came before him, discovers the responsibilities that come with privilege. He’s also faced with the judgment other people will make of what he has done with those privileges.

Judgment is a welcome theme in any film, particularly when it considers a man’s entire life and leaves little doubt that the peripheral good deed will hardly balance out a life of selfishness. It’s not surprising that the producers present Stark’s determination to be different as the salvation of his soul – humans have always been convicted that they could redeem themselves given enough opportunity. However, it’s unlikely that even Iron Man’s superhuman efforts will be sufficient to make up for years of flooding the world’s trouble spots with weapons. For every conflict the hero steps in to stop, there is a thousand more that wage unnoticed by the film – and that, even without any consideration of how much harm his own intervention might do. It is a comic book come to life, after all.

If, however, the imagery could be extended to cover the real situation facing present generations, one might reflect on just how much assistance Stark needs to turn the corner from dilettante to dedicated. Millions of dollars later and he finishes the film, still a flawed if more likeable character. And his imaginary resources certainly exceed our actual ones. Better to rely on the riches of righteousness provided by Jesus than to try and make up and get on with our own petty reserves.

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