- If you've seen even a few science fiction films, you've probably encountered the legacy of Fritz Lang's Metropolis. Metropolis was not quite the first sci-fi film, but it was certainly one of the most influential, lending elements of its design to Frankenstein, Star Wars, Blade Runner, Dark City...the list goes on and on. Upon doing a little research, I was surprised to find out that even Superman's adopted hometown was named in homage to the film. More surprising, however, is the fact that Metropolis, an eighty-year-old silent morality play about the intersection of robots and labor relations, remains a tremendously enjoyable viewing experience.
- To say there is a rigid class division in Metropolis is a gross understatement. The workers' underworld is populated by a mass of sulking laborers who descend in overflowing elevators to spend ten-hour days operating the underground machines. The overworld, on the other hand, features people like Freder (Gustav Frohlich), a member of a young leisure class who cavorts in the garden all day. Freder's implied source of income is his father Joh Frederson (Alfred Abel), the man who runs Metropolis from a towering ziggurat of an office building. Rather than relying exclusively on intertitles to communicate this imbalanced state of affairs, Metropolis employs lavish sets and impressive special effects to contrast the two worlds. In the process, the film creates a surprisingly believable dystopia more striking than any that would appear on film for decades after.
- Freder first considers the workers' plight when he is visited in the garden by a group of poor children led by a woman named Maria (Brigitte Helm). It's not obvious that Freder is particularly interested in these children before getting a good look at Maria, but he nonetheless decides to explore the workers' world on his own. Conditions are pretty rough underground, though, and Freder immediately witnesses an industrial explosion that, in his mind, morphs into a phantasmagorical scene of a demonic man-eating machine. After complaining to his father about the accident, he attends a secret meeting of oppressed workers led by, as luck would have it, Maria. Freder realizes he could serve as a natural bridge between the workers and management, but his efforts are severely hampered when his father teams up with the eccentric inventor Rotwang (Rudolf Klein-Rogge) to disrupt the workers' plans. Of course, their amusingly mad scheme is to discredit Maria by having a robot impersonate her, although Rotwang secretly intends to take things a bit further.
- The robot appears in its original form for only a few minutes, but this metallic likeness has since become the most iconic image associated with the film. To transform his creation's appearance, Rotwang captures Maria by menacing her with his flashlight beam; an approach that could only succeed in a German expressionist film. In contrast to the virginal and pious Maria, the robot poses as a bawdy dancer who quickly seduces most of the workers in Metropolis into following her. This whole process, particularly the dancing, might seem accidentally funny to modern audiences, but it gets the locals fired up enough to attack the machines. In a mindless act of sabotage, the angry workers set off a catastrophic flood, another of the film's visual marvels, before finally giving the robot a healthy dose of mob justice.
- While I think Metropolis' significance is primarily cinematic rather than philosophical, I must admit that the film features a surprisingly even-handed treatment of class struggles. Lang takes special care to show that industry's "head" can scheme as well as plan, just as the working "hands" can both create and destroy. One could imagine a lesser film focusing on the workers' exploitation to the exclusion of Lang's ultimate message of communication and sympathy. With such a thoughtful statement delivered alongside astounding set designs and fantastic special effects, perhaps I shouldn't be so surprised that Metropolis easily bridges the gap between the silent film era and modern audiences.
- The film was written by Thea von Harbou who, at the time, was married to Lang.
- Apparently, a copy of the original cut of Metropolis has now been found, although I didn't have the patience to wait for its release.
