...And now our feature presentation
Run Time: 93 minutes
Abysmal. Complete trash-- bad acting, writing, cinematography,
etc.
Bomb. One or two redeeming qualities, but inferior overall.
Average. Not outstanding in most respects, but worth checking
out.
I
had a ball. Solid acting, writing, cinematography, etc. Superior in many
respects.
Excellent.
A true classic. Few, if any, flaws.
First the story. The story itself is fairly straightforward. Society is arranged vertically with the working stiffs dwelling below the city manning the massive machines which run the city above. Above ground lives the city's fathers. These are the capitalists who lead lives of luxury born of the work of the bottom dwellers. Jon Frederson is "the" capitalist in this story. He learns that his son, Freder, somehow got into the belly of the city and witnessed a great explosion which, quite literally, gobbled up many workers. Distraught that his son was allowed down into the pits of the city, he forbids him from ever going back down there. Freder disobeys and forms an alliance with Maria, the voice of reason and conscience and the voice of the workers. Frederson learns what his son is doing and decides to put an end to the perceived danger by having evil scientist, Rotwang, make an evil double of Maria to inspire revolution which could then be squashed and order restored. The rebellion nearly wipes out the workers' world and threatens the entire city. It is at this point that the real Maria convinces Frederson that it the capitalists need to work with the workers and everybody will benefit.
As I stated, the story is fairly straightforward. However, the telling of the story is not very straightforward. Rather, we are presented with a multitude of images which are often confusing and at times seemingly meaningless. However, these images are visually very powerful. If you watch Metropolis, you will never forget the scene of the great machine devouring the workers or the scene dealing with the Tower of Babble or the scene in which the Grim Reaper and the Seven Deadly Sins come to life or the scene in which the evil Maria is transformed from mere machine to pure clone or many other scenes. If you will simply remember the story and enjoy the visual aspects of the movies for their sheer power, you should find that not all foreign films are weird and incomprehensible.
Some readers will pass out at the suggestion of not trying to find deeper meaning within the film than the surface story. They will say that I have raped the film. Well, guess what, that's probably true. However, I believe the casual movie watcher would rather not try to, or feel he or she has to, dig too deeply to enjoy the film. And guess what again, you do not have to dig too deeply to enjoy the film. Are there sub themes which pervade this film? Yup, and you can watch it a hundred times and come up with new themes every time.
I found the film to be very technophobic in nature. Machines gobble up people and enslave them. Lose absolute concentration on your task, and the machines will blow up and cause wide-spread death. This fear of advancing technology is also seen in the ability of a person with evil motive to duplicate a human being to wreak havoc on a population. In both of these instances the people are not in control of the technology; it is the technology which controls the people. In the end, both sides realize that it is cooperation which best ensures that destruction from technology will not happen again.
Is this a communist film? This is another sub-theme that people love to dwell on. Some say, "Sure it is. It's a clear condemnation of the capitalist class and a call to revolution." Others say, "No. The revolution is inspired by trickery and ultimately fails." I think that the film is very liberal in the way it approaches the subject of labor and management, but I agree with those who say that this is not a Communist plot film. Not only does the revolution fail, but the film almost begs workers and management to work together to avoid a revolution.
There are lost of other themes,
but I will not dwell upon those. I have briefly spoken about the themes
that most interest me. That's enough for my purposes. If you want to discuss
other aspects, e-mail me and I will post it. With all that said, I rate
this film
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