Space Oddities: Metropolis (1927) Film Review

Metropolis Film Review

Metropolis is a silent science-fiction movie was released in 1927 by Fritz Lang a master of the German Expressionism who set in a futuristic divides into two distinct and separate classes.  The thinkers and the workers describes the struggles between the two opposite entities and the viewing of this movie today is quite an experience as man ‘sc -fi' ‘aspects of the plot are early close to reality.  The movie describes a society where the “New World Order” has already taken been carry out and a select elite live in luxury while dehumanized mass work and live in a highly monitored hell.

Figure 1: Metropolis film poster

The movie open scene by showing the works and their city situated deep below the earth is surface. They are shown dressed alike, walking in sync by holiday their heads down in submission, resignation and desperation. Through the movie the human cattle depicted as being physically and mentally exhausted highly impressionable and can be easily deceived. It is description of the masses corroborates those of Walter Lippmann and American thinker who has five years earlier in Public Opinion to compared the general public to a bewildered herd that is not qualified to manage its own destiny. The workers labor in a monstrous machine a hellish industrial complex where they must accomplish repetitive and dehumanizing task. At one point the machine is compared to Moloch, the ancient Semitic deity honored by the human sacrifices.

Figure 2: The workers open scene 

Figure 3: Set Design and Models

The city shots of Metropolis were combination of both two and three dimension elements consisting of matte paintings and drawing a flat wooden relief models as well as three dimensional. The workers live in a underground and the thinkers conversely is a magnificent testimony of a human achievement. This is shiny city could be however sustained without the existence of the Machine (Moloch and it herds of workers. Metropolis was influenced by the art deco movement in the style of the futuristic skyscrapers and their detail.

Bibliography

http://vigilantcitizen.com/musicbusiness/the-occult-symbolism-of-movie-metropolis-and-its-importance-in-pop-culture/ (Accessed on 30/09/2015) 

https://jenniferhodge0812.wordpress.com/2014/03/21/metropolis-looking-into-the-influence-of-architecture-in-the-film/ ( Accessed on 1/10/2015)

Illustrations

Figure 1 Metropolis film poster: http://thefridacinema.org/wp-content/uploads/2013/08/Metropolis-gold.jpg (Accesssed 30/09/2015)

Figure 2 The worker open scene: http://vigilantcitizen.com/musicbusiness/the-occult-symbolism-of-movie-metropolis-and-its-importance-in-pop-culture/#prettyPhoto ( Accessed on 30/09/2015)

Figure 3 Set Desgin and Models:.odge0812.files.wordpress.com/2014/03/metropolis-1926.jpg (Accessed on 1/10/2015)