The biggest fear in the 1950s in America had to be the spread of communism or the “Red Hysteria” as it was referred to. Mao’s Communist Party had come to power by the end of the ‘40s. Combine that with the Soviet Union exploding its first atomic bomb and it’s easy to see why The Truman Doctrine became a vital part of American politics. “Containment” became the buzz word of the day. It’s easy then to see how The Amazing Colossal Man becomes Hollywood’s answer to both the threats and our reaction.
Let’s use the main character, Glenn Manning, as the basis for our metaphor. An average American becomes “exposed” to a plutonium bomb. At first he is in danger of dying; however, soon he is not only thriving, he is growing, but the growth goes crazy and does not stop. Also due to science stuff, his heart is not growing at the same rate and this will cause him to go insane. He eventually loses his faculties and threatens to hurt his fiancée and goes on a rampage destroying property. If we make Glenn represent the American people and the plutonium bomb equals Communism, then what is this movie actually saying?
Let’s use the main character, Glenn Manning, as the basis for our metaphor. An average American becomes “exposed” to a plutonium bomb. At first he is in danger of dying; however, soon he is not only thriving, he is growing, but the growth goes crazy and does not stop. Also due to science stuff, his heart is not growing at the same rate and this will cause him to go insane. He eventually loses his faculties and threatens to hurt his fiancée and goes on a rampage destroying property. If we make Glenn represent the American people and the plutonium bomb equals Communism, then what is this movie actually saying?
Exposure to Communism will grow but we must show that ultimately it is a destructive force for the individual, his loved ones, and his country. Simple, right? Hehehe If you add to this Glenn’s line “What sin could a man commit in a single lifetime to bring this upon himself?” we understand that the sin is exposing ourselves to Communism in the first place.
This movie is a parable about losing control. In the very beginning of the movie, the military calls itself “Control.” When the doctors are discussing the situation, one of them says, “Think of what it will mean to medical science to have such a regenerative or healing power under its control.” According to Lao Tzu, “In governing, don’t try to control.” This was decidedly NOT the American response to Communism. The fear of losing control of the spread of Communism in the states led to the atrocities of McCarthyism. Malcolm X said it was the media that controlled the minds of the masses because “They have the power to make the innocent guilty and the guilty innocent.” It wasn’t until 1954 that the McCarthy hearings were aired on TV that the whole thing came crashing down into one embarrassing disgrace for McCarthy, but by then damage had been done.
In this film, it’s science that creates the problem, not ideology. It’s also science that finds the remedy, but at the cost of the lives of the doctors in an awesome scene where the Colossal Man skewers the doctor with the huge syringe they had just stuck him with. It’s his fiancée that asks, “Why is this horrible thing happening?” And that’s a good question. The answer is simple, Communism’s ideology of equally shared ownership of production flies in the face of American capitalism and our right to get rich.
It was the fear of true equality, a threat to individuality so important to American identity, that stoked the fears. While in idea, it’s a nice platitude to say one is for the equality of all, but it is not the American consciousness to jeopardize individuality or the individual’s rights to be rewarded for one’s efforts above others. Just look at the complaints of many about the welfare state of modern America. Forget thoughts of brotherhood of humanity. Forget thoughts of equality for all. The zeitgeist of our cultural moment seems to be headed closer and closer to a Me-Mine mentality that is splitting the gap between the classes. But no one is asking, “Why is this horrible thing happening?” today.
The Giant monster of today is poverty. That’s what seems to be growing beyond our control. Add to that the fact from this movie that Manning’s heart does not grow in proportion, thus threatening his survival, and this movie’s message becomes oddly current. Can we as a nation continue to grow at a monstrous rate without the heart keeping up? According to the message of this movie, the answer is NO; it will drive us all insane. The original threat from the movie is a chain reaction that cannot be stopped or controlled. We definitely live in a reactionary society. It’s instinctual, yet oftentimes self-threatening. It’s no wonder then that the only place they can find to house the giant man in the movie is under a circus tent because that’s what America is in danger of becoming…a circus full of clowns and animals, ideas and beliefs balanced on so thin a line it’s imperceptible from the bleachers. But never fear, we have a ringmaster whose job is to usher us safely through without harm. We have lion tamers, but our lions grow more ferocious daily because cracking a whip at our problems is no way to communicate. Wall Street has become little more than a bunch of acrobats and jugglers stumbling and tumbling around in what appears to be a synchronized act, yet things get dropped all the time.
Are we waiting for the next Gulliver to come along to impress us? To threaten us? To define us? It seems so. I’ll end with a line from the movie that actually made me laugh out loud, but after having written this…I’m not really laughing any more:
“ – something out there is beyond the limits of our knowledge.”
“ – something out there is beyond the limits of our knowledge.”
America then and now is that something that is beyond the
limits of our knowledge. Yet, we remain both
Colossal and Amazing.
limits of our knowledge. Yet, we remain both
Colossal and Amazing.
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