Hulk Movie Article: The meanest & the greenest
How director Ang Lee got in touch with his inner Hulk.
"When it was announced that Ang Lee was going to be directing the movie version of 'The Hulk,' I thought, 'If anybody could pull it off, he can,'" says Bruce Jones, who writes the monthly comic-book adventures of the not-so-jolly green giant. "But it's such a big row to hoe, I still wasn't entirely certain even he could make it work. The Hulk is the sort of property that can easily go wrong."
Jones was not alone in wondering whether it's possible to convince audiences that a computer-generated character, especially one so well-known, could be the star of a major movie that also features live actors. He was also not alone in thinking that Lee might be one of the few directors capable of doing the job. After all, Lee's last film, "Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon," stretched the limits of the strictly plausible with its magnificent choreography, balletic fighting scenes and rooftop chases.
But what has observers still scratching their heads is why Lee — who, in 11 years as a filmmaker, has earned more respect than most directors do in a lifetime — would even want to make a "comic-book" movie. (Following "Spider-Man" and "Daredevil," "The Hulk" is the third Marvel Comics adaptation to open in just over a year.)
Unsurprisingly, the soft-spoken, Taiwanese-born director was drawn to the Hulk's mythical potential and the universal themes embodied in the plight of Bruce Banner, the brilliant scientist (played by Australian actor Eric Bana) who is transformed into the rampaging Hulk when angered.
"The Hulk is Jekyll and Hyde [see sidebar], Frankenstein, King Kong, a little Faust and a little Greek tragedy in the relationship of Banner and his father," says Lee. "The comic book is a great psychodrama. And there's something in there that's very American, very aggressive.
"But he's also a metaphor for everybody, not just Americans," Lee continues, "because the green monster is the id, which is our survival instinct, the anger that keeps us alive — the impulses of fight over flight. These are innocent, instinctive reactions, without morals, and they scare us. And like the Hulk, we do everything we can to cover them up because they're too horrifying."
Lee, 48, has tackled American subjects before: "The Ice Storm" (1997) focused on an upper-middle-class Connecticut family adrift in the morally unsettled climate of the early '70s; "Ride With the Devil" (1999) is considered one of the finest films set during the Civil War. In some ways, "The Hulk" — which has an anti-militarist angle — might be thought of as the third film in an informal trilogy about the American psyche.
American audiences know the Hulk best from the CBS series "The Incredible Hulk" (1978-81 and 1982), which was followed by several made-for-TV movies. Like the 1962 Marvel comic on which it was based, the show told the story of a scientist, Dr. David Banner (played by the late Bill Bixby), who, exposed to gamma radiation, turns into a mindless rampaging green brute (Lou Ferrigno) whenever his adrenaline gets the best of him.
Thanks to Bixby's acting and some talented writers, the series was an occasionally thoughtful cross between "The Fugitive" and "Frankenstein" with a New Age bent. Of course, audiences knew that sooner or later the big green guy would appear, toss a log or turn over a car, and bring the story to a satisfying conclusion.
Lee's film isn't hampered by a television budget, so the new Hulk is capable of doing things the old Hulk could only dream of: like leaping across entire canyons in a single bound, ripping apart tanks with his bare hands and fending off helicopter and jet-fighter attacks as if they were mosquitoes. As in the comic, the angrier he gets, the stronger he gets — but he also gets bigger, too, which means his size changes throughout the film.
CHILD AT HEART
What the TV Hulk and the new one share is a childlike innocence and the kind of empathetic quality shared by all the best monsters, Frankenstein's and King Kong among them. And like his TV precursor, the movie Hulk is never responsible for anyone's death. "It may look like people are getting killed in some of the battle scenes," says Lee with a laugh, "but they're not, I assure you."
The original Hulk comic came out just six times before it was canceled, but the character hung on in readers' imaginations and it wasn't long before he returned, permanently, to print. It has been suggested the Hulk is as hard to remove as the id itself.
"There's a reason that kids [are drawn to] heroes, whether it's Hopalong Cassidy or Han Solo," says Jones. "It's very primal. Part of it comes from birth, and part comes from the first time you get beaten up on a playground in front of a girl. It's amazing how quickly your veneer can be stripped away and you find yourself back with the lizard brain, ready to do battle."
James Schamus, Lee's writer-producer partner, agrees. "The Hulk represents a kind of infantilized expression," he says. "When Freud explored infant sexuality, he made people aware that children were filled with rages, desires, Oedipal needs and drives. Infants' borders are not defined, and when there's frustration, the rage is directed at everything. It has no specific sense of narrative — there's no judgment, just need."
For all this talk about the id and anger, Lee appears to be a singularly centered, calm and focused man, but Schamus qualifies this.
"He is calm and he isn't," he says. "You don't make movies like 'The Hulk' without acknowledging a real struggle within yourself. Some people can make good popcorn movies and go home at night, have a beer, kick back and watch TV, but you don't make 'The Hulk' that way. So Ang really did have to go to his own Hulk, as he says, in order to get this film out of himself. There's no question about it."
"Look at all the great artists — whatever their medium, they're obsessed," says "The Hulk" producer Gale Anne Hurd. "It's not a casual thing, whether you're writing a poem or painting a canvas. And it isn't casual with Ang Lee."
DRESSING THE PART
Lee, indeed, literally became the Hulk during the film's production — dressing up in a special costume to help the computer-graphics team design the character and his movements according to the director's ideas. He also acted out the Hulk for the film's actors. "I saw him walking around doing the Hulk, making all the classic Hulk poses," says Sam Elliott, who plays the military adversary of Bruce Banner and his mad scientist dad, David (Nick Nolte). "It became something of a joke between us all."
"There's a completely contradictory but totally balanced combination in Ang, which is, on the one hand, a gentility and respect for people, for the world a