An article by Shaun Sages
Popping my silent-film ‘cherry’ while
watching the crisp restoration of Fritz Lang’s legendary 1927 Metropolis,
I finally realized what inspired a majority of contemporary sci-fi flicks; what
stemmed bleak futuristic visions from Ridley Scott’s Blade Runner to
Madonna’s Express Yourself music video. With a bizarre plot often
digressing into irrelevancy, none of the half-dozen versions of Metropolis
have ever been structurally perfect, although the restored print screening in
Manhattan’s Film Forum is impeccable, yet it remains unfazed by
technologically advanced features like T2: Judgment Day. The fact that it
plays through images, with occasional black frames of summarized dialogue, is
special and rhythmic in ways only silent films can be. Audiences are able to
contemplate and establish an opinion without having the story distinctly
explained through dialogue. For some, it’s a treat, others consider it a
burden to avoid at all cost - - which is why we have films like Vanilla Sky
where the plot (once complex and provoking) is hand-fed and defined in the final
20-minutes.
Since its initial release, Metropolis
has been considerably trimmed, had scenes shifted and played with a new-age
score, but never until now has it been reassembled so faithfully to appease film
aficionados and historians alike (although no one will see Lang’s original
vision till the remaining 25% of footage is recovered). This restoration is not
a DVD “director’s cut” or Coppola’s Apocalypse Now Redux, in the
sense of a filmmaker splicing in footage he would liked to have used but felt
skeptical come premiere time, rather, it’s a salvage job. The surviving
negatives had to be cleaned and pasted accordingly to Lang’s intentions. As
was done with the Touch of Evil DVD, which revived Wells’ opening
tracking shot. The result is a fascinating experience that is a treat to anyone
who’s ever wondered what cinema meant before synch-sound arrived.
In its opening scene, where a herd of
zombie-like workers exhaustedly waddle out of a factory only to be relieved by a
new flock entering on the opposed side for the next shift, there is a scarily
satirical aspect that rings true nowadays. Manual labor has always dehumanized
mankind, numbing us into a mechanical state of mind, but furthermore, it forms
envy towards those privileged enough not to have worked a dead-end-minimum-waged
job. And this is the city of Metropolis, where men with brains own the machines
and the machines control the workers.
The film surprisingly still has themes
relevant to modern societies. Throughout Lang tries proving that “the mediator
between the hand and mind must be the heart”; meaning nobility and
understanding must connect workers with intellectuals. While Lang’s budget
rose out of control, eventually bankrupting its financers, his film has and will
continue to stand the test of time.
-Copyright
2002 by
Shaun Sages