A Dystopian City in the Movie Metropolis

Metropolis is a film that is set in an urban dystopian city. This dystopian city clearly demonstrates a social crisis between workers and owners, thus clearly revealing the concept of capitalism. Capitalistic communities are those with an economic and political structure in which a country’s production is governed by private owners for profit, rather than by the state. Karl Marx was a theorist who fabricated the concept of capitalism. Max Weber, another theorist, also focused on this concept, but viewed capitalism from a different angle. Karl Marx, the theorist who coined the concept of capitalism focused on the different classes of capitalism, whereas Max Weber focused on his concept, “the spirit of capitalism”. Marx and Weber both use their concepts of capitalism to clearly demonstrate how capitalism is used in the film Metropolis to differentiate the social classes between workers and owners in this dystopian city.

The film is set in the city of metropolis, in where wealthy industrialists rule the majority of the city. These wealthy industrialists rule the city through their high-rise tower complexes, while the lower class struggle to work underground to operate machines that provide power to the wealthy class. Joh Frederson is the head master of Metropolis and the factory owner. His son, Freder Frederson passes his time in the pleasure garden, along with all the other children of the wealthy class. While in the garden, Freder notices the presence of a young woman named Maria, whom quickly enamors him. Along with Maria, are children from the working class, whom she has brought along to witness the privileged lifestyle that the wealthy children hold. Maria and the children are pushed away from the garden and Freder sets out...

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... placed high value on work rather than saving money. He also states that in order to be good capitalists you need to measure your finances. He didn’t agree with Marx that there are two different classes and that you should profit all the time. Weber believed that control was necessary and that capitalism stemmed form religious leaders.

Overall, both of these concepts relate to the film Metropolis. We see Marx’s concept of capitalism ingrained in this dystopian city. The workers supplying the power to the towers are known as the proletarians and Joh Frederson is the capitalist. In the other hand we see Weber’s concept of a religious leader in Maria. She was the one who was called to make a difference in this capitalistic society. In the end we see that both of these concepts distinguish the different social classes between workers and owners in this dystopian city.