Metropolis

Fritz Lang’s masterpiece looks as audacious and visionary today as it did when it was first released in 1927. The technological, rigidly divided city, whose higher level elite class enjoyed unimaginable pleasures while being sustained by the oppressed underground workers, has influenced several of Hollywood’s famous films in the last decades. Metropolis can be seen in the depiction of Los Angeles in Blade Runner (1982); in the New York seen in The Fifth Element (1997); in Batman (1989) and in some of the Star Wars movies.

Inspired by New York City’s skyscrapers, Lang envisioned a divided city in year 2026, where the priviledged, wealthy class (the thinkers) lived high above the earth while the poor, oppressed workers lived underground, maintaining the giant machines that sustained the lives of the elite but with no idea that this was the purpose of their work. The story explores the importance of thinkers and doers joining forces for the greater good, as explained in the film’s tagline: “There can be no understanding between the hands and the brain, unless the heart acts as mediator”.

The story tells how Freder, the city dictator’s son, becomes infatuated with the workers’ rebel leader, Maria and, visiting the underground level to see her, is shocked by the elite’s treatment of the workers. The dictator captures Maria and has a robot made in her image, which he intends to use to control the masses. The robot, however, becomes an exotic dancer and ends up causing riots. In the end, Freder acts as a mediator between the two classes and peace is restored.

Lang hired 26,000 extras to achieve his dream, making Metropolis the most expensive silent film of its time. Hitler was so impressed, he wanted to hire Lang to be put in charge of Nazi photography but Lang fled to Hollywood.