The world of Fritz Lang’s Metropolis, reflects a social schism by placing the elite in the ‘penthouse’
suites of the city to revel in their wealth, while the workers—like ants—waste away at the ground level. This dynamic reflects the film’s overall themes
of social control and an inescapable socioeconomic divide. The city’s working class are likened to mindless cattle, as Lang
implies with the striking visual of the workers coming and going from the
factory in rows—obedient, huddled masses being led to the “slaughter” that is the reality of their everyday life. Worked
to exhaustion, and forced into submission, these men become no more autonomous
that the very machines they operate. This idea of man and machine becoming one
is played upon in a few films we’ve seen throughout the semester, most notably,
Blade Runner. By pigeon-holing people
as mindless/mechanical followers, that is what they become—robotic and obedient, to
whatever master moves them.Their fate is inherently self-perpetuating, and firmly reinforced by an oppressive society. Sadly, this notion of the rich getting richer on the labor of the poor is not so dissimilar from today's societal dynamic, close to a century after Lang's cautionary tale.
I agree with everything you have said. I feel that ideas proposed in this film can still be seen as injustices today. I think that the workers all in line like that, while you describe them as ants, also look similiar to that of Nazi's. The man and machine idea is a concept I have not seen in any films prior to this one. I think that this and other ideas seen in the film help to make it the historic peice that students still watch today.
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