Metropolis

So, today I'm talking about a movie I always wanted to talk about, it's called Metropolis, directed by Fritz Lang in 1927, Germany.

I should talk about the analysis of the movie, by describing the setting, the people and what this movie is about.

The setting of this movie is a mechanised, ordered and controlled world by the upper class, the government, the rich people. They create the impression of slavery and imprisonment. We can see the lower class going down to the Earth's surface so they can work and take their shifts. We know they're going down because all the workers get into a really big lift and then go deep in the Earth so they can work. It is considered slavery as we can see they all walk on a choreographed and synchronised manner, organised like soldiers but more shuffling and slower.

It makes me really think that we're not far from what Lang is showing us in Metropolis. We all work for one head and we may not be as sad and shuffling as them, but not all of us are happy on what we do for a living. Fritz Lang represents all workers as a small image to upper class' eyes.

We can see the lighting is effective as we can appreciate the real situation in which they are represented. And it can be as symbolic as they take their shifts under the Earth's surface.

And now, unlike the lower part of the world, we can see in the next opening scene the upper world, the rich ones. There is this man whose name is Freder, spoiled by his father, Joh Fredersen, and he is playing with some girls because he is just looking for having fun and have a good time. They are located in a really nice garden his father created for him so he could do anything and have fun.

By appreciating the contrast in which these two opening scenes take place we can know who is happy, who is not, who is rich, who is poor, who is "free" and who is imprisoned. We can also know Freder is playing with those girls, so their movements are free, simple and fun, unlike the workers who look like shuffling soldiers.

Making such a great contrast creates a really strong relation between the two of them by saying the workers are being mistreated and manipulated by the upper class, and they get all the dirty job meanwhile the wealthy people have fun and live their lives to the fullest.

So, the main characters are, as I said before, Freder, son of Joh Fredersen, and The Creative Man, who is a woman Freder falls in love with. But other main characters appear in the rest of the movie, as I'm only talking about the first two opening scenes.

Freder represents the upper class and The Creative Man represents the working class as she comes into Freder's garden with a group of kids with her and said "These are your brothers!", meaning worker class should live a life as worthy and decent as the upper class.

We can see that Metropolis is a movie about a completely different world with completely different characteristics, but it's as equally unfair and capitalist as our world.