Director: Fritz Lang
Writer: Thea von Harbou (Screenplay)
Starring: Brigitte Helm, Alfred Abel, Gustav Frohlich, Rudolf Klein-Rogge, Fritz Rasp, Theordo Loos, Erwin Biswanger, Heinrich George
Plot: In a futuristic city sharply divided between the working class and the city planners, the son of the city’s mastermind falls in love with a working class prophet who predicts the coming of a savior to mediate their differences.
There may be spoilers the rest of the review
Verdict: Influential Classic
Story: Metropolis starts in a utopian world of future where Joh Fredersen (Abel) lives in the world created by his father (Frohlich). When Joh meets the beautiful Maria (Helm) he learns more about what makes this perfect world work, the machine that keeps everything operational, below the city operated by slaves.
Desperate to find Maria, Joh goes into the underworld to discover the working conditions of the slaves. Learning of life behind the curtain, Joh wants to bring down the operation, creating an equal world for all but his father does everything to stop this happening. The revolution has begun will this ideal get through to the rich.
Thoughts on Metropolis
Characters/Performance – Joh is the perfect example of a rich child who has had their world clouded over to protect them from the horrifying truth of the world they live in, he is good at heart and nothing like his father. The father figure is the creator and operator of this cruel world, he doesn’t want his son to know the truth but can’t control his curiosity. Maria is the one that could change everything for Joh and helps leads the revolution showing us that we could easily have a female lead even back in 1927.
Performances are all brilliant throughout from everybody involved in the film.
Story – The story plays into the idea of a future where society is separated, I liked how this was portrayed in the story and I liked how the revolution worked on making a change which would have reflected the human problems the world was facing at the time of this movie being made.
Sci-Fi – The vision of the future is amazing for the time showing how they imagined the future to look like.
Settings – The settings are also amazing truly showing us the different in class the people would be stuck in.
Special Effects – Special effects side of this is also a wow, what this film achieved for the time is breath taking.
Final Thoughts – This is a truly amazing achievement in film making, it has brilliant special effects, settings and visual effects. This has clearly helped guide film making process.
Overall: This will be a classic in film making forever but it isn’t an easy watch for the casual film fan.
Rating
