My reflection of Metropolis

     

    Metropolis is an avant-garde movie that addresses several themes such as slavery, revolution, hierarchy, ethics surrounding machinery and robotics and marginalization. After doing some research on Fritz Lang, who was a pioneer of German Expressionism, he was inspired in the city of New York when he had visited it in 1924, describing it as a city of the future (which was mainly due to the presence of the skyscrapers). Fritz Lang was an architect, which gave him an advantage when designing his mesmerizing sets, such as the ones we see when watching Metropolis. 

    During the period the movie was shot, both Mexico and Russia were marked by their respective revolutions: The Mexican Revolution (1910-1920) and the Russian Revolution (1917). In 1917, specifically during the Mexican Revolution, a new constitution was brought where they addressed land reforms, labor rights and the separation of the church and state, which are themes that are very reflective in Metropolis's plot. In the movie, the laborers are slaves of a dictatorship, of the machinery, of industrialization, and have no rights. They eventually become robots and inorganic as they perform their tasks in the underground, a place for the miserable. As most sci-fi movies and video games (Warhammer 40K), there is this association that the worthless and miserable live underground (in hell), while the rich and privileged live on the top (like in heaven). There's a short sequence when our protagonist enters the underworld after following Maria, just to see how the machine showcases the face of a demon eating and torturing its subjects. One can consider today that this movie critics capitalism, as the rich (the dictator and his entourage) enjoy their lives, while the poor work restlessly for every 10 hours, not rewarded enough for their job. 

    However, when looking at this movie now, one can think that thanks to our technological innovations, laborers don't need to work that hard for some tasks in their respective industries (farming, etc.), since now we have machines that do these tasks for us. But, even so, the implementation of machines that end up taking out human jobs does rise a question of ethics regarding job opportunities that remain in several sectors. Even so, considering our avenir in the near future, the movie warns us about a possible scenario: a war against machines. Even if the laborers are primarily fighting against a tyrannical dictatorship, it is their revolution versus the machines that stood out for me during the film, since they are detaching themselves from their inner machinery and abuse that they had to go through since the beginning of the movie. 

    Regarding this detachment, another ethical issue proposed by the avant-garde Metropolis is using robots to serve as mere mimics of humans or even "clones." This is seen with Maria, or rather, the robot from Dr. Rotwang that brings chaos to the movie's society. Knowing how AI is increasing its efficiency and accuracy to replicate prompts, and how accurate some deepfakes are, it is no surprise that the internet could trick audiences to believe a political message that's not even there, or a declaration of war (for example), and this is well represented in Metropolis.