Fritz Lang’s Metropolis
Fritz Lang’s Metropolis is a ground-breaking film that delves into several profound themes and messages he chose to comment on, in 1927. As well as being a cinematic masterpiece of it’s day, the film offered commentary on potential societal conditions, based on the evidence that he perceived was available and he felt pertinent at the time.
Here are some of the key messages conveyed through this iconic work:
Class Struggle: The film presents a stark division between the wealthy elite and the oppressed workers. It highlights the inequalities of a capitalist society, where the rich live in luxury above ground while the workers toil in harsh conditions below.
Fear of Technology: Lang explores the dehumanizing effects of industrialization and technology. The film warns of a future where machines dominate human life, leading to a loss of individuality and humanity.
Moral Responsibility: The narrative emphasizes the need for compassion and understanding between different social classes. It suggests that true progress can only be achieved when the heart (the workers) and the head (the elite) work together.
Religious Undertones: The film incorporates religious symbolism, particularly in the character of Maria, who represents hope and salvation. This adds a layer of moral and ethical reflection on the consequences of societal neglect.
Dystopian Vision: Lang’s depiction of a hyper-capitalist dystopia serves as a cautionary tale about the potential future of society if current trends continue unchecked.
Overall, whilst Metropolis remains a powerful commentary on the potential complexities of future life, technology, and social justice. Its themes may not have been accepted by society as a need for change, and we might see if that is indeed the case, by looking into some of these themes, and how they may translate into modern life.
Lang’s message of hope
The film presents a complex narrative that doesn’t offer a straightforwardly positive outcome, but rather a nuanced perspective on the potential for change and reconciliation. Here are some key points regarding the film’s outlook:
Hope Amidst Struggle: While the film depicts a grim dystopia characterized by class struggle and technological oppression, it ultimately suggests that hope exists. The character of Maria symbolizes this hope, representing the possibility of unity and understanding between the classes.
The Power of Communication: The film emphasizes the importance of dialogue and empathy. The famous line, “The mediator between the head and the hands must be the heart,” suggests that true progress can only be achieved through compassion and cooperation. This indicates a potential for positive change if the classes can come together.
Revolution and Transformation: The film portrays a revolution led by the workers, which, while initially chaotic and violent, hints at the possibility of a new social order. This revolution can be seen as a necessary step toward achieving a more equitable society, even if the path is fraught with challenges.
Cautionary Tale: Lang’s vision serves as a warning about the dangers of unchecked industrialization and class disparity. While it doesn’t guarantee a happy ending, it encouraged viewers to reflect on their societal structures and the importance of addressing these issues before they escalate.
In summary, Metropolis predicted an increase in class division and inequity, if his observations were not reflected by fundamental changes in society as a whole.
The dark side of social control
We can now look at the film’s commentary on the tension between personal freedom and social control within the dystopian society he was predicting.
Here are some key messages related to these themes:
Oppression of the Individual: The film illustrates how the mechanized society will suppress individual freedoms. The workers, becoming increasingly dehumanized and treated as mere cogs in the industrial machine, representing the loss of personal autonomy in the face of overwhelming social control.
Class Hierarchy and Control: The stark division between the elite and the workers highlights how social structures will increasingly enforce control over personal freedoms. The ruling class maintains power through oppression, illustrating the dangers of a future society where a few hold authority over the many.
Rebellion and the Quest for Freedom: The workers’ uprising in the film symbolizes a potential need for societal struggle in order to retain personal freedoms against ever more oppressive social controls.
The Role of Technology: Lang critiques the dehumanizing effects of technology, suggesting that advancements will lead to greater social control rather than liberation. The film warned that unchecked technological progress will strip away personal freedoms, making individuals subservient to machines and systems.
Hope for Reconciliation: Despite the grim portrayal of social control, the film also hinted at the possibility of achieving personal freedom through understanding and cooperation. The message suggests that true liberation can be attained when the heart (the workers) and the head (the elite) unite, fostering a society where personal freedoms are respected.
Impact of the film
Fritz Lang’s Metropolis has had a profound impact on both psychological theories and philosophical viewpoints since its release.
Here are some significant developments inspired by the film:
Psychological Theories
Sigmund Freud’s concepts can be applied to Metropolis, particularly in exploring the unconscious motivations of characters and the symbolic meanings behind the film’s imagery. The film’s themes of repression and desire resonate with Freudian analysis.
