Film review 2: Metropolis

Metropolis

The Review

Continuing from last weeks’ review on a German expressionist film we watched another one called Metropolis. Metropolis is a silent black and white film made in 1927 by the German film director Frits Lang. The actual story of the film is based of a novel of the same name by Thea von Harbour that was married to Frits Lang for a while before separating due to the time as they where married during the rise of the Nazi regime and had opposite views. This film is one of many expressionist German films as the movement was popular at the time. The review from BFI.org described the sets being “Strikingly angular set design is characteristic of the German cinema” (BFI n.d) which the same was true for the last film we watched called the cabinet of Dr Caligari that also had angular buildings. As of such this seems to be a trend in film expressionism. Like the last review I will give a brief synopsis of the film and talk about some of its themes which will be Inequality, oppression of workers, Religion and Technology.

The film is about the main the character Freder that is from the upper class that after meeting a woman called Maria from the working class attempts to find here again by going down into what the film called the depths which is a city beneath the main city where the working class lives. After finding her it is reviled that he is the mediator that will help connect the hands which are the working class and the heads which is the high class in charge of them as otherwise it would lead to conflict as foreshadowed by a story Maria tells the working class about the construction of the tower of Babel. Around the same time a mad scientist called Rolwang that is working for Jon Frederson the dictator like ruler and father of the main character, creates a robot called a machine man that could replicate any person and was first meant to take the place of Jon Federsons deceased wife. Instead however, the robot was made to take the form of Maria to disrupt the hope the real Maria was giving to the working class. But, the mad scientist instead made the machine man incite rebellion that caused the working class to attack the high class by destroying their machines. This lead to the fake being found out and burnt at the stake along with the death of the mad scientist by falling of a church then finally the mediator acts as a communicator between the workers and the bosses, the hands and the head.

I am going to talk about the themes of inequality and oppression of the work force together. These where shown and established from the start of the film by showing the working class being marched in groups the elevator that connects the two city together. All the working class was shown to be wearing old warn down clothes and hats that I image being blue for some reason despite them being black. While in the Depths that their city was referred to they where made to work long hours on machines that power the city a both which could be considered a utopia by the high class that live there. Even the underground city it self looks dark, damp and filthy in comparison the futuristic city a both that has the opposite look that is shown to be brighter, clean and generally better in every way. Again at the beginning of the film just after the working class is introduced the audience are then shown the lives of the higher class as comparison. They are shown as being educated where they where on a sports pitch. Wearing generally nicer more sophisticated clothes that where either white or grey as well as most looking like they nether had to work a day in there lives. Peter Bradshaw from the Guardian in his review described the relationship between the two classes as “Whose prosperity depends on suppressing a mutinous underground race” (Peter Bradshaw 2010) which I think sums up how the higher class sore the working class as being beneath them but at the same time completely relied on for all the luxuries they have. Hence the Oppression of the working class theme of the film. At the same time this also represents the inequality as at one point in the film Jon Frederson literally says “Where they belong” showing that he thinks they deserve nothing better for the simple fact of just being pour and having to work their whole lives. As of such I think inequality is a large part of this film as the plot literally has the main character trying to close this divide this inequality that is between the classes by literally at one-point swapping places with a worker and generally being destined to be the heart that connects the hands and the head.

This leads to the next two themes being the role of religion in modern city’s as well as technology. I was amazed by the amount of religious imagery in this film that as part of the expressionist style bluntly showed to the audience what was good and what was evil. The scene where Maria spoke of peace to the workers had a lot of crosses representing the church and giving here the role of being there hope in a desperate time. The two main characters where always in white which could represent their purity and generally representing good. However, there was a lot more imagery that represented the devil and general evil. There was a scene where the machine the workers where working on turned into what looked like the devil and being fed or sacrificed to it. The doors of the mad scientist house where the machine man was made literally had a pentagram looking symbol on them. More interesting I found however is that all the negative imagery was shown on the machine which basically mean that they where seen as evil which can be shown by this quote from Roger Ebert review that says “the image of a futuristic city as a hell of scientific progress and human despair” (Roger Ebert 1998). Even the mad scientist lost his hand and replaced it with robot one to perhaps show that he sold his soul and has become evil because of it. The machine man while masquerading as Maria is portrayed as a which both literally being coaled that in the way it moves by twisting its body and taking poses that a witch would. Machines and by extension technology was showed in a negative light through he entire film.

In conclusion I liked this film more than the last one as I found it easier to follow and how the plot unfolded, I can see why a lot of people liked this film. The use of expressionism could be seen through out the whole film which really added to the experience. Being one of the first sci-fi films I can already think of lots of examples of later films borrowing and being inspired by it such as Frankenstein.

References

A poster for metropolis 1927. (n.d). [image] Available at: http://www.moriareviews.com/sciencefiction/metropolis-1927.htm [Accessed 11 Oct. 2019].

Bradshaw, P. (2010). Film review: Metropolis. [online] the Guardian. Available at: https://www.theguardian.com/film/2010/sep/09/metropolis-restored-film-review [Accessed 9 Oct. 2019].

Ebert, R. (1998). Metropolis movie review & film summary (1927) | Roger Ebert. [online] Rogerebert.com. Available at: https://www.rogerebert.com/reviews/great-movie-metropolis-1927 [Accessed 9 Oct. 2019].

BFI. (n.d). Metropolis (1927). [online] Available at: https://www.bfi.org.uk/films-tv-people/4ce2b6b0544c6 [Accessed 9 Oct. 2019].