It took me a good long while to finally sit down and watch Metropolis (1927). It was a daunting task to embark upon when I weighed everything I knew about the film up. It’s a German expressionist film, and one of the most famous at that, but I liked other films from this movement I had seen, namely Nosferatu (1922), The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari (1920) and M (1931), and so this wasn't too much of a turn off. Secondly, it is a silent film. Now this could be where you think I was put off, but no, I have no problems with silent films as long as they are good films and from all accounts Metropolis is a great film, so this wasn't the problem. The issue that was keeping me from watching this film, and if you read any of my other reviews you may have already guessed it, was the fucking running time. its 2 hours and 33 minutes long. Now, you might not think that this is a staggeringly long running time but go back and read the other two potential issues I had. What this film was asking me to do was watch a two and half hour-long silent film and, despite my liking for silent films, it was something that was quite daunting. However, I am nothing if not a lover of all things film and if I couldn't bring myself to watch this film could I even call myself a film buff? So, I threw on the kettle, got myself comfy and pressed play. Two and a half hours later the film ended, and I sat there in a pool of regret for not having watched the film sooner. It is a genuine masterpiece, a true piece of art on film and it is of no surprise to me now that this film has such a legacy. The film takes place in both a dystopian and utopian future (depending on which end of the class structure you lad on) where the rich live lavish lives while the poor are made to work extremely demanding jobs underground to power the city above. One of the rich men, Freder (Gustav Frohlich), falls in love with a poor girl, Maria (Brigitte Helm). He attempts to bring the two worlds together, which involves keeping the poor from revolting whilst at the same time going against his father, Joh Fredersen (Alfred Abel), who is in major control of Metropolis. Joh, feeling threatened by the possible revolution and the betrayal of his son, enlists the help of the inventor, C.A. Rotwang (Rudolf Klein-Rogge), and his new invention, a machine man. The film then shows the conflicts between these two opposing classes and the attempts to get them to work together.
I'm not going to spend much time talking about the acting in the film, mainly because it’s a silent film and the style of acting is what you would expect from it. Hugely over the top movements, massively over expression facial movements and just totally melodramatic. Not to say this is a bad thing, in fact it is very much needed. When there is no dialogue you need to have the characters being larger than life in their expressions, so you know which direction the story is going in, character motivations and what people are feeling in certain situations. So, I don't have a problem with the style of acting. It is what it is, and I feel like in this film it is actually done better than in a lot of other silent films I've seen. For example, Brigitte Helm and Rudolf Klein-Rogge put in very engaging performances, especially Helm who has to portray two diametrically opposing characters playing both Maria, who is a sweet, pacifist girl who is regarded as saint like by the working class, and the machine man who is seductive and violent and in the end is the cause of the uprising. Klein-Rogge also does an impressive job as Rotwang. He plays it as a stereotypical mad scientist character, but it works, and he does well. He is always entertaining to watch, and his performance is not held back by the clichés (possibly because he had a hand in creating these clichés).
What makes this film stand out and pass the test of time however is in its look. It looks fucking brilliant. And that isn't even me saying that with the idea that it looks brilliant for the time, no no, I mean it looks brilliant even today. And it is because of one small reason that it looks this good, and that is because everything is actually there. Everything is real. I don't want to harp on about CGI, because when CGI is done well it can be brilliant, but for me nothing beats practical effects and actual sets. I'd take them over CGI and green screen any day. And the sets and look of this film is brilliant. There is scale to it. Metropolis feels huge, and looks majestic, when in reality it is mostly 2d models or hand drawn, but the way director Fritz Lang shoots it makes it look outstanding. Two set pieces stand out for me. The first one, which is shown in the picture above, is of the underground worshipping place where the workers go to hear Maria preach of peach and patience in their plight. It just looks brilliant, with the differing sizes of the crosses as the centrepiece, surrounded by the groovy looking walls with oddly shaped windows. It is expressionistic as holy hell and is very reminiscent of the set design of The Cabinet of Dr Caligari, and I just love it. But the best sequence both in scale, look and sheer "oh my god they actually did that" is in a moment where the workers underground city is flooding trapping our heroes and all the workers children inside. It is shot wonderfully, giving us as an audience a real sense of doom as the water rises, and it actually does rise (Lang was not fucking around with this scene). I mentioned the sense of scale earlier, but this is where it truly comes to the fore in a stunning way. The cave they are trapped in feels massive, and it may very well have been genuinely that big. Either way it really adds to the scene, allowing for long shots that really show off the size of the place and the danger that the characters are in, all whilst using expressionistic techniques of lighting and set design to really give the scene a really stunning visual effect. It is a scene that is going to stick long in the memory for me and I urge you to seek it out even if you don't watch the rest of the film, it is that good.
I can understand why many people may be turned off from seeing this film. There is not a lot of people I know who would knowingly and willing sit down to watch a silent film that is as long as this one. Hell, I know quite a few people who wouldn't even want to sit through a black and white film (which is possibly the stupidest thing I've ever heard). And if you had come to me 6 years ago before I had an interest in studying films and said I should watch this I'd have told you to sling your hook and put on Lord of the Rings for 76th time. But, that being said, watch this film. It is genuinely incredible, and I am not exaggerating that point. The fact that it has been so influential to film and culture since its release should make you slightly interested from even just a historical aspect (and Star Wars fans, if you want to know where C-3PO was born look no further than this film) but even taking that away it is just a genuinely brilliant film that is entertaining and never gets boring. Hopefully I have turned your head even just a little in the direction of this film, and if I haven’t I do understand as long as you understand what you're missing out on.