Film Review :- Metropolis

Film Review :- Metropolis 

Metripolis is a movie made in 1927 by Fritz Lang and Thea von Harbou. It was made in Germany after the first world war, during a time of hyperinflation and economical chaos. It takes alot of influence from modern art of the time, this being mainly expressionism. The circumstances in Germany after the first world war pushed many artists to create pieces inspired by depression and Grimm emotion, focusing of feeling then realism. 

The film is about and based in the city of metropolis where out protagonist Freder Fredersen, goes into the depths of metropolis to find a woman and sees the condition of work before committing to helps resolve the problems the workers face. The movie has many missing scenes and is considered a lost film. The version i saw used many different versions of the movie and edited them all to look the way it would have been first presented in the theatres.

Metropolis Poster

Metropolis is "Generally considered the first great science-fiction film"(Roger Ebert) starting many trends repeated over and over in sci-fi, These include the highly dense semi-dystopian cities that echo's throughout modern sci-fi. Following this Metropolis can be seen as the birth of the "mad scientist" character type in cinema a character that has redefined the role of scientists in sci-fi movies, they are no long the supplier of modern miracles they are crazed men and women who dance the edge of danger and sanity.

fig. 1

The movie uses very cleaver and iconic visual imagery to convey idea throughout the movie, from the very first shots of the city and its work force as shown in fig. 1 we see a clear divide between the extremely spacious and lavish life of the upper class and the narrow and cramped existence of the workers. Scenes of workers changing shifts are easily compared to slaves and in certain scenes they are shown to be being sacrificed to a machine, showing a greater importance for keeping the machine going then the life of a few workers. Not only is visual imagery used to show the difference the names of the places also make the point obvious to the audience with names like "The Depths". The constant and unending work in the depths is portrayed in subtle but clever ways. for example the workers are all in a sync with each other all changing stance and position at the same time to create the imagery similar to a clock or an engine.

In the movie the idea and search to "find a middle way between the head and the heart, the bosses and the workers" (Peter Bradshaw) drives the story forward. with extravagant scenes as shown in fig. 2 enforcing the feeling of a situation over the reality of it, A core expressionist principle, the movie makes the ideas wanting to be portrayed in a scene very clear and hard to misunderstand. The feeling of scenes are well though through and executed well, this is even more impressive when many scenes are cut together segments from many different versions of the movie. The manifestation of the link is Freder his character is "Fittingly naïve...eager to visit, then to trade places, then to save his fellow men. His innate sense of goodness is a direct reflection of the boundless opulence of his father’s city" (Simon Abrams) Making him a prime candidate for maria's "mediator" position.

fig. 2

The movie uses a lot of well made and effective practical effects. The miniatures of the city and workers city are used to create a sense of scale and destruction. These images of destruction and chaos are often recreated in cinema now, however metropolis was made at a time effects like this could only be done with real miniature sets that are destroyed on camera. This physical destruction sometimes gives the destruction a sense of weightlessness not having enough force or weight in the destruction of buildings and walls. however mixing these full miniature scenes with full size practical effects in the flood sequence creates a great sense of doom and disaster.

Abrams, S. et al. (2010) Review: Fritz Lang’s Metropolis. At: https://www.slantmagazine.com/film/metropolis/ (Accessed on 14 October 2019)

Bradshaw, P. (2010) 'Film review: Metropolis' In: The Guardian 9 September 2010 [online] At: http://www.theguardian.com/film/2010/sep/09/metropolis-restored-film-review (Accessed on 14 October 2019)

Ebert, R. (1998) 'Metropolis movie review & film summary (1927) | Roger Ebert' At: https://www.rogerebert.com/reviews/great-movie-metropolis-1927 (Accessed on 14 October 2019)