Metropolis: An Influential Film Masterpiece
In 1927, Fritz Lang created a place for himself in the history of cinema when he made and released the film Metropolis. This film has become a significant influence on the film industry in many ways. Metropolis is considered by many to be a landmark German film. This film set many standards for today's science-fiction films such as Star Wars, Blade Runner, and 2001: A Space Odyssey. Lang's use of mob scenes, providing a possible glimpse at the future, creating the model for robots, and elaborate scenes involving hundreds of workers have been used in many films since. This film not only contains beautiful sets, but also a standard for science-fiction films that are still used. The message of the film also has become important in today's society. There can be no understanding between the hands and the brain unless the heart acts as mediator. For these reasons as well as others, Metropolis is considered by many to be one of the greatest filmic masterpieces of all time.
There are many ways one can interpret the importance of this film. This is because of the many versions offered to modern audiences. The original version of this film has not been available since it's release. There have been several versions made since. As the years have progressed the story has taken on slight changes. The most common versions are the original German and United States versions, a 1980's U.S. version with a rock soundtrack and the recent re-release with restored footage. Most versions keep the film in black and white, while the early 1980's version provides a sepia and sometimes blue tinted look at the world of the city. The most recent re-issue includes a soundtrack that is a re-re...
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...ng the film to other works of Fritz Lang. Lang often uses the mob as a sense of society in his films. The importance of the mob rising above obstacles to seek justice is an important factor in the moral of his tales. Another possible way to compare the film is to look at other films of the time such as Nosferatu and The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari. By comparing this film to the other German Expressionistic films of the time, parallels could be made as to why this particular film style was popular and important to film history. Yet another possibility for study is to further look into how the science fiction genre has developed and been influenced by Lang's work in this film.
Works Cited
Metropolis. Dir. Fritz Lang. Perf. Gustav Frohlich, Alfred Abel, Brigitte Helm, and Rudolf Klein-Rogge. Universum Film A.G. (UFA), 1927.
It reminds us of a time not so different from where we live now, a world filled with lies, hatred, and moral ambiguity. It’s a story that largely reminds us as humans who we are, prone to mistakes and preconceptions that can lead to disastrous results, but also capable of growth and redemption. This story really allows you to understand different philosophies, perceptions, and differing opinions of morality and
The changes of all of these characters was highly important in terms of the plot of the movie. The film shows how all these completely different people changed so they could come together and fight for a cause that they all believed in, and it shows how they underwent that change. This shows us how it is possible for people to come together, no matter how different they are, and fight as one for a cause they all truly believe in.
As a chronic procrastinator myself I would have to say from experience that I do more often than not make a decision to procrastinate. When I procrastinate it is most times because I believe that I don’t need the time that I am given to get my work done, or simply that I don’t want to work on the project that day. In a paper written by a Serendip Student entitled “Procrastination: Habit or Disorder,” the author sheds light on the psychological view point of procrastination. The author breaks it up into two categories, behavioral procrastination and decisional procrastination. The author relates behavioral procrastination to self-handicap, meaning that those people use procrastination as an excuse to blame something for the reason that they did not pass that test. In this article, the author uses an experiment conducted by Ferrari and Tic, “participants (men and women) perform an identical task twice. In the first study, participants were notified that they would be evaluated on their performance of the task. Time was allotted for practice or engaging in fun activities. Results found that participants procrastinated for 60% of the time. The second study described the identical task as a fun game. Results of activity during the time allotted showed that procrastinators, in comparison
Results of students who received praise for intelligence: The students in this category had negative results after receiving praising. When asked afterwards if they wanted to do the same level of problems or try more challenging ones, they chose the task that would allow them to look smart and do well on. Consequently, while telling a child how smart he or she is, we are sending a message to not take risks and just look the part. Afterwards, these children were given a hard task, which they performed poorly on, and they know longer liked the problems and did not want to practice them at home. Children also felt “dumb” and when given the initial task (in which they did well), they performed significantly worse. Lastly, their opinions of intelligence reflected that it was an innate capacity as though you cannot improve.
Irvin, Kyle, Zachary Alexander, Kirk Strawbridge. Our Western World, Volume One: From The Dawn of Civilization-The Early Modern Age. Iowa. Kendall Hunt Publishing, 2013. Print.
