Metropolis [PG]

In the future, there is exists a mammoth city called Metropolis, ruled by John Fredersen. On the surface, the city is a utopian paradise where the rich and the beautiful live in amazing towers with extensive and exotic gardens. But underground, the workers are working themselves to death keeping the city going. Preaching patience and urging them to wait for a mediator, is the saintly Maria, who is kidnapped by the evil scientist Rotwang and kept prisoner whilst a robotic replica of her is set loose and encourages the workers to destroy the machines, and therefore themselves. Can this all be stopped before its too late? 

From what The Book has told me, this film was the first science fiction movie, originally German, and was a box-office disaster from the start. 

In the future, there exists a mammoth city called Metropolis, ruled by John Fredersen. On the surface, the city is a utopian paradise where the rich and beautiful live in amazing towers with extensive and exotic gardens. But when Fredersen’s son sneaks down to the machine rooms underground, he is shocked by what he discovers. Under the surface lives a sub-human race of workers who, day after day, work themselves almost to death to keep the machines running and Metropolis functioning smoothly. Soon, Fredersen’s son falls in love with the saintly Maria, who preaches peace and patience to the workers, urging them to not rebel, but wait for a “mediator”. Her teachings are interrupted, however, when the evil scientist Rotwang kidnaps her and holds her prisoner whilst a robotic replica is set loose amongst the workers and urges them to rebel and destroy all the machines, therefore themselves. Can the hero find the real Maria and stop all this before it’s too late? 

From the start, for me anyway, this film was incredibly hard to get into because it was a silent film, the picture was not as clear as I would have liked, and the only sound was the strange science-fiction soundtrack. I think what makes this film stand out in history, aside from the fact that scenes from it were used in the music video of Queen’s Radio Ga Ga, is the sheer size of the bleeding thing. 

This thing was monumental. And you have to remind yourself that there were no computer tricks or anything like that that the filmmakers could cheat with. There must have been thousands of extras, heaps of trick sets, as well as the real ones, and the amount of money that went into the entire production came to $2 million in the 1920s. Holy crap! 

All the performances were incredibly overacted, but fair play there really was no other way to get the drama and emotion across, I could not help myself from laughing. Starring Alfred Abel, Gustav Frohlich, Brigitte Helm, Rudolph Klein-Rogge, Fritz Rasp, Theodor Loos, and Heinrich George, Fritz Lang’s Metropolis was a very strange and somewhat creepy science fiction film filled with robots, religion, romance, and rebellion. An epic for its day, I’m glad that I’ve seen it, but I don’t think I’ll see it again thank you.