A flawed but fascinating masterpiece.
Metropolis (1926)
Runtime: 2 hrs 6 mins
Synopsis: METROPOLIS, a visionary and elaborate spectacle by director Fritz Lang is an epic projection of a futuristic city divided into a working and an elite class. Its exhilarating climax brings the city to its knees, as the classes clash against each other. In the 21st century, a de-humanized... METROPOLIS, a visionary and elaborate spectacle by director Fritz Lang is an epic projection of a futuristic city divided into a working and an elite class. Its exhilarating climax brings the city to its knees, as the classes clash against each other. In the 21st century, a de-humanized proletariat labors non-stop in a miserable subterranean city beneath a luxurious city of mile-high skyscrapers, flying automobiles, palatial architectural idylls, tubes and tunnels. With stunningly inventive special effects, Lang's allegorical narrative and architectural vision creates a highly stylized vision of a not-so-unlikely future (especially for 1926 when the film was made). As the elite frolic above the clouds, thousands of miserable workers toil night and day inside the belly of the gigantic machine that runs the entire city. Metropolis is controlled by a sinister authoritarian whose son, Freder, rejects his father's callous philosophy and attitude towards laborers. Meek though they are, the workers are encouraged by Maria, a wistful young woman who wills her comrades to embrace patience and silent strength. Upon discovering her influence upon the workers, a mad scientist kidnaps Maria and creates a robot in her image that will incite the workers to revolt. As Freder races against time to save Maria and curtail the damage done by her doppelganger robot, Metropolis is enveloped in chaos and the classes are brought together in a breathtaking and highly moralistic climax. [More]
Genre: Science-Fiction/Fantasy
Starring: Brigitte Helm, Alfred Abel, Rudolf Klein-Rogge, Gustav Frihlich
Reviews
Stanley Kubrick, Ridley Scott, George Lucas and other socially concerned artists imagining the future are indebted to Lang.
A fantastical monument to Fritz Lang's megalomania, this sci-fi silent remains one of the gems of the genre.
No director before (and not that many since) had worked so closely with cameramen and designers to achieve such dynamic visual and spatial effects.
The original dystopic movie, the first sci-fi epic; Lang’s skilful juxtaposition of Germanic gothicism with Art Deco resulted in a brilliant motion picture, a classic in every sense.
It's a masterpiece, but it's not a sane movie. It's gloriously bonkers.
Lang's impossibly vast skyscraper-ziggurats (inspired, it's said, by his first view of the Manhattan skyline) are the blueprint for nearly every science-fiction movie city of the past 30 years.
The great Fritz Lang created this chilling 1926 evocation of a mechanized utopia run by underground slave labor.
The film looks fabulous, and Gottfried Huppertz's original score is another worthy addition.
Few movies of any era offer so much varied food for thought, cinematically and politically. Its new restoration is a major motion-picture event.
An amalgam of strident political tract, religious hokum, futurist daydream, and fairy tale.
Hey, I think the Giorgio Moroder version of 'Metropolis' is great. Got a problem with that?
Though at times Teutonically tough-going, Fritz Lang’s German expressionist masterwork exerted a profound influence on art design and the science-fiction genre...
Surreal, sprawling, operatic, drawing on biblical and medieval imagery as well as H. G. Wells Lang's influential pulp allegory colonized a new realm of the imagination.
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