Cyborgs, skinjobs, evil scientists, love triangles, energy plant meltdown, class division, collective bargaining, worker strikes — this silent film says multitudes with its themes that continue to resonate with modern audiences. It’s always amazing to me when science fiction from the past speaks as prophecy to future audiences or when its components actually still seem futuristic to audiences today. Silent films, like musicals, present special challenges to audience enjoyment, so I can’t say that I jumped at the chance to watch this silent film, despite the original orchestral music score. Overall, however, Metropolis spoke so vociferously on so many themes that I barely noticed the silence of the actors.
Metropolis is set in a futuristic city with stunning architecture that still inspires architects and designers today. The city’s economy is based on the subjugation of a working class that lives and works underground, while a ruling class of business managers supervise the city from above. The children of the working class are poor, ragged creatures that rarely see the light of day while the children of the uppercrust frolic in beautiful, sunny gardens of carnal delights. In this futuristic myth, the love of a working class girl and an upperclass boy brings the whole society to a grinding halt and then brokers a collective bargaining agreement for the working class that melds the head (the management) and the hands (the working class) through the power of the heart (the mediator or union of working class (the girl) and management (the boy)).
Much of the film was thought lost to time until recently, when the most complete version of the film was found in 2008 in Argentina that contained 30 minutes longer than any surviving copy. That restored version was first shown in 2010. Metropolis was the theme for the 2010 Burning Man. Metropolis is being staged with a live score in Dallas, Texas, by the Level Ground Theatre opening April 8, 2011 (http://www.levelgroundarts.com/). After Level Ground Theatre’s hilarious holiday extravaganza of Santa Claus vs. The Martians (based on the really bad 1964 movie Santa Claus Conquers the Martians), I can’t wait to see how Metropolis turns out!
Brandye Lauren's Critical Mass 