Metropolis

Fritz Lang’s Metropolis was filmed in Germany in 1926. It is a dystopian film portraying a horribly polarized future society where the working class is made to toil endlessly, in stark contrast to the ruling class, i.e. the upper class, who live the life of luxury, high up in towers, looking down on the overpopulated city below. The idea of a futuristic dystopian society was nothing new in the 1920s. What dazzled the cinema going population of the time were the futuristic methods employed by Lang. In this essay I intend to examine whether the secret to Metropolis’ great success is to be found in its modern filming style or in the actual content. First, however, I believe that it is important to examine the life and inspirations of Fritz Lang.

Lang was born in Vienna in 1890 and was half Catholic and half Jewish. Having fought in the First World War, Lang was forced to leave Germany in 1933 following the Nazis rise to power, fleeing to Paris and then Hollywood, where he continued his work. Lang is generally viewed as the most important film maker of the Expressionist er

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Other genres existed, but Expressionism is the best received to this day. I believe that the fact that the Nazis were willing to overlook Lang’s Jewish blood shows how powerful and influential he was. No matter how brilliant Fritz Lang’s use of the camera may have been, it is impossible to convey everything visually that one can audibly. His invention of robots to replace the workers means that life for the minority in the Upper Class will become more efficient, yet millions of human lives will be lost in the process. Although traditional science fiction writers such as Wells despised the story of Metropolis, no-one could argue that the special effects weren’t breathtaking. This is how he envisaged a perfect Germany. He simply felt that great care had to be taken that it did not go unchecked.

Despite the content of Lang’s film allowing him to demonstrate his pessimistic feelings about the future, what stands out most from Metropolis is the ingenuity of Lang’s camera work. Hitler asked Lang to make propaganda films for the Nazis, hypocritically choosing to ignore the fact that Lang was half Jewish.

• The German Cinema Book: Tim Bergfelder, Erica Carter and Deniz Goetuerk. This may have been to keep costs down. They worked hard for little reward and the Upper Class did little work for large amounts of money. This was all done at the UFA (Universum-Film-Aktiengesellschaft) in Berlin. On the other hand, sound would make the actual plot easier to follow. What makes Metropolis the celebrated piece of work that it is, is the fact that in making it, Lang pioneered new methods of film making.

Common topics in this essay:
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Approximate Word count = 2228
Approximate Pages = 9 (250 words per page double spaced)

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