Andreas Huyssen. “The Vamp and the Machine: Technology and Sexuality in Fritz Lang’s Metropolis.” New German Critique: and Interdisciplinary Journal of German Studies. (1982)
Fritz Lang's Metropolis details the age old conflict between the blue collared workers and the white collared businessmen.
This piece of writing gave more and deeper understanding how other facts have effects on our life as procrastinators. In this research, I came to very important information. This new idea I never imagined that was connected to my behavior as a procrastinator which was "Procrastination is a psychological phenomenon that extends broadly in society. Ferrari, O’Callahan, and Newbegin (2005) reported that 61% of the population display some form of procrastination, of which 20% do so in a chronic manner (e.g., routinely late for deadlines and postponing impor-tant tasks daily or weekly)" (Mun ̃oz-Olano, J. F., & Hurtado-Parrado, C. 2). As I mentioned before procrastination is not the same as laziness. Procrastination has to be with our psychological
The link between expressionism and horror quickly became a dominant feature in many films and continues to be prominent in contemporary films mainly due to the German expressionist masterpiece Das Kabinett des Doctor Caligari. Wiene’s 1920 Das Kabinett des Doctor Caligari utilized a distinctive creepiness and the uncanny throughout the film that became one the most distinctive features of externalising inner mental and emotional states of protagonists through various expressionist methods. Its revolutionary and innovative new art was heavily influenced by the German state and its populace in conjunction with their experience of war; Caligari took a clear cue from what was happening in Germany at the time. It was this film that set cinematic conventions that still apply today, heavily influencing the later Hollywood film noir genre as well as the psychological thrillers that has led several film audiences to engage with a film, its character, its plot and anticipate its outcome, only to question whether the entire movie was a dream, a story of a crazy man, or an elaborate role play. This concept of the familiar and the strange, the reality, the illusion and the dream developed in Das Kabinett des Doctor Caligari, is once again present in Scorsese’s 2010 film Shutter Island.
This movie is a wonderful production starting from 1960 and ending in 1969 covering all the different things that occurred during this unbelievable decade. The movie takes place in many different areas starring two main families; a very suburban, white family who were excepting of blacks, and a very positive black family trying to push black rights in Mississippi. The movie portrayed many historical events while also including the families and how the two were intertwined. These families were very different, yet so much alike, they both portrayed what to me the whole ‘message’ of the movie was. Although everyone was so different they all faced such drastic decisions and issues that affected everyone in so many different ways. It wasn’t like one person’s pain was easier to handle than another is that’s like saying Vietnam was harder on those men than on the men that stood for black rights or vice versa, everyone faced these equally hard issues. So it seemed everyone was very emotionally involved. In fact our whole country was very involved in president elections and campaigns against the war, it seemed everyone really cared.
"4 Quotes From Gurbaksh Chahal That Will Set You Up For Success." Under30CEO. N.p., n.d.
Many thinkers such as Charlie Chaplin, Fritz Lang, and James Cameron have stood against the obsession with human progress through the use of films. Charlie Chaplin specifically started and directed the film Modern Times in order to portray the struggles and conditions the working class was going through during the industrial revolution. He played a character that has a nervous breakdown because he works day in and day out in an assembly line factory. Using satire, Chaplin film portrays the notion that man has become a machine and while the blue-collar workers are trying to progress and succeed they won’t due to capitalistic needs. Similar to Chaplin, Fritz Lang, director of Metropolis, shows us that extreme measures as a society are willing
Pychyl, Timothy, Dr. "Procrastination, Guilt, Excuses and the Road Less Traveled." Psychology Today. Sussex Publishers, LLC. 18 Nov. 2009. Web. 02 May 2014.
Brownlow, Sheila, and Renee D. Reasinger. "Putting Off Until Tomorrow What Is Better Done Today: Academic Procrastination As A Function Of Motivation Toward College Work." Journal of Social Behavior & Personality 15.5 (2000): 15-34. Academic Search Premier. Web. 22 Apr. 2014.
The dichotomy between the view that intelligence levels are affected by situational factors and the view that intelligence is genetically transmitted has dominated psychological debates on IQ throughout decades. The statements made by many commentators that intelligences depends on genetic factors has been ...