In March 1927, one of the most important films of all time came out, a landmark film of cinema history that has inspired everyone from Kubrick to Nolan and back again.
Metropolis, directed by Fritz Lang, is the father of all sci-fi epics. A masterpiece of pure cinematic expression.
Before cinema had CGI, colour, or even deep focus lens comes a movie that will blow anyone away.
A full 5k version of Metropolis is available on YouTube, with intertitles splicing together some missing scene. Watching Metropolis is a 10 out of 10 way to spend a Saturday afternoon.
The famous film has an interesting history.
Soon after its premiere, Metropolis was severely shortened and altered. Footage about equivalent to one reel that would have to be changed mid-screening was presumedly lost.
In 2008, an almost complete version of the film was discovered in Buenos Aires, Argentina. The material was heavily damaged and, because it had been printed on 16mm film stock, it did not have the full-aperture silent picture ratio.
Utilizing the footage from Argentina, a virtually complete Metropolis has been reconstructed and its proper editing has been restored. The text of the intertitles was taken from German censorship records and translated into English.
The story is a tale as old as time—boy meets girl, boy’s dad is overlord of futuristic city. Dad doesn’t approve, boy witnesses poor working conditions for the under-dwellings of city. Girl wants to abolish classism; boy is attracted on intellectual level.
Dad, a member of the ruling elite, wants his son to inherit the throne, not be a Marxist. So, Dad hires man to invent human robot to imitate girl and to tear them apart.
Boy and girl attempt to come together over their love and conspire to unify lower working class and upper ruling class city.
You know–classic stuff.
The movie is a silent film, however, when referring to silent film in history, what people mean is synchronized sound.
The film always had musical accompaniment which varied from theatre to theatre. TLang was forward thinking on music, recognizing its importance, and the film’s score is impressively loud and rousing.
Many films of this era, for convenience’s sake, used light piano scoring, because they had a high degree of confidence that at the very least, every theatre the film played would have a good piano.
Lang and his composer emphasized the music in the film with horns, organs, and bass drums in the accompaniment. The film was performed in front of a full orchestra at first, which would have been quite the experience.
The score is complete with Inception-esque sounds—much like the stylings of Hans Zimmer, composer of such scores as Inception, The Dark Knight Trilogy, Interstellar, and Blade Runner 2049.
Zimmer—now known as the unanimous god of film music (according to every Nolan fanboy of the internet)—has, in the past, cited this film as a point of inspiration for his work.
Metropolis’s impressive visual is alluded to across cinema history. Cinephile directors have made pastiches of scenes for decades, and I can guarantee every great sci-fi director has at least seen it.
Metropolis is most echoed in Ridley Scott’s 1982 cult classic Blade Runner and its 2017 sequel Blade Runner 2049, directed by Denis Villenueve.
The films all follow the ruling elite, living high away from the poor scummy working class, life with highly realistic androids, romantic drama at the centre of the plot line and glowing futuristic cities.
Metropolis has been studied by the greats and almost 100 years later impacts our pop-culture. It is public domain and free—give it a watch.
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