Metropolis Critical Analysis - Essay Example

An evil scientist by the name of Rotwang invented Hel, a robot that will take place of the human workers in the Metropolis. The only problem with the robotic Hel is that the scientist gave her human-like intelligence.  he movie, in its first scene, shows how great life is for the elite and how bad it is for the lower class. Freders, the son of the boss of the metropolis falls for Maria, who is a leader for the unjust conditions for the workers; this information is kept a secret from her boss. When Rotwang and Freders dad discovers Maria’s secret, they kidnap her and transform Hel to be an exact copy of her to ruin her reputation. Hel behaves irresponsibly and immorally so the workers will discredit her and their spirit will be broken.

Then, in the nick of time, Freders rescues Maria and together they stop the revolution and bring back the feeling of peace and security between the bosses and the workers. He is destroyed, Rotwang dies and Freders and Maria live happily ever after.

“Metropolis is a story about the people whose backs wealth and success are built upon. It clearly illustrates the dichotomy between those that do and those that benefit from the sweat of others. The thinkers of Metropolis enjoy a luxurious lifestyle, but their success comes at the price of treating the workers like slaves and depriving them of their individuality”.

The director’s vision was visible and but the plot was too far into the future. In the early 1900’s he was able to foresee the unrestrained behavior of capitalism. Overall the movie wasn’t bad, especially since it has a positive message—life has more to it than just submitting to someone else.

The main power in the movie is its images, especially when the workers are fed to the “god”, Moloch. This act of ruthlessness is a metaphor for the “insignificance of the individual worker”. Metropolis, along with good imagery, has some faults too. The biggest is the sappy emotional feeling. The robot character is set to be ‘cute’, but near the climax, the direction ruined the sense of tragedy and drama due to the music as it was inappropriate and juvenile instead of being emotional. The worker's movements and actions are also meaningless and the actions they do show the useless nature of the city of Metropolis.