The Production of Metropolis - Movie Review Example

Metropolis- By Fritz Lang, 1927 Student’s Name Institutional Affiliation Course Instructor’ Name Date The production of Metropolis was inspired by Lang’s gesture of the New York City. Lang admired the beacon of beauty that surrounded the New York City by the night. Flashes of blue, red and gleaming white lights, elevated trains and advertisements that surpassed the stars were extremely fascinating to the eye. The film tells the story of a city that was misruled from a center of a skyscraper by a technocratic dictator. Metropolis is concerned with broader political and cultural issues, manifested thematically and visually. The social preoccupations of the film is a commentary on the political state that existed in Germany during the time of production of the movie. The movie served also as a warning of the direction in which Germany was heading. In order to convey his political message, Fritz Lang tapped into the power struggle issues of Germany such as fear for the future, poverty band conflict issues using a highly stylized futuristic landscape accompanied with metaphors and symbolism. His approach was based on the fact that his audiences would not be pleased if his film dealt with the daily troubles in Germany. The futuristic feature of metropolis implies that there may have been a sense of conflict concerning the contemporary state of Germany and where it was heading on her way to modernization. Although the anxieties of the time are heavily felt in Metropolis, Lang states that he was seeing the future state of Germany when he was making his film. (Ankum, 2007, p.15). Visually, the flourishing, lively urban space of metropolis was completely a new thing in Germany and nothing compares to it during the period. However, the futuristic space portrayed some similarities to the rapidly growing cities of Chicago and New York in the far west. The film explores the delights and decadence of modern urban space but also unearths the social problems and inequalities that exist under the glossy surface. The futuristic city of metropolis is founded literally on social inequality and injustices. According to Lang, the futuristic city was synonymous with corruption, exploitation and greed. The revolution of workers portrays a very important political message about social inequality that existed contemporary society and the future of modern cities. The film exposes the tools of capoitali0sm right from powerful ruling class at the top of the city to the laboring masses beneath the ground. Lang tells of a futuristic city with towers and spires, Pleasure Gardens, Olympian stadium and elevated highways above the surface. Beneath the surface is the city of workers where the clock is set to show 10 hours below normal time so as to buy more time for work. The workers live in rented housing and their daily work involves unrelenting service to the machines. From the film, the splendors in the futuristic city results from nothing good than human despair and hell of material progress. (Whyte & Warner1993, p.19). The chief architect of the evil deeds in the city was Rotwang. His creation of a human-like machine is a visualization of mad scientists for years to come. The workers worked on the monstrous Heart machine and they were expected to achieve the expectations of their masters in the city above the ground. The machine city and the heart machine are likened to Moloch, the prehistoric Semitic god who received human sacri0fices as a form of honor. Lang creates terrifying scenes of the machine city. In one occasion Fredersen foresees the monstrous machine turning into the good (Moloch) and human beings (workers) were being fed to it as sacrifices. The workers of the machine city was simply an extension of the machines because the kind of work they did was purely mechanical and that the use of brain was unnecessary. Fear and controversy ensues when Lang seem to be uncomfortable with the kind of live the city workers lived in the hell-like underground dystopia while the ruling class enjoyed the splendors and achievements of the modern metropolis. However, the shining city could not be maintained without the presence of the monstrous machine and the laboring mass of workers. On the other side, the Herat machine could would not be there without the necessity to sustain the modern metropolis. This is a form of dualistic relationship whereby two opposing entities exist and mutually depend on each other, therefore creating an element of deep occult resonance. The metropolis city was founded and run by Fredersen. He is termed an autocratic creator and ruler of Metropolis. His style of ruling can be compared to Gnostic demiurge who creat3ed and ruled the material world. On the other hand, Freder, Fredersen son, like any other son of the ruler enjoys the luxurious life. He later discover the hostile reality that the workers went through in bringing life and fortune to the modern metropolis. Freder is eager to experience the worker reality and is prompted to move down the machine city where he exchanged clothing with a worker. His first-hand interaction with the reality of life in the machine city make him fearful. On the other hand, he is seen as a savior sent from above. Freder meets Maria, a charismatic woman who is admired by workers because she understood their suffering well. However, she is afraid of the fact that a revolution is brewing and will soon explode. For this reason, she preaches peace and calmness, prophesying the coming of a mediator who will act as a uniting factor between the head and the hand (Whyte & Warner1993, p.29). The fact that Fredersen’s headquarters (The New Tower of Babel) was built on the blood and sweat of innocent workers who knew nothing of the rulers vision increases fear because Lang knows well that the modern city of Metropolis will one day come down crushing like the biblical city of Babel. Fear hounded the joy brought forth by the splendor of the modern metropolis because Lang knew that the joy would be short-lived (Ankum, 2007, p.18). The moral lesson of the film is not to get rid of all injustices and inequalities and establish a world where no one is special than another, neither does it fight for democracy in ruling. Instead, metropolis advocates for the freedom of workers and choosing of the mediator between the workers and the thinkers. However, metropolis still calls for the presence of elite class of people with ultimate possession of resources and management over the working class. This is evidenced when the workers were eventually duped because Fredersen believed that their economic and social wellbeing would change completely (Harbou, 2008, p.28). As seen in the film, the status-quo remained intact and Fredersen made his naïve son Freder give the elite group a friendly picture while reporting every event that occurred in depth. This resulted in more control and tighter surveillance of the working class. Freder symbolizes the media in modern metropolis. This means that the futuristic city would have the mass media whose main work is mediation between the ruling class and the working class. The mass media would perform its task by manipulating the feelings and thoughts of the mass on a daily basis, deceiving them into loving their suffering and oppression. Lang’s use of such character to express his concern shows that he indeed feared the uncertainty of the futuristic city and the advanced level of inequalities (Fulton 2001, p.38). Also, Rotwang creates a fake Maria robot which is used to cause a rebellion among the workers. The Heart Machine is directed into the machine city where the workers staged a revolution. They destroyed the Heart Machine causing floods. The real Maria and Freder rescues the children from floods. The on noticing this, the riotous workers stopped and turned their wrath to the robot Maria. They burnt it at stake only to discover that the power that suppressed and enslaved them was the same power that was used by their ruler to sustain them. It is also quite obvious that the working class in the machine city toil and labor to sustain the fantasy-like lifestyle of the upper class, as they operate the Machine-Man which keeps all of Metropolis electricity. This is affirmed by the dynamics between Fredersen and Grot. Grot was the workers’ leaders. In most part of the film, Grot is portrayed to be subservient to Fredersen until the point when Fredersen asks Grot to allow the destruction of the Machine-Man but Grot defies him (Bachmann & Minden2002, p.34). Fredersen tries to suppress Grot and other workers using his authority. His action is an indication of futuristic condemnation on capitalism and its basic conventions. The modern metropolis and the machine city are different in terms of presentation. The difference between the two metropolises is an allusion to heaven and earth. The theme is apparent when Freder was searching for Maria in the machine city. Freder hallucinates and sees a machine explode then quickly into the mouth of a Devil. The servants of the “devil” dragged the dead and dying into the bowels of hell hence creating a scary scenario of the suffering that workers underwent in the machine world (Fulton 2001, p.47). It is always sunny on the city above the ground by the day. The city is covered in stars and lights at night. In contrast, the story is different in the dark city below the ground. All the workers put on uniform clothing and are always made to spend most of their time in the in the dark and dirty environment filled with steam. Lang fears for the impending danger because the work done by the workers in this city is very demanding and any mistake would lead to unseemly death. Lang doesn’t see any hope for any life until when Maria and Freder saved the workers’ children who would have perished in the bowels of the machine city. Conclusion Metropolis is obviously a film done by the elite and for the elite. This is because it deals with the concerns that touches on specific group of people, that manages the world and the solutions it presents does not cause any disturbance to the status-quo. The film is also flooded with mixed messages that referenced to the ancient mysteries. This implies that metropolis was basically directed to the ruling class. Ultimately, the film has a fairy-tale ending. It gives a snapshot of the profound dread of its contemporary time and also the modern metropolis. Metropolis is great film sin that its relevance is seen more than 80 years after its production. Nonetheless, its relevance will increase more in the coming years if the elite group have their way in the world. References Ankum, K. (2007). Women in the metropolis: Gender and modernity in Weimar culture. Berkeley: University of California Press. Bachmann, H., & Minden, M. (2002). Fritz Lang's 'Metropolis': Cinematic visions of technology and fear. Rochester, NY [u.a.: Camden House. Fulton, W. B. (2001). The reluctant metropolis: The politics of urban growth in Los Angeles. Baltimore [u.a.: Johns Hopkins Univ. Pr. Harbou, T. (2008). Metropolis. Rockville, MD: Wild side Press. Whyte, W. H., & Warner, S. B. (1993). The exploding metropolis. Berkeley: University of California Press. Read More

