Metropolis Review

My Review on Metropolis

This film portrays a world where man has built an enormous city where machines are what keep it going. If these machines die so does the city. The workers that keep these machines alive are constantly tending to them, its as if they are a part of the machines themselves working in a synchronous way with them to stop them from overheating and failing. 'However, the city's magnificence is reliant on slavery. Below ground is an Expressionist nightmare of men and women as machines, driving the city and providing for the wealthy, the slave-masters.' (Film4)

The overall city has been made too look gigantic with tall buildings, multiple bridges for traffic and even small aircraft fly between the skyscrapers. The city its self has an art Deco like theme to it with these large bold machines and tall strait lines are every where. There is no roundness about this film, its all in your face and massive. 'Lang’s film is a mammoth marvel, fusing modernism and expressionism, art deco and Biblical spectacle.' (Time Out) 

Its all about hard labor as the workers work continually for 10 hours managing these machines with no breaks. This could symbolize Germany during WW1 as workers were forced to make artillery and aircraft in factories non stop. 'Workers toil beneath a sky-scraped city in soulless jobs, providing energy for the privileged few above.' (The Detroit News)