by April Chin
POL128 - Ryerson University
Modernization is the transition from a pre-modernistic, agrarian,
to an industrialized, ‘modern’ society. Societies grow and evolve through this
process, which leads to results that are beneficial and consequential. Director
Fritz Lang showcases the more damaging effects that arise from this societal
transformation in his silent feature film Metropolis.
The city of Metropolis is highly built on industry, more specifically
machinery, clearly indicative through the film’s science-fiction qualities and
visually stimulating, highly industrialized sets used to tell the story to make
up for the lack of dialogue. Industrialization is one of the driving forces to
a city’s way to modernity, which Metropolis is no exception to, and it results
in growing social disparities. The society falls victim to extreme class
inequality where the elites remain in the metropolis and the workers are exiled
into the underground City of Workers. A further consequence of
industrialization is the rise of capitalism. In the film, Metropolis is implied
to be functioning in a capitalist system where there is greater priority
towards profit over morals. The president, Jon Fredersen’s ignorance towards
the blatant social issues causes instability between the classes resulting in
both cities’ demise. The modernization that Metropolis
is built upon is a reflection of
Director Lang’s underlying fear of the consequences of the process.
Metropolis resonates with the struggles in Germany back
in the 1920s. The Germans’ use of cinema as an escape from the reality of the
aftermath of World War I, Fritz Lang avoids the backlash of a too realistic
film and creates Metropolis, allowing
them to virtually experience a world that is not theirs through science
fiction. Germany’s desperation to recover from the lost war led to all sorts of
economic problems. In order to restore the nation’s state, the government
believed the best method in doing so was to increase the productivity of the
mechanical industry to lead their
economic rehabilitation (Fischer, 2005). The development of the city of
Metropolis can be said to be similar of the post-war situation. Although the film
lacks the mention of a war, the use of industry as a mean of economic gain is
evident. This is shown through a rendition of the biblical story of the Tower
of Babel, told by a female preacher by the name Maria. She tells the story to
make it relevant to her audience of workers with an emphasis on the disconnection
between the people who envisioned the tower and the labourers who were building
it for them. The story serves as a metaphor for their current situation as
being the ‘hands’ responsible for keeping the city above running. They have
built the tower where Joh Fredersen’s office lies, also called the Tower of
Babel, and everything that Metropolis has come to be. Nonetheless, Fredersen governs
the city by which the two social classes remain divided.
The significance of machinery in Metropolis emulates the rise of industry
in Germany to combat the previously mentioned post-war economic struggles. The
majority of the jobs available during this era were industrial so people took
what they could. Therefore, a shared consequence is the formation of
discontented workers. As expressed in a review on modernization by Kuthialia
(1973), “during industrialization, economic pressure induces peasants to become
workers, but mainly discontented ones.” This explains how Metropolis could
operate on the inequality created by Fredersen. The workers may presumably be
“peasants” from the previous social system and have no other qualifications for
better opportunities than manual labour. Meanwhile, the elites are arguably the
more intellectual, thus live in the comfort of Metropolis. The progression to
modernity creates more jobs resulting in a wider range of social classes, but
distinction between each still exist, suggesting the difficulty of moving up in
status.
Even greater social disparities arise due to
the state’s economic interest on industrialization. Metropolis show features of capitalism and exemplifies the unequal
nature of such a system through the divided cities. The film ties back to the 1920s
in Germany when there was “fixation on economic growth that big businesses had
shown little regard of the nation’s well-being, remaining more concerned about their
profits.” (Fischer, 2005). The film unravels the truth behind capitalism where only
the wealthy benefits from the system while the poor continue to become poorer.
The rich that live in Metropolis are those that Fredersen can profit from,
ultimately allowing for the city to grow. As the president, he is capable of
monopolizing the system and keeping everyone in their place resulting in the
growing wealth of the elites, and the workers’ profitless and laborious prolonging
lifestyle. He goes through extra measures to maintain his power over the City
of Workers as he checks up on them himself since the firing of his secretary
for not reporting on the commotion occurring underneath. He discovers the
catacombs and witnesses a spectacle that would become problematic for him where
the workers can think otherwise of rising to the top, in both literal and
social context; he sees Maria giving hope to her audience about an alliance
forming between both cities. He then proceeds to ruin her image and break the
workers’ trust on her by creating a ‘machine-man’ in her image to wreck havoc
in the underground city. This method may be fictional, yet it is still undoubtedly
unethical. Fredersen’s strategy is similar to films that showcase a
capitalistic theme that places profits and wealth above everything else and disregards
ethics (Christensen, 2015).
