"Sometimes he was quite articulate, but sometimes 'Hulk SMASH!' was the extent of his eloquence," Hamm muses, nostalgically. "And the comic books kept altering the rules as to how and why and where he changed."
Up till now, the most popular screen translation of the Hulk was the 1978-1982 TV show, which starred Bill Bixby and Lou Ferrigno. Even the weak third and fourth seasons received DVD compendiums this year, and a "best-of" series collection has stayed in print for years.
Unlike Lee's movie, the series had a dark-crystal-clear notion of what to do with the Hulk.
"That Banner became the Hulk when angered - that's the great idea," Hamm says. "The TV show exploited the sadomasochism behind it, brilliantly. Banner, in the TV show, was a passive-aggressive character. He would get himself into a nasty situation with the bad guys - and audiences would see him trying not to react, when what audiences wanted more than anything was for him to become the Hulk so he could deliver payback. He was always trying to be a nice guy until the bad guys roughed him up; then he turned into a vengeance machine and gave them what they deserved."
The makers of the second Hulk movie are smart enough to retain what the series capitalized on beautifully - including the notion that Banner is, in Hamm's words, "the equivalent of a blackout drunk." Norton repeatedly wakes up dazed, wondering for that first split-second of consciousness why he's wandering around shirtless, in ripped pants. His search for an elastic waistband stretchy enough to suit him and the Hulk becomes a corny yet effective running joke. And his attempt to squelch the Hulk - and then harness the Hulk's power for good - sustains the series' air of edgy poignancy.
Hamm thinks the paternal drama of the first Hulk movie was "bizarre," the result of filmmakers "trying to graft significance onto a project" instead of exploring the fascination or joy in the original premise.
By contrast, the TV series had the wit to treat Banner "as a Fugitive or Run For Your Life kind of character, going from place to place - and when he did, he would drop into different genres. It was cool to see - what if you did a '30s boxing drama and dropped the Hulk into it? Or some Deep South plantation film and dropped the Hulk in it? It was fun watching this Big Green Wild Card energize these familiar scenarios."
In effect, the new movie follows the show's lead, turning Banner into a fugitive and asking - what if you did a Jason Bourne movie and dropped the Hulk into it?
The final cut may not go as deep under his green skin as the Norton script or cut (perhaps we'll find out on a special-edition DVD). But Hamm's Batman script suffered, too, when he refused to rework it during a writer's strike and other hands mussed it up. At its best, The Incredible Hulk, like Batman, recaptures for adults what they felt when reading the comic books as kids.
michael.sragow@baltsun.com
