Metropolis (1927)

I was absent during the time we had to watch this film at uni. But in my defence,i've watched the movie independently with a help of a friend who had a book and helped me analyse it even more clearly.

Now i've seen enough black and white movies. Alot of them were fun. Just fun. But this movie is different. I feel so embarrassed that i haven't seen this movie earlier. This movie is just amazing! I don't even know where to start. So many points i want to analyse and point out! It's such a shame that most of the dialoge from the book wasn't in the film,and the fact that film had some missing scenes. But gah! So much to say! This story has so much of everything! Religion,steampunk,psychodelic effects and etc.



I'll go through character analysis first! I'll explain a bit later in in detail why i refer to these characters the way i do.

(As always,i hate using names,so i'll refer to them by their characteristics)

The Main Character is a charming man,with a childish heart that starts maturing with the suffering he will see later on and the hurting heart he will experience by following his rebellion against his father and by following his love for The Priest Girl. He is viewed in this story as the messiah or the image of Jesus.

The Priest Girl is the one that gathers all the poor souls that work really hard at the M-Computer. She tells them the bible legends and is giving them hope about the future by convincing them that the mediator (aka messiah) will appear and show them the light.

The main character also has a Father,the creator of Metropolis. He is a person with a cool and judging character. His main power is the control over the time for his workers and i'd also add that his other power is the flow of information. He could be viewed as "God" in this story. The wife of the Father is dead,but she holds a great vitality to the story.

There's also the crazy proffesor. He was The Father's rival for his wife. He could be viewed as Lucifer,due to the design surrounding him and his laboratory. Due to his obsession over The Father's dead wife,as the crazy person that is viewed as the person with the negative energy of the devil and who tries to fight the laws of this universe,he is trying to re-create The Wife.

Now the man-made "The Wife" in this story has many names. Main of which are Machine-man and Hel. Now why i'd like to talk about the real person as The Wife,is becasue,by the book,in the end of the story her Husband recieves an after death letter from her in which she tells him about her pledged love for for all enternity. While the robotic monstrosity that was made i would prefer being called either Hel,which sounds just like nature,which is Hell.

The Father first sees Hel frightened.

There are some minor characters,but let's not get in to that. I've got so much to write without thinking about small things.

I now shall analyse the story of this movie.

The movie itself is a wonderfully made creation of entertainment. The story goes as far as symbolising alot of stories from the bible,but ofcourse with a futuristic twist. As the fast that Metropolis by the story resembles the legend about the Babel Tower that The Priest girl tells her followers. Also,the part with her standing in front of everyone and telling about God and the light. That resembles,if memory still serves me well,a few lines from the Bible. The part where the main character stands on his knees,opening his arms,as in accepting everything. "I want to be in the light,as you are in the light" if i remember it correctly. Also,the mentioning about "Brothers",i believe came from the idea of everyone being God's children. The scenery with The Crazy Professor pointing light at The Priest Girl,i believe would come from the Professor shown as Lucifer,The Bringer of Light. That's in the last chase scene in the dungeon, he would be shown with a huge amount of light coming from him. The part with The Main Character suffering from the work he pulled on himself willingly would show him in the image of Jesus. Especially when he's tired and the clock that he was moving is shaped like a cross with him hangin' on to it. Hel's execution would be similiar to that of Zhanna d'Arc's,with her being shown as a witch. Also the whole design of Hel is already offering a satanic reference. Not just because of the gigantic symbol of Satan on the wall behind her. But as far as i've seen art related to satanism,in the modern culture,there's often seen a metallic bein' with female attributes. That kind of art could exampled by H.R.Giger. Also the scene,that wasn't shown,but The Father was fighting The Crazy Professor,who became "corrupt and has sinned against God",as the stories go,and he falls,losing in the battle.

The Main Character,hangin' to the clock.

An Example of H.R.Giger's work

There alot of such examples in this movie such as these,but i'll move on to the concept analysis of the movie.

And since not much was said about The Father before,i'll say it now. For what i have seen,he is basiclly shown for the most part from the profile view,from the right. Which would symbolise power and authority. Like on the coins in the old times of Greece. Also,this movie is done with alot of static style. The camera basiclly never moves. It changes frames,but never moves.But to balance that out,everything is show with strong emotional acting of the characters,that use wide moves to express what they're saying. It has a really deep theatrical style,the feeling of pain,happiness and such can be read very easily. The whole design of the city is splendid! It's show as a grand,tall and shining building heading towards the skies,which would refer Metropolis to the legend of Babel tower. Where the ending are shown in the same way. The dialogues are shown in basiclly three styles: where the person is talking and is show either from the side or the front,to concentrate all the attention on him,often with an extreme close up; where a person is shown diagonally,with the front to the camera,as the who is speaking,and the who is listening,diogonally with his back to the camera; and the third style is talking with alot of motion from around,for example chase scenes,wild riot scenes,party scenes and etc.

The Party scene,after the explosion.

Now let's talk about the music. Since this is a black and white film and all.

In some part,you remember the theme song for some parts,and when it appears,you can understand what's happening. I'm not gonna go too deep in to music,since my musical hearing is really low. But the most remembered part that i could recall,would be in the depths of the M-Computer. When they've already have blown it up,when Grot asks them about the children,everyone realises the horror they've done,and when the question "Who made you do this? Who told you to do this?" is asked,Hel's theme tune starts playin'. The control of the mood and the atmosphere through out the movie is splendid.

Even until now,i regret that the movie didn't have some of the great dialogues from the book,they would mix up so well with the music.


I think i should stop here,before i get too much in to it. I even kind of forgot of putting some quotes in there. It'd be hard now,so i hope you'll let this one time slip.



In overall 9.5/10