In a futuristic city sharply divided between the working class and the city planners, the son of the city's mastermind falls in love with a working class prophet who predicts the coming of a savior to mediate their differences.
Directed by: Fritz Lang
Author: Gurre
Metropolis is one of the greatest films ever made. It's amazing set design, brilliant cinematography, groundbreaking special effects and futuristic story truly makes it one of the must-sees in cinema! It is set in the future, in a city called Metropolis where the citizens are divided into two groups: workers (who live under the ground and are working 10 hour shifts by enormous machines that keeps Metropolis working) and the royals (living in luxury in the great city on the surfice). And over them all, is the creator of Metropolis: Joh Fredersen (Alfred Abel). His son Freder (Gustav Fröhlich) falls in love with a woman of the working-class called Maria (Brigitte Helm) who preaches that a mediator will come and create peace and equality for both workers and royals. Joh Fredersen sees Maria as a big threat agains his "order", so he and the inventor Rotwang (Rudolf Klein-Rogge) kidnaps her and copies her appearence onto a robot, which will destroy the workers faith in Maria. However, Rotwang secretly plans to programme the robot to make the workers destroy the city and crush Joh Fredersen, as an act of vengeance against Fredersen for a sin he committed in the past... Lang made this film in 1927, and it was a huge blockbuster event of that year. However, after the premiere, the US distributor heavily cut down the film, and thereafter the original version was considered lost for almost a decade. In 2008 they found the original version in Argentina (very damaged, but watchable), which became the basis for the most recent reconstruction (2010). If you are going to watch this movie (as I highly recommend that you do!) that's the version to watch! Overall, Metropolis is a REALLY REALLY great movie, that you, once again, MUST watch! I give it a 10/10
UFA
Status
Released
Release Date
1927-02-06
Original Language
German
Runtime
2 hr 29 mins
Budget
$ 1,300,000.00
(Estimated)
Revenue
$ 650,422.00
(USA)
Profit
($ 649,578.00)
(Estimated in USA)
Genres
Drama Science Fiction
Keywords
man vs machine based on novel or book underground world inventor metropolis future class society dystopia tower of babel delirium steampunk mad scientist prophet black and white robot destruction silent film expressionism seven deadly sins depravity mob justice downtrodden saviour social unrest german expressionism mediator