Science fiction films usually don’t age well. This is partly because of time and inevitable comparisons with later works reveal their technological limitations and partly because predictions of future tend to be incorrect. Only few science fiction films can withstand the test of time and one of the most spectacular and the oldest examples is Metropolis, 1927 German silent film directed by Fritz Lang, which is often considered to be the best piece of science fiction cinema made in the silent era.
The film is based on the eponymous novel by Lang’s then-wife Thea von Harbou who also wrote the script. The plot is set roughly a hundred years in the future (at the start of 21st Century) and takes place in huge city, which is controlled by business magnates like city’s founder and “master” Joh Fredersen (played by Alfred Abel). The city’s elite lives in huge skyscrapers and, like Fredersen’s son Freder (played by Gustav Fröhlich), are having fun with sports and ladies in pleasure garden. One day such garden is visited by beautiful woman Maria (played by Brigitte Helm) who has brought children from subterranean workers’ city to see how their “brothers” live. Maria is ushered out, but Freder is intrigued and decides to go underground to see how workers really live. He is appalled by terrible working conditions and decides to help them. He also learns that Maria is something of a spiritual guide to workers, preaching the arrival of “mediator” between ruling and working class. In the meantime, Joh Fredersen isn’t happy with his son’s activities and get concerned with Maria’s popularity. His old friend and eccentric inventor Rotwang (played by Rudolf Klein-Rogge) has built human-like robot called “Machine-Man” and, after he abducts Maria, he makes the robot look like her. False “Maria” is released and begins creating chaos both among city’s elites and among workers whom she tries to stir to rebel and destroy their machines.
Made in time when German cinema industry was most vibrant and giving Hollywood a run for its money, Metropolis was incredibly ambitious project. It had budget of 5.3 million Reichsmark and it nearly got grand UFA studio bankrupt. In a way, project of such scope was unusual mix of the past, represented in Expressionist style and Gothic production designs that appear in certain scenes, and the future imagined by Fritz Lang following his visit to America few years ago, when he got impressed by Manhattan skyline. Grand scale of the futuristic city is brought to the screen through gigantic sets, tens of thousands of extras and the miniatures. Furthermore, Metropolis features some of the special effects that were quite innovative for its time and some of them are impressive even today. They are now known as “Schüfftan process”, named after Eugen Schüfftan, Lang’s special effects supervisors who devised the simple technique with which the actors are superimposed on miniature sets with the help of mirrors. Another great example of film magic is the scene in which “Machine-Man” transforms into false Maria which was quite impressive for its time and which is even now subject of speculations and alternative explanation how the illusion was achieved.
While Metropolis has undoubtedly strong visuals, the plot is significantly less impressive. Simple story about class struggle in futuristic metropolis had to be padded with extra material in von Harbou’s script. Von Harbou added elements of thriller, best represented in the scenes in which Freder is being spied on by sinister-looking Thin Man, his father’s “fixer” (played by Fritz Rasp). She also added elements of melodrama, most notably in case of Rotwang who got some very personal motives to create “false Maria”. The script also has many references to Christianity, which could be understood in the context Weimar Germany’s fear of Communism; Lang and von Harbou had good reasons to make their depiction of workers’ revolt as different from Bolshevik revolution as possible. This is also the reason why Metropolis actually preaches class harmony instead of class struggle, which is explicitly stated by Maria and implicitly suggested by happy ending.
Metropolis was a popular film and impressed contemporary audiences quite a bit, but enormous budget meant that the producers barely got even. Critics weren’t particularly enthusiastic, including famous science fiction author H. G. Wells who called the film “silly”. On the other hand, Hitler and Goebbels were quite impressed and this later led to unconfirmed story about Nazis offering Lang to make films for them after coming to power few years later. Lang himself wasn’t very pleased with film, but this could be explained with collapse of marriage with von Harbou. Critics and film historians in later decades had much more favourable opinion of Metropolis. This was due to Lang’s film proving to be enormously influential – starting with character of Rotwang serving as template for Mad Scientist archetype in countless science fiction and horror films (like Frankenstein few years later or Dr. Strangelove).
Like many great films of the silent era, Metropolis was subject of numerous cuts and Lang’s original version is not available. For decades, almost quarter of film was missing. There were various attempts of restoration, including controversial 1984 version with soundtrack composed by Giorgio Moroder. The closest we came to Lang’s original version is 2010 restoration, based on material discovered in Argentina. This version, which added 25 minutes, also uses original 1927 soundtrack by Gottfried Huppertz.
RATING: 8/10 (+++)
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