Metropolis presents a clear call for social unity with its key message, “the intermediary between the hand and the brain is the heart” . Filming for Metropolis began in 1925, six years after the German Revolution of 1918 where social tensions erupted in violence. German leadership during the war had made numerous concessions to labor unions such as in the Auxiliary Service Act of 1916 to placate the growing labor conflicts in Germany until the war was won, but the war was never won and social tensions between the bourgeoisie leadership and working class in Germany broke out in violence, the result of which was the establishment of the Weimar Republic. Despite significant economic, social, and political reforms, there remained significant …show more content…
According to Marx and Engels theory of history, “The unceasing improvement of machinery, ever more rapidly developing, makes their [the proletariat’s] livelihood more and more precarious” (CM 229). In Metropolis the machines make the workers lives more precarious, but not because they take the place of the worker, forcing them to seek ever more precarious employment. In human history, the function of a machine has been to automate a task or to make a job easier, but the machines of Metropolis require perpetual attention from the workers and seem to make their jobs harder rather than easier. To many critics, the machines of Metropolis were pointless and only served as a plot device. Lang’s perceived misrepresentation of machinery drew criticism from social progressives for misrepresenting the real issue, what Marx and Engels see as the issue with bourgeoisie society, and that is the exploitation of other human beings (Elasser 43). Conversely, conservatives saw the film as advocating the class-struggle; it seems that every political party had a different view of the film. Despite its seemingly anti-bourgeois-capitalist rhetoric, German communists decried the film’s adage that the mediator between the head and the hands must be the heart. Some found the message to be hypocritical, that Lang would suggest such an idea when the film he created was funded by the sort capitalist exploitation he warned against. In the months following the film’s release, journalist Felix Ziege
The film 1981 Harrison Bergeron had many characteristics of a dystopian society. For example, propaganda plays a significant role in a dystopian society and in the during the film, it was mentioned that Harrison Bergeron, the son of George and Hazel was arrested six years ago for “propagandist vandalism”. Propaganda in a dystopian society is used to control the citizens, as well as promoting specific societal standards. Also, with propaganda, the leader (Handicapper General) of the society has the power to persuade the citizens to give up their talents, individuality, life, etc. Thus, propaganda plays a large role on social tensions. In addition, this film demonstrates a dystopian society because the leader of the society convinces the citizens to give up their individuality in exchange for a “better”
The presence of an overwhelming and influential body of government, dictating the individuals of contextual society, may potentially lead to the thoughts and actions that oppose the ruling party. Through the exploration of Fritz Lang’s expressionist film, Metropolis (1927), and George Orwell’s politically satirical novel, Nineteen Eighty-Four (1948), the implications of an autocratic government upon the individuals of society are revealed. Lang’s expressionist film delves into the many issues faced by the Weimar Republic of Germany following the “War to end all wars” (Wells, 1914), in which the disparity between the upper and lower classes became distinctively apparent as a result of the ruling party’s capitalistic desires. Conversely, Orwell’s,
While this is a dramatized statement regarding the plight of the worker under the new machine driven industrial system, rhetoric such as this did represent the fears of the working class. Over time as industrialization appeared more commonly there emerged more heated debates between the working class and business owners.
Fritz Lang's Metropolis is a very powerful movie with various underlying meanings that allow the viewer to determine for himself. The movie itself is extremely difficult and hard to follow, although the essay "The Vamp and the Machine: Technology and Sexuality in Fritz Lang's Metropolis" written by Andreas Huyssen provided many helpful insights to aid in understanding the movie. Many of Huyssen's idea's are a bit extreme, but none the less the essay is very beneficial. His extreme views include ideas of castration and how it relates with the female robot, and sexulaity and how it relates technology. Although these ideas are extreme he does also provide many interesting ideas.
The radical changes of the nineteenth century were unlike any the world had seen before. A sense of these changes were felt by all in many aspects; not just politically, but in social and cultural means as well. When Mary Shelley's Frankenstein was published in 1831, it was clear that many general elements of the romantic era were well reflected. Similarly, Karl Marx and Frederick Engels' The Communist Manifesto appeared in 1848, a time of great national political revolutions throughout Europe. While textually these historic nineteenth century texts have little in common, it is clear however that they both are strong reactions to previous movements of European society. Underlying Shelley's Frankenstein are strong uses of romanticism, whereas The Communist Manifesto is undoubtedly opposing the consequences of the industrial revolution in Europe; both reactions of the past, yet effective in starkly different ways.
