DYSTOPIA IN THE SILENT
MOVIE ERA
The year is 2026.
Metropolis is the city of all cities, a futuristic Babel.
Above the ground, Metropolis is a utopian city, where the capitalist
elite also known as the Thinkers
enjoy themselves in paradisiac gardens. Below the ground, Metropolis
is a dystopian city, where the proletarian masses alternate between
monstruous machine parks and gloomy living quarters.
A peaceful preacher
from the working class, the maidenlike Maria, takes a group
of ragged children to one of the beautiful gardens above the ground
to confront the elite. Freder, the idealistic son of Metropolis'
Master, Joh Fredersen, is stunned by the experience. Later,
when he is confronted with the common man's sufferings, he decides
to descend into the depths of the city and take the place of a working
man volontarily.
Coincidentially, he
establishes contact with a secret society among the workers. Their
leader is of course Maria and Fredersen falls blindly in love with
her. The master of Metropolis is on their tracks, though, and contacts
the mad scientist Rotwang.
Rotwang has invented a mechanical worker, also known as Futura,
and Metropolis' master decides to take advantage of the invention.
Maria is kidnapped and the mechanical worker is given her appearance.
The
mechanical replica of Maria instigates a revolution in order to
give Metropolis' Master an excuse to use violence. Finally, the
gigantic city explodes in anarchy and violence...
Does it sound a bit
naive? Actually, it is quite naive, although very charming
at the same time; Metropolis is a silent movie from
1926, pure nostalgia for a sci-fi connoisseur. Overburdened
with obvious symbolism or more adequately expressionism
and old-fashioned sentimentalism, Metropolis is
not a very convincing story. It was evidently meant to be a warning
against the dangers of urbanisation and industrialisation, but the
message is blurred by a questionable metaphor: "There
must be a mediator between the brain and the hand."
To say the least, the moral conclusion of Metropolis is confusing.
The world-famous,
German director
Fritz Lang based his movie on a novel by his wife Thea von Harbor. The novel is even more naive, but I would still
like to recommend it to sci-fi fans as utopian/dystopian nostalgia.
Lang and von Harbor had to endure merciless criticism, even from
contemporary science fiction visionaries like H.G. Wells
who stated that Metropolis was a mix of "almost every
possible foolishness, clichι, platitude and muddlement about mechanical
progress and progress in general, served up with a rich sauce of
sentimentality."
To make things worse,
Metropolis could never attract an audience, neither with
the original version in Europe nor the re-cut version in
North America. There are actually many more versions than
these two, but that issue is almost a complete science in itself.
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Nevertheless, the astounding
visuality of the movie has inspired various science fictions movies:
Star Wars (C-3PO was directly inspired by Lang's
robot and Coruscant's architecture resembles Metropolis'),
Frankenstein's Monster (there are obvious parallells
between the creation of the robot and the creation of the monster)
and Blade Runner (the f/x crew have admitted they
basically copied Metropolis' skyline), just to mention a few. It
is no exaggeration to say that Lang's movie changed the look of
science fiction cinema forever. Today, Metropolis is considered
to be one of the great masterpieces of cinematic history. There
are many memorable scenes in the movie, surprisingly many actually.
Visually, Metropolis has aged very well.
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I was fortunate to see
Metropolis in a theatre built in the 1920s with live electronic
music. It was a completely mesmerising experience and I recommend
it to everyone. Every now and then, cineast communities arrange
such shows, at least in Europe.
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THE DYSTOPIAN DEPTH
Metropolis was,
as far as I know, the first dystopian movie ever, as well as the
first serious science fiction movie ever. As
mentioned above, Metropolis is a quite naive story: a classic
tale of opression and rebellion. Miserable workers slave for ruthless
masters and the wealth gaps between the classes are astronomical.
The work is monotonuous and dangerous, the pleasures and joys are
few, if any. This mindless world is built on discipline and duty,
almost like a gigantic forced labour camp cunningly disguised as
a society.
Metropolis does
not depict a convincing society, because the construction lacks
logic. The capitalist elite in Metropolis is driven by some vague
hunger for profit, but it is never explained how such a society
could function economically. The working class is evidently very
poor and lack buying power: who would consume the products? The
engine of a capitalist society is after all consumption. Furthermore,
considering the utterly unbearable living conditions of the proletarian
workers, Metropolis should have been in a constant state of violent
upraising. The ruling class only seem to have one means of control:
employment and wages. They would obviously need a omnipresent police,
not to say a propaganda apparatus or at least a massmedia machinery
in order to neutralise the workers.
Metropolis is
not really a powerful dystopia, but rather a dystopian fairytale
with visual qualities. As such, it says something about our own era, though: whether we like it or not, our lives
are dominated by work and consumption.
THE PROBABILITY
Metropolis is
a capitalist dystopia, but I doubt that even the most soulless
corporate leader could see any benefits with such a society today.
There are actually more parallells with Stalin's Soviet
Union, but such a nightmare society demands external
pressure, a strong police and army, and an ideology
and capitalism is no ideology, only a few ancient principles of
bartering. Such a capitalistic society would simply not be able
to hold together as I see it.
As a Westerner, one
tend to forget that the everyday life of the workers in Metropolis
still is a reality for many a worker in Asia, Africa
and South America, though. In Indian and Pakistan
sweatshops, it is not unusual to work 12-16 hours a day in uncomfortable
and dangerous environments. The safety of the workers as well as
the legal protection of the workers are completely ignored. The
situation resembles the worst stages of the Industrial Revolution:
the second half of the 19th century, before worker movements began
to participate in politics.
Perhaps Metropolis is
the place where we all could have ended up if the Industrial Revolution
would have escalated in the wrong direction. Even if it never
happened, it is a depressive thought that we are still working at
least 8 hours a day, despite the remarkable technological evolution
within the fields of robotics and computers. In fact, we are spending
more time on work than the Medieval man and even the Stone
Age man. Perhaps Fritz Lang knew what he was talking about after
all...
And we who live in the
Western world should be careful not to fool ourselves. All
non-governmental economic entities be it
small companies or corporations are
constantly trying to maximise their profits. The easiest way is to
regulate and standardise the production. Contrary to popular belief,
the Western world is by no means post-industrial. In fact, the
Western world is becoming more and more industrialised. Today, even
services are being regulated and standardised, with call centers and
telemarketing companies as excellent illustrations.
Watch your employer!
He is watching you.
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