Metropolis? No Thanks - Nikki Anzalone

The year? 2026. The place? Metropolis, a thriving city filled with technological marvels, extensive gardens, and skyscrapers that live up to their name. Not all is well and good in the city however, just beneath the surface lies a dark secret. A society of workers pushed beyond their limits. They themselves treated like mere cogs in a machine, identical, yes, and completely replaceable. This is where Fritz Lang’s Metropolis begins, with a stark contrast between the citizens of above and below, and while Metropolis ultimately blurs those lines the message of the film could not be more clear cut. The movie isn’t particularly groundbreaking for it’s use of the narrative structure, in fact it’s rather transparent and the action drags at times. Nonetheless, it’s a visual spectacle that manages to still hold some water today.

    The story is a simple one that grabs its audience by the hand and drags it through a vaguely science fiction based world. Joh Frederson, played by Alfred Abel, is the leader of Metropolis and he encourages his people to lead frivolous lives that seem to mostly consist of frolicking through plants. His son unfortunately named Freder Frederson (Gustav Fröhlich) is no exception to this. Of course everything changes when Maria (Brigitte Helm) walks into Freder's life with the simple message that the people below are, in fact, people. (It is worth noting that Brigitte is quite possibly the film's greatest treasure). From that point on Freder is determined to be one with his brothers below. It's a pretty straightforward tale of a lower class's struggle to raise itself up to the standards of the elite, which makes sense given the context Fritz Lang has; post WWI Germany. After the war, Germany had a period of insane hyperinflation (in November of 1923 one US dollar was the equivalent of 4,210,500,000,000 marks) that caused the workers to go on strike. At least it would be straightforward if the eccentric inventor Rotwang (Rudolf Klein-Rogge) hadn't built a robot of Joh's dead wife for reasons more paper thin than the movie's metaphors. Honestly, if that robot wasn't eventually played by Brigette (as part of a pretty half-baked plan to destroy Metropolis) I would not be able to accept its presence. Watching Robo-Maria dance and flail around is about as thrilling as it gets.
     Overall, Metropolis wants its audience to know the importance of emotion in society, which is fairly standard for German expressionism. Let's say though for some reason you didn't get that. Perhaps you missed the quote at the movie's start, “THE MEDIATOR OF THE HEAD AND HANDS MUST BE THE HEART”. Maybe you also missed each time this was repeated, like when Maria in a beam of grossly symbolic light called Freder the mediator. Or the entire speech about the tower of Babel. Chances are though, unless you were asleep (not out of the question for a two and a half hour movie), you didn't miss it. How could you? Even the illiterate could figure it out as our protagonist is constantly clutching his chest as if he's in the midst of a heart attack (which would admittedly be more exciting).
     It's incredibly difficult for a modern viewer to like Metropolis. Every plot point that, back then, would have been a riveting twist, today, is just another kick to a very dead horse. The camera work is nothing special and is mostly stationary apart from a few "artistic" shots that feel almost out of place. However, this is where the audience can forgive Fritz Lang because Metropolis, for all its downfalls, pioneered a genre. It's predictably stems from its influence on movies today. That doesn’t necessarily mean that the writing isn’t terrible. The compulsive need to walk the audience through any sort of abstract concept is not a great technique to use, well, ever. Overall, Metropolis may not be a great movie, but it is a classic, and that is worth appreciating.