“Metropolis”

The movie “Metropolis” is an old movie that portrays a futuristic dystopian society. The movie is silent and in black and white this can make the movie monotonous at times (especially since it is a futuristic movie), but this is due to the time the movie was created and so it cannot be judge under those standards. The movie is a Sci-Fi movie and show advances in technology due to scientific research, especially for the time it was created in.

In the dystopian society portrayed by the movie there are two cities divided by the two social classes. The privileged social class are the intellectuals, who live under better circumstances and on a higher level. While the working class keep work on the machines that sustenance live on the main city, they live in a lower level and under unsuitable circumstances. The gap between social classes is huge and the working class has had enough and are planning a revolt against the intellectuals. That was the situation when Freder and Maria meet. Freder is one of the intellectuals and the son of the leader of the intellectuals while Maria belongs to the working class and is helping plan the revolt. Freder is immediately captivated by her and decides that he must be with her. But in order to be together they must beat the obstacles that they find along the way. Including Freder’s father and a fake Maria that is a robot created by a scientific in order to discredit Maria with the workers in order to stop the revolt. In the end the workers do revolt and then the intellectuals decide to sink the children of the workers; the real Maria that had been taken captive escapes and helps the safe the children with the help of Freder. Freder becomes an intermediary between the workers and the intellectuals just as Maria had believed from the start. And of course Freder and Maria end up being together.

The movie has elements of originality in the futuristic society it creates, especially having done so a long time ago. However, the plot wasn’t very creative or innovative. The storyline of the movie was two people falling in love but are kept apart by social circumstances and therefore have to face a series of obstacles to be together; and the lovers are also in charge of eliminating hostilities between their social groups.  Maria and Freder are simply star-crossed lovers in a futuristic dystopian society.