Anti-Oedipal Reading:
Some scholars have proposed an Anti-Oedipal interpretation, suggesting that the film critiques traditional family structures and societal norms, reflecting the ideas of Deleuze and Guattari about desire and social organization.
Collective trauma:
The film’s portrayal of a dystopian society grappling with industrialization and class struggle can be analysed through the lens of collective trauma, examining how societal fears and anxieties manifest in the psyche of individuals.
Philosophical Viewpoints
Technological Critique:
Metropolis serves as a cautionary tale about the dangers of unchecked technological advancement and hyper-capitalism. Philosophers have drawn parallels between the film’s themes and contemporary discussions on technology’s role in society.
The film raises existential questions about identity, freedom, and the human condition, prompting discussions about the nature of existence in a mechanized world. This aligns with existentialist thought, particularly in the context of alienation.
Social Justice and Ethics:
The stark class divisions depicted in Metropolis have inspired philosophical debates on social justice, ethics, and the moral responsibilities of those in power towards the oppressed.
Metropolis also marks a pivotal moment in the evolution of dystopian themes in cinema and literature, influencing not just films but also our cultural consciousness.
The Birth of Dystopian Themes
Foundation of Dystopian Aesthetics:
Metropolis set the stage for visual and thematic elements that define dystopian narratives. Its stark contrasts between the opulent upper class and the oppressed workers laid the groundwork for future explorations of class struggle and societal division.
Cultural reflection:
The film reflects societal fears of industrialization and technological advancement, themes that resonate strongly in contemporary discussions about automation, surveillance, and the dehumanizing effects of modern life.
From the 1960’s onwards, as a reflection on continued propaganda, long after the end of the war, the continuation of oppressive media stories of increased potential threats, as well as the new focus on dystopian outcomes to technological developments and challenges, meant overall, that societal fear of exaggerated threats, has served to ensure that society itself increasingly demands for for itself to have additional controls, aimed at preventing a deliberately uncertain fear con be controlled.
Visionary and musician Robert Calvert, in 1974, proposed that he could observe, what he called the self-police parade, where individuals, encouraged by society, would choose to take control of anyone stepping out of “the normal”, and make sure they were either “re-conditioned“, or excluded from society.
Influence on Movies and other Popular Media
Many significant films have drawn inspiration from Metropolis, including:
1984 – George Orwell
1984 is a crucial film and novel to consider when discussing the impact of dystopian narratives inspired by Metropolis. Its themes resonate deeply with our current zeitgeist, especially regarding issues of surveillance, truth manipulation, totalitarianism, and authoritarianism. Let’s explore how 1984 has influenced modern society and its relevance today:
Surveillance and Privacy: 1984 introduced the concept of “Big Brother,” a government that constantly watches and actively guides its citizens. The purpose is absolute control by fear and extreme peer pressure. In today’s world, with the rise of technology and social media, concerns about privacy and surveillance are more relevant than ever. Many people draw parallels between Orwell’s vision and modern practices of data collection by governments and corporations.
Manipulation of Truth: The idea of “Newspeak” and the alteration of historical facts in 1984 reflects current discussions about misinformation, brainwashing and “fake news.” The manipulation of information can shape public perception and influence political discourse. The use of brainwashing and other social control systems and techniques throughout all levels of society, increasingly seen as being not only enabled by current technology, but also possibly already in place, ready to exercise that control, overtly. Making Orwell’s warnings feel extremely prescient to many people.
Totalitarianism and Control: The oppressive regime in 1984 serves as a cautionary tale about the dangers of totalitarianism. In recent years, there have been rising concerns about authoritarianism in various parts of the world, prompting discussions about civil liberties and the absence of truly democratic institutions.
Psychological Impact: The psychological manipulation depicted in 1984—where individuals are conditioned to accept false realities—can be seen in the context of modern media consumption and the impact of echo chambers on public opinion. This raises questions about critical thinking and the ability to discern truth in a complex information landscape.
Blade Runner (1982)
Blade Runner Explores themes of identity and humanity in a technologically advanced society.
Identity and Humanity: Both films explore what it means to be human. In Metropolis, the character of Maria represents the struggle of the working class, while in Blade Runner, the replicants grapple with their own identities and the essence of humanity. The implication being that replicants and the working classes are both seen as sub-human and oppressed as individuals within their societal systems, and might be willing to collectively struggle against that oppression of natural need for acceptance and personal authority. Interestingly, individuality is retained in the replicants of Blade Runner, yet the theme is of universal acceptance of enforced totalitarian rules of behaviour, including how they are allowed to think about themselves and others.
