(10/06/10) Metropolis

“Metropolis”, Fritz Lang’s masterpiece of silent film continues to stand as both a Michelangelo’s David of film art and the masterful German expressionist forefather to the science fiction genre. The film has stood eternal because its social commentary covered a subject that has been of such fierce debate and has divided the west since the European Enlightenment period, up through the 20th century and even today. It did this as well as establish the archetypes that define the genre of science fiction itself. In essence, Metropolis is the genre. In “Metropolis”, Fritz Lang uses a future world revamping of the biblical story of the Tower of Babel as a stage for commentary on the struggle in the capitalist west between the laborers and the administrators. On a dystopian canvas, Fritz Lang presents the city of Metropolis, constructed by the master architect Joh Frederson who has constructed shining skyscrapers rising up to the heavens (the tallest and most impressive of which being the New Tower of Babel) and below this utopia, the labor class lives in the miles of plumbing, electrical, and municipal networks, the have-nots working brutal ten-hour shifts to preserve the haves.
The film is about this clash between the haves and the have-nots as well as the wonder and danger of artificial intelligence, and tying in with the biblical referencing of the Tower of Babel, both the story of Moses as a deliverer of his people and the Book of Revelations. Here the son of Joh Frederson acts as the Moses figure, the one that the good Mary continues to tell the labor class will act as the “mediator between head and heart”. Like Moses from the Bible, he comes into the world of the people from his place amongst the elite class as a young adult and becomes attached to their plight. The artificial intelligence and its creator Rotwang are representative of the Devil (the creator) and in the A.I. we see both the Anti-Christ and the Whore of Babylon. While Fritz Lang’s imagery to convey this is sometimes more blatant than subtle, it is no less potent. In the Yoshiwara pleasure district of the city, the A.I. presents herself as an erotic dancer atop an image of the beast from the Book of Revelation. While doing this, she also is actively seeking to bring down Joh Frederson and his son by bringing the people of the depths to revolt. Much of the film is in it’s imagery. Particularly in the day dreams of Frederson’s son, we see both well crafted execution of this imagery and potent poetic imagery itself. When the disaster happens at the heart machine, Frederson’s son witnesses the deaths of several workers. As this happens he is knocked back and sees the machine resemble a Moloch. This poetic metaphor that Fritz Lang makes between industry and the Moloch, a beast demanding high sacrifice, is executed brilliantly in the ripple effect which seamlessly transitions from the machine to an image of a sphinx-like creature with a gaping mouth of fire; all to suggest the director’s belief of the sometimes high price we pay for industry and progress and the unprotected status of a worker in such a dangerous job.
The execution of the special effects employed in “Metropolis” are way ahead of their time and are further support to my firm belief that CGI is not essential to good cinema but that by a minimalist approach to it and by using it as an auxiliary to the types of effects used in the pre-digital era of cinema, such as models and creative camera tricks like those employed in Metropolis, we can create a sense of realism that does not detract from the important aspects of the film: it’s plot, symbolism, imagery, dialog, shots, etc. What Metropolis did with its shot of the mob running across the same bridge that earlier in the film was seen with tiny model cars moving across it in the morning traffic, directors like George Lucas and James Cameron created decades later with “Star Wars” and “Titanic”. Both of which replied on models and only one of which employed green screen, but only for the purpose of placing his actors on the models.