Cody Hamman unleashes some Film Appreciation for the 2003 version of Hulk.
Back in 1962, Stan Lee and Jack Kirby of Marvel Comics drew inspiration from the classic horror tales of Frankenstein and Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde to create the superhero known as the (Incredible) Hulk. The first issue of The Incredible Hulk had a very simple set-up: a weak scientist named Bruce Banner is testing a gamma bomb for the military, and when he rushes to get a citizen out of the bomb range, he gets blasted by the bomb’s gamma radiation. As a result, he finds himself turning into a rampaging, muscular hulk whenever he gets angry – and the Hulk’s destructive streak puts him on the military’s bad side. This concept was brought to TV in a simple way for a live-action series that ran for five seasons in the late ‘70s / early ‘90s and was followed by a few TV movies. That show changed the doctor’s name to David and saw him drifting across the United States, hulking out now and then, while being tracked by a newspaper reporter.
In the early ‘90s, producer Gale Anne Hurd acquired the rights to make a Hulk feature film and took the concept to Universal Pictures... but sometimes producers and executives have a tendency to overthink things, so they spent the decade trying to develop a movie out of the simple set-up. A lot of drafts of the script were written by first John Turman (and decided Banner needed to have daddy issues) and then Jonathan Hensleigh, who felt that the story should deal with plans to colonize Mars. Banner gets dosed with gamma radiation and becomes the Hulk, then has to fight three Death Row convicts who have been experimented on and are mutating into insect monsters. Joe Johnston, who ended up directing Captain America: The First Avenger, was going to direct the film, then Hensleigh was going to direct it when Johnston stepped away, and casting underway, with Johnny Depp considered for the role of Banner. That version of the film fell apart over budgetary issues, but the script work continued. Michael France, Zak Penn, J.J. Abrams, Michael Tolkin, David Hayter, and the duo of Scott Alexander and Larry Karaszewski all worked on drafts. But the Hulk was going nowhere... until Ang Lee, fresh off the Oscar-winning Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon, signed on to direct.
With his frequent collaborator James Schamus, Lee took the idea of the Hulk and continued to overthink it, resulting in an intensely serious and dramatic film that plays like a superhero movie for people with daddy issues – because yes, Turman’s idea to involve Banner’s father in the story made it all the way to the screen. Lee envisioned the film as a tragedy rather than the exciting adventure film most movie-goers would be expecting, and Eric Bana – who was cast in the role of Bruce Banner after the likes of Tom Cruise, Edward Norton, Billy Crudup, Steve Buscemi, David Duchovny, Jeff Goldblum, and Depp were considered – has said that the “intensely serious” feeling was even felt on the set during production, making it something of a quiet bummer to work on.
Here’s an example of the overthinking that went into this: the filmmakers weren’t satisfied with the idea that Banner could simply become the Hulk because he was hit with gamma radiation. So the story goes back to the ‘60s, before he was even conceived. Bruce’s father David (played by Paul Kersey in the flashbacks) is a scientist working on a military base, conducing experiments involving jellyfish, starfish, sea cucumbers, and lizards to find a way to create super immune systems. Upset when the head of the military base, Colonel Thaddeus "Thunderbolt" Ross (Todd Tesen in flashback) refuses to let him experiment on human test subjects, David just experiments on himself... and after his wife Edith (Cara Buono) gets pregnant, he realizes he has passed his manipulated gene on to his son Bruce. Fearing that Bruce could be dangerous, David attempts to kill his kid – and when Edith tries to protect her son, she gets killed instead. Right in front of 4-year-old Bruce. David is arrested and institutionalized, Bruce is adopted.
Jump ahead to 2003 and Bruce has become a scientist himself, working on nanomeds and gamma rays with fellow scientist Betty Ross (Jennifer Connelly), the estranged daughter of now-General Thunderbolt Ross (played in modern day by the great Sam Elliott). When Bruce saves a colleague from a malfunctioning gammasphere, he’s blasted with radiation that should have killed him... and would have, if he didn’t have those manipulated genes. Instead, the radiation merges with his DNA and makes him become the Hulk when he’s upset. Lee makes viewers wait 41 minutes before finally letting us see Banner become the Hulk for the first time.
Bruce was, understandably, deeply traumatized by his childhood experiences. He has repressed his childhood memories, he bottles up his emotions, and the fact that he’s emotionally distant has messed up his romantic relationship with Betty. Now that the Hulk is part of him, those emotions are coming out in a major way.
And estranged fathers come back into their children’s lives to further complicate matters. Thunderbolt Ross re-enters Betty’s life to protect his daughter and the public by dealing with the Hulk issue, and he has trouble trusting Bruce because he has dealt with the Banner family before. Meanwhile, David (played by a scenery-chewing Nick Nolte in modern day) is also lurking around, wanting to take his old experiments to the next level – and destroy his old enemies in the process, whether that requires him trying to enlist the help of Bruce, using Bruce’s DNA to create a trio of “Hulk Dogs,” or blasting himself with gamma radiation so he can take on the ability to absorb and take on the properties of things that he touches, basically becoming a version of the comic book character Absorbing Man.
Josh Lucas is also around, causing Bruce more headaches and Hulk-outs as Glenn Talbot from the research company Atheon, who wants to use Hulk DNA to create super soldiers for the military.
Ang Lee took the emotional side of the story so seriously that borders on the ridiculous. One moment we’re watching actors having intense characters about issues, then next we’re watching the Hulk smash up military equipment. Oddly, given that the tone of the film is so far from the source material, Lee also took a very comic book approach to the editing of the film. Throughout, he will split the screen into multiple panels like in a comic book, with scene transitions that are like moving from one panel to another. A lot of people complained about that, but I thought it was a pretty cool style to bring to a comic book movie. I just wish the writing was more comic book and less “let’s take a trip to the therapist.”
Still, I can’t say that the serious daddy issue side of the film doesn’t appeal to me in some way, either. Because I didn’t always have a great relationship with my own father. He caused my mom and I a great deal of distress over the years. So yeah, when I see scenes like the one where a tearful Bruce confronts David about his messed up childhood, I know where he’s coming from. When I see Bruce defeat his “absorbing man” father by unleashing all of the emotions, all of the hurt and anger, he has bottled up over the decades, I feel that. Thankfully, my father was nowhere near as troublesome as David Banner. He passed away years ago and now that he's gone, I really miss watching movies with him. But we never watched Hulk together.
This is absolutely not the Hulk movie I would have ever thought of bringing into the world myself, but that’s okay. We got movies that are closer to my idea of the Hulk after this – so this very serious Hulk stands on its own as Ang Lee’s personal interpretation of the concept, and it has merit in that way.
I have always gotten a certain degree of enjoyment out of watching this Hulk, and my experience of seeing the movie for the first time, on the big screen during its opening weekend in June of 2003, will always stick with me. I was dealing with a case of sinus pressure that entire summer. It started right after I caught a theatrical screening of X-Men 2 at the start of May and it was still going full force by the time I watched Hulk at the end of June. And I have always had issues with anxiety, which in the summer of 2003 would occasionally cause panic attacks. I had a panic attack while watching Hulk, in the midst of the “Hulk vs. the miltary in the desert” sequence, and had to stand up out of my seat and walk back to the theatre doorway in order to get myself out of that panic attack. Then I walked back to my seat, sat down, and finished watching the movie.
Summer of 2003 was a crazy ride, and that viewing of Hulk was part of it. Because of that, the relatable elements, and the fact that that the movie does give the chance to watch a rampaging Hulk destroy things, I will always have film appreciation for this one.
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