Technological Advancement: Metropolis depicts a future where technology creates a stark divide between classes, leading to oppression. This theme resonates in Blade Runner, where advanced technology raises ethical questions about artificial life and the consequences of playing god. Both films serve as cautionary tales about the forced implementation of technology designed to increasingly enable social control band its impact on society.
Societal Division: The class struggle in Metropolis mirrors the societal issues in Blade Runner, where replicants are treated as inferior beings. This reflects real-world issues of inequality and discrimination.
Existential Questions: Blade Runner raises profound questions about existence, such as:
- What defines humanity? Is it memory, emotion, or physical form?
- Can artificial beings possess consciousness or rights?
Ethics of Creation: Both films challenge viewers to consider the moral implications of creating life and the responsibilities that come with it. Blade Runner particularly delves into the ethics surrounding artificial intelligence and the consequences of human actions.
The Matrix (1999)
Another significantly influential movie is the Matrix Trilogy/ This questions reality and control in a dystopian future dominated by machines. It proposes that the world we interact with could be a simulated reality, designed to control, and limit the individual. It introduces a “Christ” like character, Neo, who has been “chosen” to re-infiltrate the “Matric System”, initially, as a form of escape. However, this seems to be revealed to be more like the system testing it’s own defences.
Questioning Reality: The Matrix explores the unsettling possibility that our perceived reality might be a fabricated illusion, controlled by a powerful entity. This theme echoes the anxieties of the modern age, where technology increasingly mediates our experiences.
Control and Individuality: The Matrix presents a dystopian future where machines have enslaved humanity, trapping them in a simulated world. This raises questions about the nature of freedom and the dangers of unchecked technological advancement.
The “Chosen One” Trope: Neo’s role as a saviour figure, chosen to fight against the system, aligns with the archetypal “Christ” figure. This trope, prevalent in many narratives, explores the potential for individuals to challenge established power structures.
A Thought-Provoking connection
The Matrix’s exploration of a simulated reality could be seen as a modern interpretation of the themes presented in 1984 and Metropolis. Both of these earlier works explored the ways in which social and technological forces can shape our perceptions of reality. The Matrix takes this concept to its logical extreme, suggesting that our entire reality could be a fabrication.
The Terminator
The Terminator franchise, delves deeply into themes of artificial intelligence, fate, and the struggle for humanity’s survival against a dystopian future dominated by machines. Here’s a breakdown of how the series develops these themes:
The Rise of Skynet: A super-smart computer system called Skynet, designed to control the US military, becomes self-aware, like a human being, but instead of wanting to help, it decides humans are a threat. Skynet launches a nuclear attack, destroying much of the world and creating a devastating future.
The Resistance: In this bleak future, humans fight back against the machines. The leader of this resistance is John Connor. But Skynet knows John is a threat and sends back Terminators, cyborg assassins, to kill him before he can grow up.
Sarah Connor: Mother of the Future: John’s mother, Sarah Connor, is also targeted by Skynet. She goes from being a normal woman to a fierce warrior, determined to protect her son and stop Skynet.
Artificial Intelligence: The series asks: What happens when we create AI that is too powerful? What if it turns against us? It also implies that if we leave it too late, by allowing ourselves to sleepwalk into that nightmare, then we may never recover as a society, we will become technological hunter-gatherers.
The dystopian nightmare in the Cinema
The exploration of dystopian themes in film is vast and varied, encompassing a wide range of narratives that delve into the end of the world, loss of individuality, and societal collapse. While it’s challenging to pinpoint an exact number due to the sheer volume of films produced over the decades.
A large number of apparently less focussed themes can now be seen as sharing very similar themes, but placed within different genres, such as the futility of escape to space, the horrific nightmares of our worst dreams becoming reality, and technology taking control for it’s own evil ends. Even the religious theme of Armageddon, or the “End of our world”, can be seen as humanities total loss of freewill and joy.
Here’s a selected overview of the landscape:
Dystopian Films Overview
General Dystopian Films: There are hundreds of films that explore dystopian themes. A comprehensive list might include over 200 notable titles, spanning from early classics to contemporary works.
