Fig. 1. Metropolis Poster
Still in the style of German Expressionism this film follows the story Freder, a young man who is finding out the grim truth of the city of Metropolis which was created by his father, Joh Frederson. Frederson believes he created the perfect city for mankind, a kind of utopia in which everything is crisp and futuristic; the pinnacle of human advancement. However this all turns out to be false as his son Freder discovers a world beneath the city of workers slaving away even to the point of death, so in fact the utopia of Metropolis is a disastrous dystopia and Axmaker correctly states the portrayal of society within it,
Fig. 2. Utopia
Fig. 3. Machine world
“As conceived by Lang and his co-screenwriter Thea von Harbou, "Metropolis" was a film of huge ambition that took on such big themes as the nature of capital and labor and the ease of mass manipulation, and filtered them through a personal story of a young couple in love.” (Turan, 2010)
Fig. 4. Dystopia
“Hitler had two significant ideas that helped launch him in to power. He had someone to blame for the economy and he had a plan for a swift economic recovery. Hitler outlined a plan where in four years he would completely eliminate unemployment throughout Germany. Even though his plan was a plan that would not raise the level of income for the enrichment of the people but an economic plan for military strength and victory the German people were eager to see any economic success.” (Castillo, 2003)
Joh Frederson can be viewed as Hitler and Metropolis his Germany. He could manipulate it any way he wanted and he wanted to make it perfect no matter what the cost. This underlying plot gives Metropolis a very definitive backbone and accompanied with the German Expressionist visuals of the chaos and dreamlike fantasies make this film the influential titan it still is today.
Bibliography
Axmaker, S. (2010) Parallax View At: http://parallax-view.org/2010/11/16/metropolis-reconstructed-and-vengeance-dissected-dvds-of-the-week/ (Accessed on: 06.11.11)
Turan, K. (2010) Los Angeles Times At: http://articles.latimes.com/2010/may/14/entertainment/la-et-metropolis-20100514 (Accessed on: 06.11.11)
Castillo, D. (2003) German Economy in the 1920s At: http://www.history.ucsb.edu/faculty/marcuse/classes/33d/projects/1920s/Econ20s.htm (Accessed on: 06.11.11)
Illustration List
Fig. 1. Lang, Fritz (1927) Metropolis Poster At: http://www.hollywoodchicago.com/reviews/10880/the-complete-metropolis-is-a-must-see-movie-event (Accessed on: 06.11.11)
Fig. 2. Utopia (1927) From: Metropolis Directed by: Fritz Lang [film still] Germany: Universum Film (UFA) At: http://www.moviemail-online.co.uk/film/dvd/Metropolis-Reconstructed-Restored-Masters-of-Cinema/ (Accessed on: 06.11.11)
Fig. 3. Machine world (1927) From: Metropolis Directed by: Fritz Lang [film still] Germany: Universum Film (UFA) At: http://www.metroactive.com/papers/metro/09.19.02/metropolis-0238.html (Accessed on: 06.11.11)
Fig. 4. Dystopia (1927) From: Metropolis Directed by: Fritz Lang [film still] Germany: Universum Film (UFA) At: http://www.leftcom.org/en/images/1927-01-10-metropolis-marching-workers (Accessed on: 06.11.11)
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