architecture enlightens life

during last semester, there was once we were briefed on the modernism- and we were shown the film “metropolis” by fritz lang, that were done in 1927. the story projects to the future urban society and our assignment was to write an essay on the difference between today’s world and the futuristic world of metropolis

the film was the most expensively done during its time, the budget was around $200 million. of course, if you are to measure with today’s film standards, honestly I would say it’s a REALLY bored film. but well, history’s history- it’s good to reflect the past.. right, here’s my A- essay again

commuting workers towards underground of the city, metropolis

SOCIAL ASPECT
 The film Metropolis tells the prediction of the future from the view of 1930’s, that society is separated into two groups; the planners and the workers. In present day, I think that there still exists the class differentiation in this capitalist society, such as workers, and the much wealthier group- the elitists. Nevertheless, there is not a distinct line between upper and lower classes, there are people categorized into the middle class- between the workers and elitists. Socially speaking, working slaves have been illegal in the modern society, and human rights of workers are far more emphasized than that depicted in the film, where workers are not paid with salaries, but food and living quarters and they have no right for free speech. While today the workers are bound to have freedom, same as all the other class of society.

fredersen and his scientist creating a clone to sabotage the workers’ protest

POLITICAL ASPECT
 Politically speaking, the city Metropolis was literally controlled by the master planner Johann Fredersen, and Fredersen has powers of autocracy- in which he was not bounded by rules and regulations- and he could fire his staffs whenever he wants, and he crossed the ethic borders to clone Maria to disrupt the workers class. Today, in my opinion autocracy and dictatorship is heavily criticised by the international society, for example Adolf Hitler that is greatly opposed by governments  because it is a global statement that every human has the same rights, and laws apply to everyone, including leaders and politicians.

maria preaching about the story of babel

RELIGION’S ASPECT
 In the film Metropolis, it has seemed to be that the people lost all traits of religion, which any symbols of religion is mostly not visible. But there are few people that have the little knowledge of religion, for example Maria- that discuss stories in the Bible to the workers class. Today however, religion is a major aspect to the society, therefore major religions still exists- and with a huge number of people hold themselves to belief and faith- it is less likely to see that any religion will vanish in the future.

the view of metropolis

TECHNOLOGICAL ASPECT
 It is depicted in film that the workers roles are mainly to manage the machines that also consume a lot of manpower which can be seen that elevators have to transport a large number of workers, while in machines room where accidents seemed to happen often. However, today the invention of transistors as switch virtually removed the roles to manage the machines manually- also with higher efficiency.  Therefore, instead of workers switching on and off the machines, today workers bear with roles of much more manual aspects, such as supervising and repairing the machines, and in broader terms in fields such as agriculture and construction.

Planes and zeppelins were not as available or preferable as depicted in the movies- because today it is still not reasonable for air travel over short distances, and zeppelins were lost over time. Today, it is more to the invention of jet planes to travel long distances and such planes in the film has also been replaced with modern helicopters. Also, the film depicted traffic jams in roads, which is still apparent to today’s world- with traffic problems remain unsolved even with monorails and subways. There were also flyover highways in the film that correctly predicted to today’s highways, but it is not just available to higher class of society- but instead for the whole public.

citadel in the centre of metropolis

ARCHITECTURAL ASPECT
Architecturally speaking, the buildings in Metropolis represents power for certain groups of people, such as that the largest and tallest building, citadel in the centre of the Metropolis is symbolized as the dominance of Fredersen over the city. Today, buildings are much more associated with corporations but still, symbolized power to a certain extent as countries raced each other to build the tallest towers, typically to send the message that it is more capable than the other.

City with grid zoning and organization is also correctly predicted in the film, where buildings are separated by rectangular blocks of roads also very visible in today’s world. Modernism architecture is also correctly depicted, with windows were systemically arranged in the faces of buildings- very apparent to this day, in buildings such as Sears Towers and World Trade Center. While on the other hand, the Art Deco architecture were phased out such as the building style of the citadel is not to exist to today’s world.

p.s unless it is really necessary to watch the film, my advice; never ever spend your time to watch it