#41 Metropolis: We shall build a tower that will reach to the stars
1927. dir. Fritz Lang, starring Alfred Abel, Gustav Fröhlich, Brigitte Helm.
Seen it before? No.
Great political message...amazing creation of setting - a pretty realistic looking future city considering 1927. Life imitates art imitates life...The wealthy control everything. The workers are treated poorly. A voice (Maria) of reason and conscience finally tries to do something to make things better for the poor...and a mad scientist has to go and build a crazy (but eerily similar looking) robot to undo the good...
Unfortunately this movie is why I can't believe that people actually went to the movies when there were no sounds...Now, don't get me wrong...I was thoroughly surprised by Charlie Chaplin's The Kid and even Buster Keaton's The General was OK...but this "restored" copy of the film was not very well restored (in my humble opinion) and it irritated me that there was clearly more dialogue than was written on the black cards inserted throughout the film.
Would I watch it again? Only if they restore it further
Would I own it? Nah, not my thing.
Showing posts with label Metropolis. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Metropolis. Show all posts
Wednesday, February 3, 2010
Sunday, January 31, 2010
#41 Metropolis: We shall build a tower that will reach to the stars
1927. dir. Fritz Lang, starring Alfred Abel, Gustav Fröhlich, Brigitte Helm.
Seen it before? No.
One of the earliest and most influential sci-fi movies. Oh and apparently one of Hitler's favorite movies, but don't let that influence you. It's the far-off future year of 2026, in a grand city called Metropolis. At the top, literally, are the rich people. Below them are the machines that keep the city running, and below that is the worker's city. The workers are basically kept like slaves, and worked to the point of exhaustion in unsafe conditions. The son of the leader of the city ventures down below to visit the workers, and is appalled at their treatment.
Meanwhile, there is a woman, Maria, who seems to be inciting some sort of resistance. The leader of the city catches wind of it and tasks his mad-scientist employee with creating a robot duplicate of her to act as an agent provocateur and undermine the resistance. The plan sort of backfires.
A lot of newer movies have been inspired by this, for example the futuristic L.A. and robot replicants of Blade Runner. The mad scientist has a robotic hand, just like Darth Vader, or Dr. Strangelove. The movie has a political message about the treatment of workers and industrialization, which they state pretty directly:
Position on the list: 95
Now that is a good idea: Metric Time. Some of the clocks have 10 hours instead of 12. That's brilliant. Why haven't we gone to metric time yet? It would be so much easier.
Seen it before? No.
One of the earliest and most influential sci-fi movies. Oh and apparently one of Hitler's favorite movies, but don't let that influence you. It's the far-off future year of 2026, in a grand city called Metropolis. At the top, literally, are the rich people. Below them are the machines that keep the city running, and below that is the worker's city. The workers are basically kept like slaves, and worked to the point of exhaustion in unsafe conditions. The son of the leader of the city ventures down below to visit the workers, and is appalled at their treatment.
Meanwhile, there is a woman, Maria, who seems to be inciting some sort of resistance. The leader of the city catches wind of it and tasks his mad-scientist employee with creating a robot duplicate of her to act as an agent provocateur and undermine the resistance. The plan sort of backfires.
A lot of newer movies have been inspired by this, for example the futuristic L.A. and robot replicants of Blade Runner. The mad scientist has a robotic hand, just like Darth Vader, or Dr. Strangelove. The movie has a political message about the treatment of workers and industrialization, which they state pretty directly:
There can be no understanding between the hand and the brain unless the heart acts as mediator.It's an interesting piece of history, unfortunately it is nearly unwatchable due to the poor quality of the film.
Position on the list: 95
Now that is a good idea: Metric Time. Some of the clocks have 10 hours instead of 12. That's brilliant. Why haven't we gone to metric time yet? It would be so much easier.
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