metropolis

Ok, most of you I'm assuming, don't know the movie metropolis. It's a silent sci fi film from the 1920's by Fritz Lang.  It takes place in 2026. The premise of the movie is basically there are the rich/haves and the poor/worker/have nots. The city of Metropolis sits above ground, while underground is the workers city. The workers have basically built the city for the rich people, but don't get to enjoy it. They're forced to work at machines all day long. The shifts change, but basically, they're lives are to work the machines. There is a woman (Maria) who is almost like a spiritual leader for the workers, and they meet to hear her speak in the underground catacombs. The "mayor" of the city wants to control the workers, of course. There is a kind of "mad scientist" guy, who creates a robot that is supposed to be in the image of his dead love (who died giving birth to the mayor's child). The mayor upon hearing about the underground meetings with Maria wants the mad scientist to capture her, and give the robot her likeness so he can use her to control the workers. Well things go wrong, and the robot "evil" Maria goes out of control and whips the workers up into a sort of revolution, where they go underground to destroy the machines. With the destruction of the machines, they end up flooding the workers village. Throughout the movie, the main male character, who saw Maria and fell in love with her, is searching for her. He "hides" as a worker (for he is the mayor's son, a rich boy) in order to find her. He basically acts as an intermediate in a way between the two "classes". So the good Maria, and the mayor's son try to save all the workers children after they flood the city, and they do. Meanwhile the workers are in the city and find out all their children have probably died in the flood. So they get the evil Maria who was hanging out in a "house of ill repute" and they burn her at the stake. This is basically the end. The mayor and the foreman of the underground are standing together, and the mayor's son "brings them together". The film is way more involved than I have explained. It has to be seen to really understand, because I have left out big chunks of it in my explanation. And since it is a silent film, the story is told completely in pictures.

I saw the Giorgio Moroder version of the film, from the early 1980s, in which he added a modern sound track (including Freddie Mercury, Adam Ant, and Pat Benetar) and a sepia type coloring (not only sepia color...there were blue and i think red scenes... it just wasn't redone in technicolor like Wizard of Oz or something). Since I haven't seen any other version of this film it is hard for me to compare it. Both the silent black and white version, and Moroder's updated version got 5 stars in my movie book, and I've read that Moroder's is something that really needs to be seen, whether or not you end up liking it.

Metropolis is an incredible film. My dad mentioned that it is hard to appreciate it for what it was when it was made, with the effects we have right now. But I didn't agree, because I felt quite in awe of the movie and it's effects. Maybe it was because I understood that it was made in the 20's, when they didn't even have sound, let alone computer effects. The illustrations were incredible, the concepts and futuristic picture was amazing. With a few exceptions it is quite an accurate picture. I don't think I'm making myself clear on what I'm thinking haha. Let me first tell you the inaccurate parts of the futuristic look. The airplanes buzzing around Metropolis were bi-planes...not stealths. The cars were early Model-T type cars. Of course, these are 2 trivial details that one could not have known about when it was created. But at the same time, while the industrial revolution had been going on for quite some time when the film was made, it blows my mind that Lang/whoever could conceptualize a robot like the one in the film. I mean, robotics, especially ones as advanced as Robot Maria would need to be, is something relatively new, something not even achieved yet. That alone stood out to me, and attributed to why this is such an incredible film.

I have a few pictures I took from Metropolis sites on the web. I've made them smaller so I can put them inline on this page, instead of thumbnails, so quality has been lost, but you can still get the idea.

the robot

the city

the city

the mother machine

the shift siren at night

the lab

I'm still having trouble saying what I'm thinking about this movie. I'll move on.

When I was watching the movie, I kept seeing many things that so obviously influenced movies and art today. For example, there is a scene where the mad scientist guy is chasing the good Maria after she escaped from him. They go into a cathedral, and the mayor's son hears them. He goes in after them, and there is a big fight scene in the cathedral, on the roof, with Maria sliding down the roof (if i remember correctly). This scene parallels the cathedral fight scene at the end of The Crow with Brandon Lee. The Crow ends up fighting the bad guy (for lack of a better term) on the roof of the cathedral, while the girl Sara, hangs on to the edge of the roof for dear life.

Another thing I thought while watching the film was the obvious appeal it would have to many musicians. In particular, Trent Reznor of Nine Inch Nails. In the beginning of the movie there are scenes (not sure if they are original or added, they looked fairly updated) of machine parts in motion. Based on my memory of NIN videos, I can remember the same kind of shots (if not the exact same) of machine parts in motion. While this is fairly trivial, I can't say why, but I felt that Trent Reznor would probably really like this movie. I think he would do an incredibly job with an updated sound track for the movie. Not songs with lyrics, as Moroder had in his soundtrack, but more like a musical score to go along with it. I think it would add an incredible second dimension to the film if it was ever done.

In looking for information about Metropolis I ran across a site that mentions Trent Reznor and his relation to the movie (see links below). It turns out that he has stated in the past that he is fascinated with this movie. It also mentioned in a critique from a NIN site, the parallel's between metropolis and his videos... "There was a German film made in 1926 called metropolis, it is regarded as the first science fiction film and a general cinematic triumph. Trent's character is reminiscent of the 'workers' in the film, and also of  the 'proles' in George Orwell's novel 1984. The imagery in the film seems to be an update of metropolis, a film Trent has often expressed a fascination with. 9inchnails.net on NIN We're In This Together Video "...while my first impression of the NIN video was more of an 1984-esque theme as was mentioned, you could indeed draw parallels to the workers in metropolis. I really don't see the "update of metropolis" that they do, only really the black clad men in the video strike me as being metropolis-like.

I think there are also parallels that can bet drawn between the movie and today's society. While I may not know what I'm saying, since I am by far a critic of society, I thought it was a fairly accurate, although exaggerated, picture of what we've become. A world dominated by machines. A society split between those with, and those without. People in power, controlling others for their benefit. At the same time, the mention and inclusions of scenes in Yoshiwara's house of ill repute shows a continued vulnerability that humans suffer. Temptation.

I found it rather interesting that a woman was used as the main character of the movie. Maria was a spiritual leader, guiding a large group of men. She was intelligent. She was caring. She was a heroine. She saved the children from the flood. But at the same time, the film showed a bad picture of women, in that evil Maria was responsible for destruction. It was her fault that the workers rebelled and destroyed her city. I'm not a feminist, but I've been forced to read books that analyize this kind of stuff in movies. She was a scapegoat for the men. Either way, using Maria as a good picture of women, or a bad picture of the destruction evil women can cause, I think it's very interesting that a woman was used in a place of power at all. Whether she was using the power in a good way, or a bad way, it was a woman in power. It seems to me to be a bit shocking, epescially for something that was made in the period that it was.

I'm not sure I've said all I want to say about the movie, maybe I'll come back and add more at a later date. I'm planning on a metropolis based layout for Delirious v4 as soon as I can make my own captures from the film (and wait a bit since v3 just was launched. maybe this summer).

1-24-01 - sara

links used in gathering my info

Metropolis Reconstruction
A Nine Inch Nails Metropolis
Fritz Lang's Metropolis

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