Charles Dong
Cultural Foundation III
Professor Bauman
Essay #2
Metropolis
----The Shift From Mechanical Technology To Electrical Technology
Arguably the most influential Science Fiction film of all time, Fritz Lang's “Metropolis” (1926) is one of those remarkable works that provides the audience with both visual enjoyments from its high aesthetic standard and spiritual value from the hidden significances. As one of the most widely known films of the silent era, “Metropolis” engages people to think, particularly how to resolve the fragmentation that technology has brought to society, which is also one of the themes of Marshall McLuhan develops in his book Understanding Media. Both Lang and McLuhan are revolutionary artists who are aware of the damage of technology to our society and urge unity, which McLuhan names it “Global Village.”
Let’s first take a look at the opening of this movie. The film begins with a montage of the great machines of Metropolis–phallic industrial images of gears, pistons, generators–moving in inexorable rhythms and repetition. These images are followed by sequences that establish economic and technological relationships in clearly delineated spatial terms. Under ground, where the workers toil, we see the dark side of technology. Here, where the sun never shines, workers are reduced to robots, their movements dominated by the mechanical rhythms of machines. But all in a sudden, the screen is switched a charming, or even paradise-like, scene. On the surface of the city in spellbinding images and special effects, the dystopian view of technology is seriously contradicted. We see a thriving metropolis, vast skyscrapers linked by aerial highways, huge stadiums and pleasure gardens, airplanes hovering between huge buildings and lines of cars that flow like streams below. Indeed, the opening of Lang’s masterpiece is shocking both physically