METROPOLIS (1926) A Film Review by Ted Prigge Copyright 1997 Ted Prigge
Director: Fritz Lang Writer: Fritz Lang (from the novel by Thea von Harbou) Starring: Alfred Abel, Brigitte Helm, Gustav Fröhlich, Rudolf Klein-Rogge
Before Orwell wrote "1984," before Aldous Huxley wrote "Brave New World," and way before Ridley Scott directed "Blade Runner," German director created "Metropolis," one of the oldest films to deal with the future as bleak, if not the first. "Metropolis" is one of the few films that is deemed a classic, and is also brilliant besides that. And even if it was silent, and extremely old, I was never bored.
"Metropolis" is a world in the far future (maybe 21st century) where the rich and elite live above ground, while the workers slave underneath the city with horrible conditions. The king of Metropolis is the fascist and selfish John Frederson (Alfred Abel), who has no love for the workers, even if they are basically running his life. He's so feared and respected that when he fires a worker, the worker tries to shoot himself.
One day, his son, Freder (Gustav Fröhlich), is hanging around in his Pleasure Garden with some people, and a mysterious woman enters - Maria (Brigitte Helm) - with a bunch of kids, who are the children of the workers. She causes him to actually take a peak at the workers and their environment, and he unfortunately witnesses a horrific accident, which claims the lives of some of the workers. From that point on, he has total sympathy for the workers, and will try his best to be their futuristic Moses.
Meanwhile, John has met with the twisted scientist/inventor Rotwang (Rudolf Klein-Rogge), who lives and works in a bizarre little wooden house in the midst of the giant city. It turns out Rotwang has invented a robot who can do everything the workers do, only better, thus rendering the workers obsolete and expendable. But as the two learn about the rebellious workers, John decides to try and make the robot look just like that of Maria, who is the rebel's official or unofficial leader and philosopher.
Thus begins a masterpiece of a film which satirizes the class system, slavery, and even unions. Besides that, it's also just one hip little flick. The world that it creates is totally memorble, even if it has been ripped off in hundreds of films. One of the many amazing things about this flick is how innovative it is. The special effects are surprisingly good for a film made in 1926, with a couple realistic-looking explosions, a robot that moves believably, and a set which looks absolutely stunning (with buildings reaching up as far as the eye can see, although the flying cars are just usual planes).
I was going to rent this once, but found it was only available in video stores under the 1984 re-release. Let me explain why you shouldn't rent this (even though I haven't): it includes some extra scenes not put together by the director (Fritz Lang, who would go on to direct that serial killer classic, "M"), a tinted frame and some coloring instead of the gorgeous black and white photography, and a musical score by...Pat Benatar, Loverboy, and Queen, among others. I don't know about you, but this just causes me to cringe up, and even though I could just turn the volume down, it would still be tinted and all messed up. So I settled for paying 5 bucks for a pre-recorded crap copy by "Hollywood Gold," which distributes old films in "highest quality EP mode," which is pretty much an oxymoron, but sometimes it's the only way one can see classic pictures without seeing them all screwed up. This is the only acceptable way to see this film, until a better non-Queen version comes out.
At the end, we are left with just pure satisfaction. We've gotten a wonderfully crafted satire, all wrapped around with awesome visuals and great effects. Some stuff that sticks in one's mind is: the workers being ferried off to work; the first big explosion; Rotwang showing off his robot invention for the first time; the giant riot towards the end; and the witch-burning scene; among several others. Even if this weren't a powerful narrative, it'd still be cool to watch.
"Metropolis" is one of the most innovative and amazing films I've really ever seen, and shows that old sci-fi doesn't have to include a dumb story and bad special effects. "Metropolis" is a film about ideas, and it incorporates the cool special effects not only without taking from the story, but actually adding to it. If you're a fan of anything futuristic, I would recommend you check out this absolutely brilliant masterpiece.
MY RATING (out of 4): ****
Homepage at: http://www.geocities.com/Hollywood/Hills/8335/
The review above was posted to the
rec.arts.movies.reviews newsgroup (de.rec.film.kritiken for German reviews).
The Internet Movie Database accepts no responsibility for the contents of the
review and has no editorial control. Unless stated otherwise, the copyright
belongs to the author.
Please direct comments/criticisms of the review to relevant newsgroups.
Broken URLs inthe reviews are the responsibility of the author.
The formatting of the review is likely to differ from the original due
to ASCII to HTML conversion.
Related links: index of all rec.arts.movies.reviews reviews