Lewis Maddison- BA (Hons) Computer Animation Arts: Metropolis Movie Review

Metropolis

Fritz Lang

1927

"The workers do not appear as simple laborers, instead the march in sync, in what appears to be an endless line, resembling drones much more than people". (Ted Rossini,-). Looking at the opening of Metropolis I am immediately reminded of my studies on the ideals of Marxism and socialism. The way Rossini describes the movements of the workers and how they are all one uniform body, working together more as a machine then men shows the way this world that Lang has created is run. With the rich on top controlling everything from their high towers and fancy buildings, whilst the working force slave away underneath the city, keeping it running often as a secret that very few people on the surface know about, this is noted in the scene where Freder descends into the city and witness the workers for the first time, moving in union, often working themselves to death in order to keep the city alive.

These people are the lifeblood of the city, the true owners who unlike the wealthy above them have to work themselves to the brink in order to keep themselves a part of the system that has been created.

I find this film to be very powerful especially for the time that it was created. In 1927 Germany was under the control of the Weimar republic, a very unpopular government at the time which led to the creation of Hitler's Germany. Ideas such as socialism and Marxism would have been very vocal in people's minds during this time, people who are looking for any kind of change from the usual, degrading government system they had to deal with during the aftermath of World War 1.

As Matt prigge suggests "Metropolis remains the benchmark of agenda-driven extravaganzas, stirring and fun in the right spots" (Matt Prigge, 2014) this film could have been a way for Fritz Lang to drive his own agenda into the minds of his viewers, too get them too look at the situation that they are in at the time and to enforce change, releasing themselves from their "Slavery".

Coming away from the political nature of the film, Lang made the film itself a stunning example of science fiction film making. The most iconic scene of the film being the moment that Rotwang's machine-man (who is actually a woman) transforms into the echo of Maria. Although dated, the effect still looks amazing and really shows the fantastic ideas that film makers where able to get across with the limited technology that they had back I the day. As Phillip Kemp describes, Metropolis is"A luminous and resplendent visual masterpiece" (Phillip Kemp, 2014)

All in all this film is a masterpiece of its time, conveying many underlying political issues that were around at the time, able to entertain audiences years in the future with its stunning visuals and surprising effects.

This film has been one of the best silent films that I have seen, something that I wouldn't have watched If it wasn't part of this course.

Bibliography

Ted Rossini, http://www2.mcdaniel.edu/German/German1111/Rossini1.htm, Date Unknown

Matt Prigge, http://www.philadelphiaweekly.com/screen/capsules/Metropolis.html, April 1 2014

Phillip Kemp, http://www.totalfilm.com/reviews/cinema/metropolis-2, April 1 2014

Image found through http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0017136/mediaindex