A visually exhilarating plot that defies common sense, and a reassuring storyline. That, ladies and gentlemen, is the simplest description of the Metropolis movie, a Fritz Lang Classic. And if you are looking for a film that casts an eerie spell on you, a movie you end up using as a standard for all your other films, this is it.
Metropolis is regarded as one of the first and the greatest science fiction films. Metropolis (1927) has since its release fixed us and the rest of the century on the futuristic image of cities as a kind of hell for human despair and progress.
Metropolis set the stage for other great movies , movies that have a much larger budget then Metropolis had. Some of those films are Blade Runner, Batman’s Gotham City, The Fifth Element, Gattaca, Escape from L.A, and even Alphaville.
It’s a summit of the German Expressionism featuring the combination of highly stylized sets, bold shadows, artificial theatrics, and mind blowing camera angles.
The movie features the evil genius Rotwang who developed the visual appearance of mad lab scientists seen and to be seen in films, decades later. If you don’t believe us, you might want to see the Bride of Frankenstein as well as the False Maria, the robot that inspired the Replicants in the Blade Runner.
Like most other great science-fiction movies, metropolis displayed the fact that industries and science are two of the greatest weapons for demagogues. With a huge set of 25,000 extras and incredible effect, the movie features two words- the great city of Metropolis and the subterranean workers’ city. Metropolis features skyscrapers, stadiums, and expressways, while the workers’ city is rather run-down with clock faces showing 10 hours, cramming a day into a work week.
It tells the tale of a great city divided into two halves, one made of pampered citizens and the other slaves – all ignorant of one another. The businessman and dictator Joh Fredersen runs the city, and his son Freder gets to learn about the life led by the workers after meeting Maria, a woman from the subterranean city. Freder goes to seek out the demented Rotwang who knows the secrets of the lower world, all too well. But in his attempt to help out the workers rallied by Maria, also a revolutionary, Rotwang captures the real Maria then transfers her fact to a robot, and the workers who still follow Maria are controlled and fooled in the process. In the end, the machinery the workers strain at explodes and turn into a devouring monster.
The originality of this film is out of this world, but of course, it’s not without some clumsy scenes.
Even so, the visual sequences, dramatic effects, and originality of the film make it one of the best in the sci-fiction world.