Metropolis

            This was the first silent film I have ever seen but I was pretty amazed by it. The most amazing aspect of this movie to me was the grandiose sets built. Metropolis was made in 1927, yet it still had a budget of around 1.3 million dollars. The sets built were huge; part of the movie could have actually been a city. I feel like this movie was the Avatar of its time, the big movie with the huge budget that everybody went to go see.

            I enjoyed the movie’s story. About a rich man wanting to be equal with the workers who run his fathers city, and about a revolt by the workers led by and woman who they see as saint-like. They have secret meetings where they discuss how they can overthrow the metropolis, which they run because they operate the machines.

            My favorite scene from the film was when Freder, Joh Fredersen’s son, sees the workers and the machines for the first time. He witnesses a meltdown at one of the machine, in a cloud of smoke it transforms from a massive staircase full of men twisting knobs and pulling levers, to a gigantic sinister face made from machine parts, laughing as smoke fills the screen and men fall dead. The transformation from machine to monster in this scene made the whole metropolis look like and evil empire that needed to be shut down.

            It was a little hard to watch just because there was no monologue and because some scenes were missing, but overall I thought it was a beautifully done film and will remain a classic.