Plot Details: This opinion reveals major details about the movie''s plot.
“There can be no understanding between the hands and the brain unless the heart acts as mediator.”
This was the tagline and message of Fritz Lang’s 1927 masterpiece METROPOLIS. Lang wrote the screenplay in 1924 with his then-wife Thea von Harbou who later novelized it.
The story centers around a futuristic industrial city where society is separated into two very different classes. The rich and powerful live above ground in sprawling towers, full of light and glass, while the workers live in underground cities (far enough under the surface that they have high-rise buildings of their own). And between them, on the mid-level, are the machines that run the city. The workers spend their lives operating the machines while the rich spends theirs enjoying the fruits of the workers’ labor.
One of the most important of those rich is Freder, who’s father, Fredersen, runs the city. This is really the story of Freder’s journey, his growth from spoiled rich kid to revolutionary soldier for worker’s rights. Freder is enjoying his idyllic life in the pleasure gardens one afternoon when suddenly a woman appears, surrounded by children, and she tells Freder, “These are your brothers.” Intrigued and confused, Freder follows the woman--Maria--underground where he sees the conditions in which the workers must live.
When he confronts his father, he’s met with dismissal, so Freder decides to return to the underground. When he gets there, he sees one of the workers about to collapse, so Freder takes his place at the machine, soon calling out to his father that he never realized ten hours could be so long. During his shift, Freder is given information by one of the other workers that “she” is holding a meeting at the end of the shift. So Freder follows the other workers further down, into the catacombs, where he sees Maria again. She serves as the voice of the people, calming them, urging them not to revolt, that soon a mediator will arrive who can speak for them directly to their “masters”.
Freder’s father meanwhile has contacted an inventor who lives on the lower level, Rotwang (which is one of the most unfortunate names I’ve ever heard), who has constructed a robot, an army of which would be able to replace the human workers. The robots, Rotwang says, never make mistakes. During the exchange, Fredersen shows Rotwang a piece of paper that was found on a worker who had died earlier. Rotwang says it’s plans to the old catacombs, so they head into the tunnels to see what’s what. When they get there, they witness Maria’s rally. Fredersen tells Rotwang to make his robot look like Maria and instruct it to incite the mob into a revolt.
Now, on the surface, this may seem like a foolish idea, but when the plan succeeds and the mob set out to destroy the machines, what they really do is flood their city, with their children still in it.
Fortunately, Freder finds the real Maria and together they save the children and in the end, Freder fulfills his function as mediator between the ruling and working classes.
METROPOLIS really is a wonder to behold. It’s not so much the fact that it was such a grand production for 1927, but even today it’s quite a sight to behold. With 37,000 extras and a budget that, according to IMDB, translates to about $200 million today, Lang and company pulled out all the stops to make a movie that really would outlast all those involved.
The story is timeless. 80 years later, I see the same things in my own job every day, the same attitudes and problems. When one of the workers calls out, “Someone must stay with the machine,” I’m reminded of the people I work with, guys who’ve been there for 30+ years, some of them have never worked anywhere else and wouldn’t know what to do if the plant ever closed and they had to find a new job.
The performances were a bit over the top, especially Gustav Frohlic who played Freder. He has the mannerisms of a stage actor trying to make the switch to films. Alfred Abel, however, as Fredersen, gives a very subtle but effective performance as the man above it all. He’s poised and indifferent, dismissing others with a simple shrug or a turn of his head. Brigitte Helm’s Maria was a little unsettling for me. She seemed very manic at times and had this wild gleam in her eyes. As the robot Maria, she’s mechanical and stiff, with a devious arch of her eyebrows.
It’s hard to talk about a movie that is such a technical achievement without also mentioning the design. From cinematography to art direction to the score and special effects, the makers of METROPOLIS gave everything they had and it shows. Anton Furst, designer of Gotham City for the 1989 BATMAN movie, borrowed heavily from METROPOLIS.
I’m interested now in other versions. Apparently there are no remaining copies of the original cut and around a quarter of the original film has been lost. Considering the version I saw was 119 minutes, that must have been quite a movie. There are some subplots that were lost, things dealing with the history between Rotwang and Fredersen, plus other complications along the way in Freder’s quest to find Maria and fulfill his destiny. The version I saw makes perfect sense on its own, but having learned of those lost scenes does flesh out the story a bit.
Sometimes a movie comes along that just sets a new standard in moviemaking in general. It’s obvious from one viewing that METROPOLIS is definitely one of those movies. This is a classic in every sense of that word and has earned its place in history as one of the greats. It’s a shame no definitive version exists, and that the movie seems to have been all but forgotten today. I doubt there are many people who even know you can still get a copy of this movie today. But if you love movies and you especially love movies where the work that went into them is obvious in every scene, METROPOLIS lives up to the hype. Very recommended.
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