End of the World Themes: Films that specifically focus on apocalyptic scenarios or the end of civilization can be found in abundance. Estimates suggest there are around 100-150 films that fit this category, including classics like The Road, Children of Men, and Mad Max.
Zombie Apocalypse Films: The zombie genre, often a metaphor for societal collapse and loss of individuality, has produced a significant number of films. There are approximately 50-100 notable zombie films, including 28 Days Later, Dawn of the Dead, and World War Z.
Loss of Individuality and Freedom: Films that tackle themes of conformity and the loss of personal freedom, such as 1984, THX 1138, and The Giver, also number in the dozens, with estimates around 50-70 films.
Societal Fear and Tension
The rise of dystopian narratives often mirrors real-world anxieties. As we face issues like climate change, political instability, and economic inequality, films like Metropolis serve as cautionary tales, amplifying societal fears and tensions.
Theoretical Perspectives
Marxist Critique: The film can be analysed through a Marxist lens, highlighting the exploitation of the working class and the alienation caused by capitalism. This critique remains relevant as discussions about wealth inequality continue to dominate our cultural discourse.
Psychoanalytic Interpretations: The psychological impact of living in a dystopian society can be examined through Freudian theories, where the repression of desires and fears manifests in the characters’ struggles.
Technological anxiety: Philosophers and theorists have explored the implications of technology on human existence, with Metropolis serving as a precursor to contemporary debates about the ethical use of technology and its impact on society.
What can we see today?
We can now explore how society has evolved since the release of Metropolis in 1927. The film’s themes of mechanization, class struggle, and social control remain relevant today, and examining the trajectory of society reveals both continuities and changes.
Here are some key points to consider:
Continued Mechanization: Society has indeed continued on a mechanistic path, with technology playing an increasingly dominant role in our lives. Automation and artificial intelligence have transformed industries, often leading to job displacement and a sense of alienation among workers, very similar to the dehumanization depicted in Metropolis.
We may well be on the verge of a switchover to an almost total dominance of intelligent and interconnected technology on our lives. It may be, that even now, we can be assured that everything we have said in “approved” places to talk. Has been recorded, and will be seen by the government and social control organisations that have importance in our future lives, and will know all of this, when you log into their AI System of the very near future.
Class Disparities: The stark class divisions portrayed in Metropolis persist today, with wealth inequality remaining a significant issue. They have gotten so bad, that pretty soon they will no longer need for us to vote in order to feel included. We may well need to vote for them to be included.
Recent studies indicate that while there have been efforts to address income inequality, disparities in wealth distribution have not significantly improved for many, particularly in developed nations.
Social Movements and Rebellion: Just as the workers in Metropolis rise against their oppressors, contemporary society has witnessed numerous social movements advocating for workers’ rights, social justice, and economic equity. These movements reflect a continued awareness and resistance to systemic inequalities, as well as a sign that very little has changed.
The rise of digital platforms, which has also seemingly empowered grassroots organizing, may also have been used to undo any significant social movements though externally inflected dissent and division, as a deliberately disruptive social control policy, targeted at all social reforming activist groups.
Shifts in Wealth Distribution: Most wealth has continued to pour into the pockets of the elite. Despite window dressing by way of many “Big Policy” statements, all of these tend to become undone, and only partially delivered due to organisational incongruence of one form or another. This includes a great deal of institutional corrupt practices, aimed at blocking the delivery of stated policies.
Global trends indicate that wealth concentration remains a challenge, with the richest individuals and corporations holding an increasingly disproportionate share of resources.
Hope for a Balanced Future:
Fritz Land offered hope for a more equal, and perhaps happier future as a result, through a vision of cooperation, only arrived at through revolution. And while we may have come close to delivering significant change, this seems to have never been allowed to actually be delivered. For example, if we brainwash ourselves to always vote for one party, it’s leadership will change it’s policies to be inline with those they claim to oppose, often by stealth.
Are we Free Yet?
In summary, we can suggest that society has continued to evolve along a mechanistic path, similar to that which Lang foretold would end in revolution. However, today, even though this prophecy can be said to have been justified, and to a large extent, thought of as proven.
That this revolution has not happened, and that it is likely that it was most likely to happen during the 1970’s and to a lesser extent the 1980’s. Today, it may be that we are so reliant upon centralised systems of control for our continued existence, that it may well be too late for that revolutionary change. We, as a society, may have already decided that aspect of our fate.
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