Fritz Lang's Metropolis is divided into three main themes. The first theme in Metropolis was primarily an exploration of the conflict between Rotwang, the mad scientist of Metropolis, and John Fredersen, the Master of Metropolis. The second theme is the relationship between the working class and the ruling class. Metropolis' third theme is the mediation between the two classes. The relationship between Freder and Maria is symbolic of this third theme.

I watched two different versions of Metropolis. There are supposedly five major versions of Metropolis, the original (1927) is lost and the latest reconstruction (1995), by the Filmmuseum Munich, is not commercially available. The two versions that I watched were the 1984 Giorgio Moroder version and a version of the 1927 American release. Hands down, the Giorgio Moroder version is the best of the two that I watched. The Giorgio Moroder version is 87 minutes compared to the 63 minute American release and the 183 minute original release. The superior subtitles in Giorgio Moroder's version, as well as the extra footage, makes the story more complete. In addition, meaning is added to Moroder's version through use of a higher quality image (I found the library's version to be over exposed and washed out), film tinting techniques (to add to the feeling of the scene), and a new sound track. The library media center's version's (American release) sound track could have been a two minute song looped over and over for all it's worth. The tone, attitude, speed, and any other _meaning_ encoded in the music was COMPLETELY separate from that of the movie. Mostly an upbeat ragtime style, I feel that this music was an absolute blasphemy to Fritz Lang's vision and artistic work. In contrast, the "modern rock" sound track in Giorgio Moroder's 1984 release, albeit a bit cheesy at times, is actually quite good and heightens the meaning and _true_ emotional essence that may have been originally conceived by Fritz Lang.

The first of the themes that I would like to discuss is the conflict between John Fredersen and Rotwang. Rotwang follows John's orders and seems to be the only person whom John really trusts to get a job done. Rotwang is missing one of his natural hands. Is this a result of his loyalty to the Master of Metropolis or is it a sign of his dedication to his work? In the 1983 version that I saw it is revealed that the robot worker that Rotwang has created is an attempt to recreate HEL, a woman who both Rotwang and John loved. HEL died giving birth to John's son, Freder Fredersen. John, whose "experts" were unable to decrypt plans found on the bodies of dead workers, comes to Rotwang seeking advice. John learns from Rotwang that the plans are maps of catacombs beneath the workers city, which is beneath the machines, which are under Metropolis, which towers into the sky like a megastructure. Rotwang reveals his robotic creation to Joh(n) exclaiming that "now we have no more use for human workers". When John sees the robot recreation of his deceased wife, he takes a step back (notice the inverted 5 point star above/behind her (its) head). John later decides that Rotwang should make the robot have the appearance of Maria, the priestess of the workers, and keep the real Maria locked up so that John can control the working population. Rotwang does this without question but appears to be unhappy. Later, Rotwang tells Maria that John wants the robotic Maria to incite violence in the workers so that he has an excuse to use force against them.

The next theme that I would like to talk about is the relationship between the working class and the ruling class. As I mentioned before, the workers live far, far underground while the rulers live in the magnificent city of Metropolis. There is such a class distinction that it is possible that these two civilizations would eventually evolve into two completely different species as in Orson Wells' The Time Machine. At our first glimpse of the workers' world we see armies of workers marching at the shift change. Their heads are hung low and they stagger along with a disjointed and unnatural appearance. The work that the workers are forced into is remedial and requires exhaustive work. This work includes reading gauges, opening and closing valves, and throwing levers. As a shift continues it almost appears to be a fight against time itself, a fight that will eventually be lost. The nature of the work, to me, symbolizes the incredible inefficiency of the "machine" and is a microcosm for the society as a whole. The worker class throughout the entire movie relies upon a force to guide them and it does not appear that they have much self-will. Examples of this include how they are so eager to do whatever Maria or robot Maria tells them to do. Once they get started a mob mentality quickly evolves and the workers appear to lose all of their sensibility. This is illustrated when they break the core of the machine causing their city to flood. The workers dance in celebration, forgetting that their children are in the flooded city. Once they realize this they quickly find a hate for Maria (who they believe is responsible) and blindly follow the foreman.

Now let's move onto the ruling class. I believe that I should actually split this class into two parts. The first I will call the Board of Directors and the second I will call the Employees. The employees or citizens of Metropolis must have had some sort of privileged life (compared to the worker class) because they live in the magnificent city. The employees also appear to drive cars and fly planes (this is an assumption because cars and planes and buildings are definitely plentiful in this city). The Board of Directors seems to include the Fredersen family and anyone else who they like enough to support or anyone else who is of the elite class who was not featured in this film. The distinction between the two can be found in quotes from the movie. Freder at one point tells a taxi driver "to my father" so obviously the family is well known all of the employees know what is up. Another example of this weird relationship is when Joh(n) dismisses an employee, Freder tells his father "you don't know what it means to be dismissed by you" and he storms from his father's office to find the ex-employee holding a gun to his own temple. Freder stops the suicide to be and tells the employee that he needs him.

The last theme is the mediation between the classes. This is made possible through the love between Freder and Maria. Freder serves as the Messiah that the workers have been waiting for. This is the theme, apparently, that was the most heavy as intended by Fritz Lang's wife, Thea von Harbou, who wrote the script for the film. This theme also seems to be saying something about women empowerment (Maria had an awful lot of influence over the worker population and John realized this). The mediation, or love, eventually led to an interclass understanding, a bridge of recognition for a dependence on each other.

Ok, for this last part I would like to informally go over some of my favorite spots and some of the mise-en-scene that I found appealing. The special effects in Metropolis are stunning and, I'm sure, ahead of their time. Probably the most noticeable special effects scene is the scene in which Rotwang transforms the robot into a likeness of Maria. Light rings pass up and down the robot's body as lightning arches from a machine and the face is eventually transformed into that of Maria's. The most visually stunning scene for me was the one in which Maria and Freder were saving the workers' children from the flooding of the city. There are two shots that really caught my eye. The first is a close up view of a large metal "hammer" that is hitting a gong like alarm device. The camera is positioned directly behind the camera and the movement of the hammer reminds me of a heart beat. The second is a shot of water spraying in the air with the silhouettes of children running and jumping across the screen. At the beginning of the movie we see views of the factory. I like how close up shots of different moving machine parts are overlaid and dissolve from one to another. The set was huge and must have cost a ton of money. My favorite part of the set was the building design. I found the acting to be much less melodramatic than in The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari and a lot more believable. Dark makeup was used around the eyes of the characters as appears to be custom in post WWI German Expressionism.

A great metropolis resource can be found at http://www.paulist.org/doug/metro/