Joy and I watched “Metropolis” (1927) tonight. I do have to admit that it was a fairly strange movie, but I also enjoyed it quite a bit. The plot was pretty mind-boggling and didn’t always make logical sense, but some of the scenes were simply fantastic. As examples, I would point out the scene with Freder operating the clock machine, the scene where Rotwang the inventor transforms the robot to look like Maria (if that’s the first mad scientist depiction in film, it has since been copied countless times), the scene where the robot Maria incites the workers to destroy the machines, and the scene with the robot Maria laughing maniacally as she is burned at the stake.
It’s pretty amazing to me how a movie made almost 80 years ago so clearly captures several aspects of our modern world. One thing that stands out is the division between the rich and the poor and how neither group really understands the lives of the other group. In addition, the film highlights the fact that the rich basically make the poor invisible (by where they choose to live, travel, etc.) so that they don’t even have to think about them. The film also manages to capture the futility that many people seem to find in their work.
I’m not entirely sure what the director was going for with the religious imagery and Biblical allusions. However, despite the fact that most of the Biblical quotes come from Revelation, I think the robot Maria pretty accurately portrays how the book of Proverbs describes lady Folly, which I thought was interesting.
Okay, this is one of the oddest, weirdest and craziest movies that I have seen in a long time! I even stayed awake for the whole movie and I still got lost a time or two. It was odd that there was a good portion of the movie missing but yet it was nice as it helped move the weird movie along. All the stuff that you mentioned is very true and it is interesting that the movie is so old but yet advanced for the time. It is just really hard to get over the weirdness of the film!
Comment by joy — February 2, 2006 @ 2:14 pm
Wow! “the rich make the poor invisible so they don’t even have to think about them.” I’ve never heard it put exactly like this but it is so true. I love this statement. And, I also never really thought about it working two ways - the poor not understanding the rich! You have given me something to think about.
You both probably would have had to explain the movie to me. I glad to get the review instead.
Comment by Mama-Granny — February 4, 2006 @ 9:37 am