In 1927 German director Fritz Lang made the, at the time, most expensive silent film. This film inspired many future film makers and story tellers within the science fiction and horror genres with its high concepts and gritty depictions of such. This film is was a huge leap forward for the days of early film. In a time when most movies were content with capturing everyday happenings, staged plays, adaptations of classic novels, and simplistic stories; this film showed the how beautiful art and complex story telling can be shown on screen. This film is the masterpiece that is, Metropolis.
The world of Metropolis is that of the rich living in a beautiful and technologically complex city; the poor were forced to slave away underground to keep the city running. We see the workers marching in and out during the shift changes like drones. Their heads hung low, dirty, tired, and sad, the workers march as a unit to and from work. A beautiful woman comes from below and is met by the son of the most powerful man in Metropolis. After she is forced below the son questions his father as to why they live in extravagance and do nothing, while the workers are forced to live in horrible conditions and keep the city running. The son is then sent below to work.
The machines and structures below might be some of the earliest artistic depictions of style that is now known as “steampunk”. The clock-like machine that the workers have to constantly move the hands to line up with the lights is one great example of this. Many of the other scenes could also be looked at as a mix between contemporary (in the 1920’s) modernism and art deco. The laboratory shown in the film could be considered art deco because of the lighting and industrial machinery used.
For all the great things that this film represented including ideas very ahead of its time there were many sad perils that it this piece has had to endure over the years. The original cut of this film was much longer than the 153 minute version that premiered in Berlin. After that version was shown it was cut and edited again before it left Germany. This is the beginning of the reasons that most people outside of Germany never saw the film that Lang had originally created. Part of the reasons for these cuts is that theater managers of the time did not believe that people would be willing to watch a film longer than ninety minutes. The original showing of this film in America and Europe was a financial flop due to the film having important scenes cut making some scenes illogical. The American version was the more obscured of the versions as it was edited by playwright Channing Pollock. Pollock took the film as nothing more than a weak attempt at the classic Frankenstein story. Due to his misunderstanding of the film he cut and pieced together a shortened version of the film with rewritten title cards, mixed up scenes, and new music.
Because of all the different versions edited together much of the film had been lost for many years. Over the past couple of decades people have been attempting to find the original cut of the film. The film was obviously very influential because in 1984 a new restoration and edit of the film was made by Giorgio Moroder. This edit restored the story and many of the original lost scenes. The film is a total of 80 minutes long, mostly due to the title cards being taken out and subtitles being put in their place. The most notable thing about this cut is the pop soundtrack recorded for the film. This soundtrack included performances by Pat Benatar, Bonnie Tyler, Jon Anderson, Adam Ant, Cycle V, Loverboy, Billy Squier, and Freddie Mercury. This release came out the same time as Queen’s music video “Radio Gaga” that contained scenes of the film.
The world of Metropolis is that of the rich living in a beautiful and technologically complex city; the poor were forced to slave away underground to keep the city running. We see the workers marching in and out during the shift changes like drones. Their heads hung low, dirty, tired, and sad, the workers march as a unit to and from work. A beautiful woman comes from below and is met by the son of the most powerful man in Metropolis. After she is forced below the son questions his father as to why they live in extravagance and do nothing, while the workers are forced to live in horrible conditions and keep the city running. The son is then sent below to work.
The machines and structures below might be some of the earliest artistic depictions of style that is now known as “steampunk”. The clock-like machine that the workers have to constantly move the hands to line up with the lights is one great example of this. Many of the other scenes could also be looked at as a mix between contemporary (in the 1920’s) modernism and art deco. The laboratory shown in the film could be considered art deco because of the lighting and industrial machinery used.
For all the great things that this film represented including ideas very ahead of its time there were many sad perils that it this piece has had to endure over the years. The original cut of this film was much longer than the 153 minute version that premiered in Berlin. After that version was shown it was cut and edited again before it left Germany. This is the beginning of the reasons that most people outside of Germany never saw the film that Lang had originally created. Part of the reasons for these cuts is that theater managers of the time did not believe that people would be willing to watch a film longer than ninety minutes. The original showing of this film in America and Europe was a financial flop due to the film having important scenes cut making some scenes illogical. The American version was the more obscured of the versions as it was edited by playwright Channing Pollock. Pollock took the film as nothing more than a weak attempt at the classic Frankenstein story. Due to his misunderstanding of the film he cut and pieced together a shortened version of the film with rewritten title cards, mixed up scenes, and new music.
Because of all the different versions edited together much of the film had been lost for many years. Over the past couple of decades people have been attempting to find the original cut of the film. The film was obviously very influential because in 1984 a new restoration and edit of the film was made by Giorgio Moroder. This edit restored the story and many of the original lost scenes. The film is a total of 80 minutes long, mostly due to the title cards being taken out and subtitles being put in their place. The most notable thing about this cut is the pop soundtrack recorded for the film. This soundtrack included performances by Pat Benatar, Bonnie Tyler, Jon Anderson, Adam Ant, Cycle V, Loverboy, Billy Squier, and Freddie Mercury. This release came out the same time as Queen’s music video “Radio Gaga” that contained scenes of the film.
In 2010 Kino released the most complete version of Metropolis to date. This version is a 148 minutes which means to date only five minutes are still missing. This is an amazing thing that Kino has accomplished as the previous version released in 2001 was 123 minutes long. To celebrate the restored 2010 release there were many festival showings of the restored film with a live orchestra to play the original score.
This film stands to show the creativity of Fritz Lang and is an inspiration to future artists. The values displayed are evident and beautiful. All of this is just the opinion of one crazed writer.
This film stands to show the creativity of Fritz Lang and is an inspiration to future artists. The values displayed are evident and beautiful. All of this is just the opinion of one crazed writer.
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