The chief architect of the evil deeds in the city was Rotwang. His creation of a human-like machine is a visualization of mad scientists for years to come. The workers worked on the monstrous Heart machine and they were expected to achieve the expectations of their masters in the city above the ground. The machine city and the heart machine are likened to Moloch, the prehistoric Semitic god who received human sacri0fices as a form of honor. Lang creates terrifying scenes of the machine city. In one occasion Fredersen foresees the monstrous machine turning into the good (Moloch) and human beings (workers) were being fed to it as sacrifices.

The workers of the machine city was simply an extension of the machines because the kind of work they did was purely mechanical and that the use of brain was unnecessary. Fear and controversy ensues when Lang seem to be uncomfortable with the kind of live the city workers lived in the hell-like underground dystopia while the ruling class enjoyed the splendors and achievements of the modern metropolis. However, the shining city could not be maintained without the presence of the monstrous machine and the laboring mass of workers.

On the other side, the Herat machine could would not be there without the necessity to sustain the modern metropolis. This is a form of dualistic relationship whereby two opposing entities exist and mutually depend on each other, therefore creating an element of deep occult resonance. The metropolis city was founded and run by Fredersen. He is termed an autocratic creator and ruler of Metropolis. His style of ruling can be compared to Gnostic demiurge who creat3ed and ruled the material world.

On the other hand, Freder, Fredersen son, like any other son of the ruler enjoys the luxurious life. He later discover the hostile reality that the workers went through in bringing life and fortune to the modern metropolis. Freder is eager to experience the worker reality and is prompted to move down the machine city where he exchanged clothing with a worker. His first-hand interaction with the reality of life in the machine city make him fearful. On the other hand, he is seen as a savior sent from above.

Freder meets Maria, a charismatic woman who is admired by workers because she understood their suffering well. However, she is afraid of the fact that a revolution is brewing and will soon explode. For this reason, she preaches peace and calmness, prophesying the coming of a mediator who will act as a uniting factor between the head and the hand (Whyte & Warner1993, p.29). The fact that Fredersen’s headquarters (The New Tower of Babel) was built on the blood and sweat of innocent workers who knew nothing of the rulers vision increases fear because Lang knows well that the modern city of Metropolis will one day come down crushing like the biblical city of Babel.

Fear hounded the joy brought forth by the splendor of the modern metropolis because Lang knew that the joy would be short-lived (Ankum, 2007, p.18). The moral lesson of the film is not to get rid of all injustices and inequalities and establish a world where no one is special than another, neither does it fight for democracy in ruling. Instead, metropolis advocates for the freedom of workers and choosing of the mediator between the workers and the thinkers. However, metropolis still calls for the presence of elite class of people with ultimate possession of resources and management over the working class.

This is evidenced when the workers were eventually duped because Fredersen believed that their economic and social wellbeing would change completely (Harbou, 2008, p.28). As seen in the film, the status-quo remained intact and Fredersen made his naïve son Freder give the elite group a friendly picture while reporting every event that occurred in depth. This resulted in more control and tighter surveillance of the working class. Freder symbolizes the media in modern metropolis. This means that the futuristic city would have the mass media whose main work is mediation between the ruling class and the working class.

Read More