Review: Metropolis
Director: Fritz Lang
Metropolis (1927)
For shame, those who hold its box in their hands and place it back into the stand !
Metropolis is one of those few jewels that don’t just stand the weight of time but show that once every now and then, certain pieces of art are so exceptional that they are decades ahead of their time. The effects are still superb to this time, the decors are outstanding and evocative, the acting hyper-expressive.
This is German Futurist/Expressionist cinema at it’s best !
Metropolis is a science-fiction drama as well as a thriller (and for its time perhaps horror) and a love story. It leaves the Bride of Frankenstein look like a watered down draft for an imitation (which, in all honesty it is).
Rotwang , the films mad inventor looks like the arch mad doctor.
Anyone who has seen a few science fiction films will notice that many elements found in Metropolis ‘survive’ in other films.
I’m not going to spoil the plot. I will simply say that the story takes place in a future where the world population is divided in two groups: the thinkers, the rich, who live in the upper layer the large city and the workers, the poor, who slave away below ground.
One of the ‘thinkers’ descends to the factory levels in the depth… the ball starts rolling from here.
Metropolis is a masterpiece of many layers. It touches certain emotions with a wide set of characters. It introduces and criticises certain ideas which become marginalized in the legions of SF film to come. Never the less, Metropolis weaves politics, religion and technology in profoundly artistic manner which continues to inspire and impress audiences after more than 70 years !
It won’t take a brain surgeon to notice the symbols applied to designate the wicked and the virtuous.
The development of artificial life if clearly dominated by the ‘diabolical’ forces in the film. The (pseudo) Christian underground are of course the good guys (and what sheep they are).
Since this is a silent movie, a dynamic soundtrack is one of the key ingredient needed to raise and ambience. As it turns out a whole string of soundtracks have been used in different version of the film (re-stored, re-restored, extra scenes….) I viewed the version which contains Gottfried Huppertz. 1927 soundtrack. -And it delivers !
I highly recommend Metropolis, to anyone who willing to take a break form the awful re-make-re-make movie climate which has befallen mainstream cinema.
Silent movie lover or not, Metropolis will not let you down !
Reviewed by: LordLeviathan, added December 27 2005
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