{"id":1831,"date":"2009-01-03T05:03:03","date_gmt":"2009-01-03T12:03:03","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/studentfilmreviews.org\/?p=1831"},"modified":"2009-01-03T09:34:03","modified_gmt":"2009-01-03T17:34:03","slug":"metropolis-fritz-lang-1927-germany","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/studentfilmreviews.org\/?p=1831","title":{"rendered":"Metropolis (Fritz Lang, 1927): Germany"},"content":{"rendered":"

Reviewed by William Conlin<\/a>. Viewed on DVD.<\/p>\n

\"\" Science Fiction is a very timely genre. When a Sci-Fi film is released it has, at most, a couple of years before the genre has changed and the film looks corny or outdated. <\/p>\n

However, there are a few Sci-Fi films that transcend the years and leave us in awe, no matter how much the filmmaking process has progressed. Films like Star Wars, 2001: A Space Odyssey,<\/em> and The Matrix<\/em> to name a few, are looked at as titans of their respective eras in Sci-Fi filmmaking. Indeed, one of the first major motion pictures ever made was Sci-Fi. George Melies\u2019 Le Voyage Dans La Lune<\/em> thrilled audiences right at the turn of the century, but for a long period after, the genre didn\u2019t seem to survive. <\/p>\n

In 1927, critically acclaimed German director Fritz Lang and his wife Thea von Harbou set out to make an epic fable set a century away from them. Although Metropolis<\/a><\/em> wasn\u2019t a commercial or critical success at the time of it\u2019s release, since then it has become a profound example of how a glorious film can be made no matter what the technology available is.<\/p>\n

Set in the year 2026, the citizens of Joh Fredersen\u2019s (Alfred Abel) Metropolis are divided into two divisions, workers who toil underground and intellectuals who live in luxurious skyscrapers above ground. Joh controls every aspect of the city and is prone to firing people for their incompetence. It seems the only thing Joh cares about outside of his work is his son Freder (Gustav Fr\u00f6hlich). One day, Freder ventures into the underground world of Metropolis. After witnessing a terrifying industrial accident, he falls in love with a beautiful young evangelist named Maria (Brigitte Helm). Maria appears to be the only force stopping the workers from revolting but when Joh discovers her, he decides to eliminate her. With the help of an ex-advisor turned mad scientist (Rudolf Klein-Rogge), a robot is created with her likeness and the city falls into panic. With a mob of workers destroying the city\u2019s foundation, Freder is the only person who can stop the violence and unite the \u201chands and the heads\u201d of Metropolis.<\/p>\n

The first thing that must be looked at with Metropolis<\/em> is the incredible use of special effects. Designer Eugen Sch\u00fcfftan\u2019s miniatures have a quality that surpasses films made well into the 1970\u2019s. By using the Sch\u00fcfftan process (named after him), live action was easily blended into the matte paintings and miniatures. One of my favorite scenes in the film is when the worker\u2019s elevator first comes upon the underground city. Additionally, the still-unnerving design of the \u201cMachine Man\u201d is one of the first examples of robots on film and the laboratory set where it was created became a standard for the genre (even inspiring the set for Frankenstein<\/em>).<\/p>\n

There is no complete print of Metropolis<\/em> known to be left in existence. In 2002, Kino released a DVD with a restored cut made from multiple prints that were remastered by the F.W. Murnau Foundation. I highly recommend this version not only for the quality of the print, but because special title cards have been inserted to help explain the gaps in the film. If you don\u2019t plan on seeing this film any time soon, I suggest you wait until Kino releases the Blu-Ray Edition (hopefully this year). Last year about 25 minutes of \u201clost footage\u201d was recovered and is currently being remastered for this edition. It will be the first time since 1927 that the footage is viewed by the public. With the promise of additional footage and better restoration technology, 82 years after its release Metropolis<\/em> continues to get better with every viewing.<\/p>\n

Metropolis<\/em> is not only one of my favorite Sci-Fi films, it\u2019s one of my favorites in general. I like to look at it from the filmmaking perspective and think \u201cit\u2019s good to know that a film like this can be made in any era\u201d and I like to look at it from the human angle and think \u201cI am so glad that we are nearing the time frame of this film and we haven\u2019t proven our ancestors correct.\u201d I felt this was an appropriate film to watch as we look forward into this New Year and all the promises it has. I hope that in 2009, we can all find the “mediator” in ourselves and let the \u201chead and the hand\u201d, as the film calls them, live in peace.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Reviewed by William Conlin. Viewed on DVD. Science Fiction is a very timely genre. When a Sci-Fi film is released it has, at most, a couple of years before the genre has changed and the film looks corny or outdated. However, there are a few Sci-Fi films that transcend the years and leave us in […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":59,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[67,3,79],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1831","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-dvd","category-films","category-silent-films"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/studentfilmreviews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1831","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/studentfilmreviews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/studentfilmreviews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/studentfilmreviews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/59"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/studentfilmreviews.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1831"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/studentfilmreviews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1831\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/studentfilmreviews.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1831"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/studentfilmreviews.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1831"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/studentfilmreviews.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1831"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}