This is illustrated by the matrix, the fake, simulated world that the humans are kept in. This world was created by the machines to keep the humans from seeing the truth. In the article, Hess points out how Marx shows us where to look for the relation between base and superstructure. He claims that Marx believed that the realm of production "conditions the general process of social, political and intellectual life.” Hess goes on to explain that ideology is “unreliable” and mystifies social relations. I represent this in my video by explaining how, in the movie, Morpheus tries to get Neo to understand this concept by opening the curtain of the matrix and revealing the truth behind the illusion. When Neo begins to understand the matrix, he realizes that he is merely a worker being exploited for the machine’s benefit, and that the world he knew was only an ideology created and ensured by
The Prussian Province in which Engels was raised was the most industrialized place in Germany at the time. This gave Engels the ability to see the growing aspect of capitalism in society. He soon noticed the conflict between the labor and management. Even in his early years he showed concern for “social injustices”.[iii] Everyday when he went to school, he passed factories where workers “ ‘breathed in more smoke and out more dust than oxygen’, where children were imprisoned from the age of six, to be ‘victims of capitalist exploitation’.” [iv] He saw the poor work from morning until night and the homeless who slept in stables or on dung heaps. He watched as society escaped reality by slipping into a state of drunkenness each evening. He noticed the fierce competition among the industries creating an even more demanding atmosphere that showed no improvement in the current situation. His keen observations drove him to take action, especially since he was the son of a factory owner.[v]
Ruppert, Peter. “Technology and the Constructions of Gender in Fritz Lang’s Metropolis.” (2000) [Accessed 18 December 2012]
During the time of the industrial era, there were many people upset over the manner in which the nations were being run. They were upset with the idea of capitol gain and how it was affecting people’s actions. They saw this era causing people to exploit each other with the intent of monetary gain. Those that were already part of the higher ranking class, the richer, would see reason to force the lower class, the working man, to spend his life in the new factories. He would be bullied into risking life and limb at the monstrous machines while hardly earning a penny. The working man suffered because the richer man owned the factory and consumed all the profits himself. Some men, however, saw a solution as well as the problem. They thought that if the power could be taken out of the hands of the strong and power hungry, then the working class would realize the rights they had all along. The constant struggle for power would be eliminated and so society would become better. Two of these men were Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels. Marx had received all the recognition while Engels has been shunted off the pages of history. He did, however, still have an impact on the development of communism.
Marx’s idea of the estrangement of man from the product of his labor described the suffering of countless hours or work by the laborer, contributing to the production of a product that he could not afford with the wages he made. He helped to produce a product that only those wealthier than he could afford. As the society around him became more object-oriented, he became increasingly more alienated. In the lager, one factor that distanced the laborer from his product was that he no longer worked for a wage, but for survival. In a description of his fellow worker, Levi wrote, “He seems to think that his present situation is like outside, where it is honest and logical to work, as well as being of advantage, because according to what everyone says, the more one works the more one earns and eats.” Levi pitied his fellow worker for his naivety, as the Lager was not a place of labor for prosperity, but strictly a place of labor by force. One worked in order to live, focusing more on the uncertainty of their next meal, day, or even breath than the product of their l...
Marx states that the bourgeoisie not only took advantage of the proletariat through a horrible ratio of wages to labor, but also through other atrocities; he claims that it was common pract...
Since the early symphonies of Sammartini and Stamitz the orchestral symphony has underwent constant development. In the early nineteenth century Beethoven started a new form of the symphony when he composed a symphony based on programmatic music. The programmatic symphony is a composition that is written with non-musical influences. "Program music is instrumental music which tells a story illustrates literary ideas, or evokes pictorial scenes. Though the term originated with Listz, illustrative music has existed for as long as music itself."(Kennedy p. 579)
He writes, “The final word of Communism is to rule, not to save” (Para.2 Why I am not…) showing it to be more about chaos than order and equality. This applies directly to R.U.R., as when the robot revolution occurs, their orders were “to kill all mankind. Spare no men. Spare no women.”(II. P.61) The goal of the robots during act II is not to achieve this idea of utopia but to eliminate the humans, who are perceived to be the equivalent of the bourgeoisie. When putting it into perspective, this revolution by the robots demonstrates the overall brutality and issues, which were never raised or considered by Marx and Engels. Overall, we can see how the “gigantic slogan [of Communism] is power (moc), not help (pomoc).”(Para.2 Why I am not…) Is incorporated into the robot’s conquest of the humans, as that was their sole objective and power was the motivating factor for
LeBon suggested that crowds acted like Rousseau’s primitive man because they were spontaneous, easily influenced, and liable to turn violent (LeBon, in L&L 60). The crowd was incapable of higher forms of thought like morality, leading to fears of moral degeneration (LeBon, in L&L 60). Chant described how new spaces that provided entertainment for the masses—like theaters—were riddled with prostitution, gambling, alcohol, and other sinful activities (Chant, in L&L 71). Although Engels also spoke about moral degeneration, he thought that it was caused by industrialization itself rather than new spaces. In Great Towns, poverty caused by industrialization made people to turn to thievery, prostitution, and “moral ruin” (Engels). However, industrialization did not only cause the poor to degenerate; it caused everyone to feel “brutal indifference,” become “monads” of “unfeeling isolation,” and to ultimately “sacrifice the best of human nature” (Engels). The Communist Manifesto reflects Engels’ fears of moral degeneration of the masses; it claims that capitalism is not only exploitative, but also “profane[s]” “all that is holy” (Marx and
From a scholarly point of view, the film accurately depicts the lifestyle of a factory worker in the timeframe. Workers would stand on an assembly line and repeat the same action day in and day out. The film also depicts the transition of the human dependency of machines very well. The workers would work at the pace of the machines. The film also had metaphors of humans being controlled by machines when the main actor was sucked into the pulley system of a machine. The film also has a scene where there is a machine that automatically feeds humans.