Day 60: Death To The Machines!

METROPOLIS (1927)
Directed by Fritz Lang
Starring: Alfred Abel, Brigitte Helm, Gustav Fröhlich, Rudolph Klein-Rogg, Erwin Biswanger, Theodore Loos, Fritz Rasp, Heinrich George

In the Not-Too-Distant Future, a city known simply as Metropolis stands as the pinnacle of man's achievements.  But beneath all the gleaming glass, metal and neon lies the city of the workers - a sub-race of people who take on the dangerous task of making this ultra-modern city run.  This modern-day Tower of Babel (a reference this film will not let you get away from) is the brainchild of Joh Fredersen (Abel).  He lives in the city's central tower with his son Freder (Fröhlich), a blonde-haired, blue-eyed young man who is the epitome of Aryan manhood (did I mention this is a German film?).

But one day, Freder's idyllic life screeches to a halt when Maria (Helm) - a young teacher in the world below - brings a group of grubby children to the surface as a part of her lesson on the Brotherhood of Man.  As this is a silent film, it's difficult to tell whether Freder is smitten by Maria or feels sorry for the children (maybe both?), but either way, he follows them down to the workers' city.  There, his heart goes out to his fellow men and women who slave away so he and his fellows can live the high life.  He goes to his father, who points out that everyone has their place in the world, and theirs is up above.  However, clues are being dropped about a worker uprising.  To make matters worse, Freder trades his cushy life above with an anonymous worker simply known as 11811 (Biswanger), who promptly goes above to drink and whore it up for a few weeks while Freder slaves away underground.

Meanwhile, Joh Fredersen seeks the counsel of Dr. Rotwang (Klein-Rogge), the inventor who made Fredersen's mad visions a reality.  Rotwang is working on a robot he calls his "Machine-Man" - a misleading name, as he plans to turn it into a woman.  Specifically, into the likeness of Joh Fredersen's late wife Hel, who he had a mad crush on.  But Fredersen has other plans: he wants to make the robot resemble Maria - whom the workers revere as a living saint, preaching tolerance and peace - and make it a villainous she-devil who will incite the workers to riot, thus giving Fredersen a reason to wipe out all the troublemakers.

This was a big movie.  Which is odd, considering that, during the silent era, it was Hollywood who was doing the "big movies."  In Europe, films were usually more expressionistic, introspective works about the duality of human nature and the horrors of war (the silent era happening during and directly after World War I). But the studio who made the film - Universum Film, AG (or UFA) - had just signed a major US distribution deal with American studios Paramount and Metro (not yet Metro Goldwyn-Mayer).  Though still modestly budgeted, Lang's vision grew larger and larger.  In the end, the film - originally budgeted at 1 million Reichsmarks ended up costing more than 5 million.  Adjusted for inflation, we're talking about $200 million in today's money, making Metropolis the most expensive silent film ever made.

So...does it hold up?  Oh, yes.

Silent films are all about the visuals - it's the only way they have to tell the story.  As such, the film is a visual feast, full of strange and wonderful architecture, amazing set pieces and some rather impressive visual effects for the time.  I'm usually intimidated by silent films, as I sometimes wonder whether they can keep my interest for two hours with no dialogue.  But the story of Metropolis has so many layers that I found it impossible to become bored. 

Of course, there are a few negative points as well.  The acting in silent films is, more often than not, very over-the-top, almost to the point of being hokey.  Gustav Fröhlich's acting is particularly tough to watch at times, as his wild gesticulations are unintentionally funny.  Brigitte Helm is much better at being low-key as the peace loving Maria.  But she also plays the robot version of herself, and does an equally good job being evil and seductive.  Everyone else's acting is pretty par for the course.

Also, the copy I got was incomplete.  Being as old as it is, there are bits and pieces of the film that were considered lost when this version was put together.  The parts that were missing were described in intertitles put there by the well-meaning folks at Kino Video.  But I hear they've actually found a good deal of the missing footage in Argentina and are in the process of putting together a more complete version of the film.  I certainly hope so, as those intertitles were describing some pretty key (and undoubtedly entertaining) scenes.

The only other negative point is a big one: the ending.  I always hate it when movies go on longer than they have to in order to tack on a happy ending, which is exactly what happens here.  I won't spoil it for you, but the film should have ended about five minutes earlier.  The point about the unity of mankind was already made, but Lang just decided to hammer it home one more time with a completely unnecessary final scene, followed by a title card that pretty much explained the moral of the story IN BIG BOLD LETTERS.  Apparently, it wasn't enough to mention it roughly twenty times in the previous two hours.  In modern terms, think of Sam Raimi's Spider-Man, and how many times you heard Uncle Ben say "With Great Power Comes Great Responsibility."  Then imagine it's on a title card IN BIG BOLD LETTERS right before the credits roll.  Then you'll get the idea.

So yes, Metropolis was awesome.  And it's one of the few silent films that still holds up after nearly 100 years. 

NEXT WEEK: John Carpenter's DARKSTAR