Fredersen’s dictatorship eventually
causes the downfall of both cities, implicative of the consequence of an
unstable society. Prior to overseeing Maria in the catacombs, he discovers the
machine-man, a recent invention by a prototypical mad scientist, Rotwang. Fredersen
gets Rotwang to agree on making machine-Maria and orders him to command the
machine-Maria to deceive the workers and cause chaos in Workers City. Fredersen
wants to anger them into wrongdoings so he can claim the right to use force
against them. However, he receives a backlash as Rotwang commands machine-Maria
to cause mayhem everywhere rather than just Workers City alone. Machine-Maria shatters
the idea of a mediator, the workers’ only hope for a better life, and incites
an uprising. As mentioned by Fischer (2005), “the principle champions of
resistance are the working-class masses”, Fredersen faces an angered resistance
group that sought out to destroy the machines that kept his beloved city
operating. The resistance also faces a backlash after the machine annihilation
that has caused flooding in the underground city where they left their children
behind. Fortunately the children were saved, but beforehand the group was too
preoccupied rejoicing to the wrecked machinery. Kuthiala (1973) states in their
review where “discontented groups form among workers in the occurrence of
modernizing aristocracy, which aristocrats bring about their own destruction”,
can be said in Fredensen’s situation. His ambition to improve Metropolis
exclusively was not going to work with how the city is being operated through
the social inequality he built and tried to maintain. The discontented workers
would eventually no longer be passive with the terrible working and living
conditions he has given them. The decision to use machine-Maria as a
manipulation tool, driven by his anxiety over power, was in fact the trigger to
empowering the workers. The downfall of Metropolis could also be considered his
own.
A society’s translation to modernity shows its acceptance
to the advancement of science and technology. However, Director Lang decides to
exhibit the flaws of modernization in Metropolis
and this critical review focuses on the social outcomes of industrialization present
in the movie. Social division could not be any clearer than the extreme
isolation of the workers, being forced to live and work in an underground city,
away and out-of-sight from the higher society that lies on the surface. In
addition, the leadership that puts self-interest first will only cause the
system to crumble. Such issues shown in the film can be found in the twenty-first
century. Fritz Lang’s predictions of the future are not entirely wrong since
they are current issues in certain parts of the world; meanwhile, it would be unfitting
to dismiss the multitude of benefits found in a modern society.
Metropolis may have represented what a modern society is today
after the joining forces of Metropolis and Workers City, with the help of the
mediator. This solution could have come sooner if the president did not
blatantly ignore all the problems wrong with Workers City and its existence
overall. Although, it is possible for the film to end without the formation of
the alliance, and to Metropolis’ doom, if not for the person who fills role of
the mediator to be the president’s son, Freder. No one else would be able to
convince Fredersen to join alliances with the workers; therefore, only Freder
could be the mediator that brings peace between the two social classes and minimize
the division. This circumstance seems to follow the trend in American films
during the 1920s mentioned in Projecting Politics, “heroic workers and
sympathetic portraits of workers became rare.” (Christensen, 2015). Metropolis cannot conclude with a
‘heroic worker’; Freder’s role is necessary for the development of the plot and
of other characters, and he happens to be outside the working class—a
high-standing hero. Despite his status, he fits the role and manages to make the
industry and labour cooperate.
Fischer, C. (2005). Scoundrels without a Fatherland? Heavy Industry and Transnationalism in Post-First World War Germany. Contemporary European History, 14(4), 441–464. doi: 10.1017/S0960777305002717.
Kuthiala, S. K. (1973). Review [Review of the book The Political Consequences of Modernization]. Contemporary Sociology, 2(3), 312-314. Available from http://www.jstor.org/stable/2064201Pommer, E. (Producer), & Lang, F. (Director). (1927). Metropolis [Motion picture]. Germany: Universum Film.
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