HULK

US, 2003, 138 minutes, Colour.
Eric Bana, Jennifer Connelly, Sam Elliott, Nick Nolte, Josh Lucas.
Directed by Ang Lee.

It is hard to put one's finger on Taiwanese director, Ang Lee. His career has covered a wide range of genres: Wedding Banquet, Sense and Sensibility, Ice Storm, Ride with the Devil and Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon. Now, he has made a comic-strip hero action movie. He has said that he would like to do a musical!

Hulk is not your everyday hero. In fact, he is more in the tradition of King Kong than Spiderman. While Peter Porter is infected by a mutant spider that enables him to be the saviour of the city, Bruce Banner has been infected by his arrogant scientist father's experiments on himself. Nor does he know this. When he tries to save the life of a fellow scientist and receives a super electric charge, his depth physiology and psychology are both detonated. His Jungian shadow, his smouldering inner rage, is so huge that he transforms into the destructive Hulk. One of his difficulties, he confesses, when he returns to himself, is that he enjoys the rage. Hulk saves no one. He destroys property and the greedy entrepreneur who wants to make money out of potential weapons of mass destruction. But, he can return to himself, like King Kong, and be tamed again by his love for Betty Ross.

Hulk is, therefore, both comic book and philosophical. It questions the ethics of experiments that dehumanise. In the character of David Banner, we have the mad scientist gone berserk (especially as he transforms into a destructive monster). Nick Nolte is one of the wildest-eyed, wildest-haired would-be Frankenstein on screen.

With the military context and with Sam Elliot's stern and stubborn General Ross, we have echoes of The Lawnmower Man and experiments to be at the service of American power. In the post September 11th era, Hulk offers some critique on warfare and terrorism. The fact that the military find it impossible to capture or quell hulk offers an ironic comment on American peace-keeping in Iraq.

Eric Bana is the nice Bruce Banner who is bewildered by his transformations. Jennifer Connolly is his strong-minded and loving colleague. As regards Hulk himself, the producers have not followed the television lead of having Bill Bixby and Lou Ferigno do the two roles. Rather, Hulk is computer-generated. In the realism context of the film, this oddly shaped (though intelligently faced) creature, bouncing all over the countryside and flinging helicopters as if they were toys, does not really mesh with the film as a whole. Too much need for suspension of disbelief.

1. The popularity of the comic? Hero? Monster? The ordinary man transformed by biogenetics? The popularity of the television series?

2. The special effects, the computer-generated Hulk, appearance, mechanised, not human - except for the face? Movement, leaps and bounds over terrain? Credible? Not? A comic strip in the midst of live action? The style of the live action shooting, small screen, focus on faces and psychological interactions? The combination for a different kind of hero story?

3. The title, expectations, the ordinary many, the transformation of inner angers into a Hulk which could save or, generally, destroy?

4. The credits, the visualising of cells, genetics, experimentation? The morality of experimentation? Scientists and their wisdom, knowledge, arrogance? Using themselves for experiments? The effects on their children? The military and the use of these experiments for warfare? Chemical warfare, weapons of mass destruction?

5. David Banner and his experiments in the 60s, the government protection? Lack of supervision? His marriage, his child, his having infected himself? The effect on the child, his continued experiments? General Ross and closing him down, sending him away? David and the confrontation with his wife? Her death? The boy being sent away by Ross? David being put in an institution? The contrast with the happy collage of the little boy being born, growing up, life in the desert base, with his parents?

6. Bruce Banner as an adult, his continuing the experiments, his foster mother? His not remembering his past, not knowing his parents? His work with Betty, the irony of her being the daughter of General Ross? Their work together, experiments? The experiments on animals? Their program for creatures healing themselves (as David Banner had worked on)? Going before the committee? The approach of Glenn Talbot and his wanting to do a takeover of their work for his firm?

7. The experiment going wrong, the assistant and his life in danger, Bruce holding the electricity, the electricity unleashing something in himself? The physical, psychological anger and rage? His being transformed into the Hulk? His behaviour, destructive? The laboratory? His returning to himself? Betty and her concern?

8. Talbot, his ambitions, his confrontation with Bruce, the transformation, Talbot's injuries? His decision to get a sample from the Hulk in order to do further experiments - and make money? Bruce and his father sending the dogs to him, the monstrous dogs, his fighting with them? The brutality of the fight? His returning to himself, Betty caring for him?

9. David Banner and his being released from the institution, working as a janitor, the encounter with Betty? The vicious poodle? His discussion with his son, Bruce's disbelief? His unwillingness to remember? The importance of his dreams and the past beginning to come back?

10. General Ross, his severity on the desert base in the 60s, putting Banner in an institution, sending the boy away? The irony of his being in charge of the base, having to face the situation with the Hulk?

11. His meeting with Betty, their estrangement? Betty relying on him, persuading him to be lenient? The overcoming of the Hulk, taking Bruce away? Talbot and his interference - and his death? The Hulk escaping, the military power brought against him, weaponry, tanks, helicopters and planes? His being allowed out, through the desert, the pursuit, General Ross present? His destruction of tanks and helicopters as if they were toys? His going to San Francisco, the threat to the Golden Gate, the disruption under the streets, the cable car? The stand-off? Betty and her coming to him, his surrendering to her, returning to himself?

12. Bruce and his final escape, the people thinking that he might be dead - the passing of a year, Betty talking with her father? The irony of Bruce in the Latin American jungles and the prospect of his becoming very angry with brutal guerrilla chiefs?

13. The portrait of David Banner, the importance of his madness, treatment of his son, death of his wife? His continuing his experiments, the experiment with his hand, going to his son, the explanations? His being destroyed? His becoming a monstrous being parallel to the Hulk?

14. The themes of biogenetic experimentation, experimentation with weaponry, scientists playing God, the devastating results, the consequences for innocent people? The warning against unlimited science? The balance with humanity, love - and the importance of Bruce being taken back to his home, the desert base, the recovery of memories, the possibility of healing of memories?

15. The theme of the unconscious and subconscious, inner rage, the manifestation of the shadow in the character of the Hulk?