Every science fiction is a refection to the reality in the society. It indicates the problems of the society with a future-science background. In metropolis, the contradiction between the different classes in society is the problem. In Metropolis, steam powered technology divide the whole society into two extremes. The spectacular city in Metropolis is one extremes. The skyscrapers and viaducts stands for the achievement of that society. On the other hand, the rotating gears powered by hot steams are the foundations of the city, which need a lot of backbreaking labor to maintain functioning. Thus the labors who keeps the city running is the other extreme. The labors in this movie are literally the components of the steam machines. With backbreaking labor, their movement becomes stiff and unified. The same clothing and compressed underground working environment give me an illusion of prison or Nazi concentration camp. I see no humanity, creativity and self awareness in them. Although, there is no color filming available when this movie is filmed, the black white images reinforce the impression of the compressed environment, which leads to huge comparison to the city landscape.
I looked up some history about the society when this movie is made. Germany lost the World War I in 1918. Several years later, Nazi party was found and quickly rase to power at about 1925. Then this film was published at 1927. Two years late, the Great Depression took place in 1929, spreading out America and Europe. There were also series of strikes took place worldwide after World War I. Few years later, the World War II was initialized by Nazi Germany at about 1939.
After connecting all these together, there is no doubt that this movie is a reflection of the Germany after World War I. This movie becomes a prophecy. As the very first Si-Fi, Metropolis is probably not a good movie in telling the future about science, but surly it addressed the problem and suffering in the society. As far as I am concerned, the problem is caused by the unbalance between the development of technology and the development of society. With developed technology, we can build the best houses and the best cities. But without an appropriate setup of the society, we cannot decide who should lives in these houses and cities. Caused by this unbalance, the society will certainly fall into chaos.
The separation between the social classes, I believe, is the main aspect that drives the plot if this film. What I found very interesting is the magnitude of shock that was portrayed by the upper class when Maria brought the children up from the underground so that they could see their "brothers and sisters," they were stricken with sheer shock and awe. It was as if the two social classes were aware of each other, but that is all. There seems to be no actual interaction between them whatsoever making me wonder how the division was instated to begin with; was it part of some master plan presented by "the master of metropolis" or was it possibly some residual left over from war..? In any case, it did ironically somewhat prophesies the near future that Germany was headed for...
The separation between the social classes, I believe, is the main aspect that drives the plot if this film. What I found very interesting is the magnitude of shock that was portrayed by the upper class when Maria brought the children up from the underground so that they could see their "brothers and sisters," they were stricken with sheer shock and awe. It was as if the two social classes were aware of each other, but that is all. There seems to be no actual interaction between them whatsoever making me wonder how the division was instated to begin with; was it part of some master plan presented by "the master of metropolis" or was it possibly some residual left over from war..? In any case, it did ironically somewhat prophesies the near future that Germany was headed for...
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