The Flawed Human Condition, Metropolis review

This is a film analysis of Fritz Lang's Metropolis.

Amanda Pabon
Screening Report of Metropolis
February 14, 2017
Art and History of Film
Rutgers University-Newark

 

            Fritz Lang’s Metropolis tackles themes of exploitation, conformity, and the battle between peace and violent resistance in a post industrial revolution world. Metropolis can be seen as a commentary of how flawed the human condition has become. Power is the driving force for the desensitization and dehumanization of man. Lang presents these complex themes through visual cues and motifs. The cues and motifs include costume design and color, lighting, and acting direction. The motifs are also represented in phrases and quotes. A recurring phrase in the film is, “The Mediator between the Head and the Hands is the Heart!” Head represents the masters who have a vision but do not possess the physical strength and endurance to put their plan in action. Hands represent the workers who possess that endurance but are exploited to the point they are slaves to the machines they create. The Heart represents Freder Frederson, a keen observer of the two differing worlds, who shows empathy and a desire for change. This notion of head and hands comes from a religious allegory"the Tower of Babylon. The outcome of the Tower of Babylon results in an uprising from the “hands” towards the “head.” Maria tells this story as a lesson that violence only incites more violence and there will be some savior who unites the two opposing classes of people. This phrase lies as another theme that Lang presents through his visual cues.

            Metropolis utilizes costume design and coloring to clearly depict the clear distinction between the two classes"the “head” and the “hands.” The film begins with heavy machinery pumping rhythmically, same goes for a clock ticking, and steam emitting from pipes. This shows the structured and routine way machines work. Next, we get a “shift change” in a title card that moves from top to bottom representing Worker City. We see workers walking like cogs in a machine"rhythmic, routine-like, and structured"and the costumes are all dark and dull. This is a very motivated choice to represent the uniformity and conformity the “hands” play in the larger role of this film. In juxtaposition, the next scene represents the “head” in the “Club of Sons”. The costumes are brighter making these young men look more flattering. Color plays a pivotal role because we see the dark and drab of the workers who go unnoticed and the upper classes (or the idea makers) are shown bright and full of life. Lang uses visuals like this to shed some light on how extremely different these two sets of people are.

            Next, lighting is important for representing how the characters are presented. Analyzing the same scene in the “Club of Sons,” lighting is different than the opening scene for the workers because when Freder is running a race with his friends, there is a dreamy feel to the way the light hits him setting him in proper exposure. It also helps that the edges of the frame look a bit feathered. However, the workers in the previous scene are shown realistically"there is no dreamy feel, no feathered edges. The workers are exposed well, yet there is a lot of darkness in the lighting of the city in comparison to the daytime feel of the Club of the Sons. The head is depicted both in the way they are the brains of the operation and in the sense of how light their disposition is in comparison to the workers.  Another way that lighting is utilized well is when Maria is first introduced at the Club of Sons and an angelic light falls upon her"she is represented as a beacon of light and something to force the “mediator” (Freder) to open his eyes to the realities of the injustice his father shows to his workers. Lighting also represents Freder as the mediator when an angelic light is cast upon him when Maria asks where the mediator is. He is depicted as this savior that will bring the two opposing worlds together.

            Acting direction plays a key role in revealing the “mediator must be the heart” metaphor with Freder’s actions specifically. The first instance we get this is when Freder clutches his heart at the sight of Maria, in the Club of Sons when she shows the children how the other half lives. He’s in love at first sight, but the more important takeaway is that he embodies the “heart” in a subtle yet blatant way. This is where we begin to know this story will follow Freder’s journey to see things in a new light and follow his heart.  The next instance is when he is undercover as a worker to experience what they go through every day and he follows them to the catacombs. He clutches his heart when he sees her preaching. Then he does so again, when she asks “where is the mediator?” If not paid attention to closely, we could just assume this is just something minor, but the repetition of this action seems deliberate. Lang uses this as a motif throughout the film when expressing the importance of the mediator as the heart to help reconstruct the human condition, since all seemed lost to these workers based from just the opening scenes.

            To sum up, Lang carefully utilizes specific visual representations to present a variety of complex themes as well as illustrate the importance of the quote, “The Mediator between the head and hands must be the heart!” Costume design, color, lighting, and acting direction all contribute to how Metropolis is an example of a film that represents the human condition at that point in time. Visuals are a key role in how that representation of a flawed human condition in a post Industrial Revolution world is externalized. Metropolis tackles complex themes through all of these visual cues and we can see Lang’s intention clearly through them.

Author's Note

once again please do not take anything from this without crediting the author (me)