This weekend I watched on Netflix the film Metropolis (1927, Fritz Lang) and from the film I have found some detailed examples about how the movie itself expresses the German Expressionist theme of alienation/dehumanization resulting from the industrial revolution that moved laborers from agriculture/farm life to factory life in the city. The first example that relates to this theme would be when the movie begins and the underground-dwelling workers toil to operate the underground machines that power the city while the higher class people are living better lives. This stands out to the theme because it provided a vivid visual of the underground-dwelling workers working very hard to keep the city going and in return they weren’t appreciated
Fritz Lang’s 1927 silent film, “Metropolis” is an early example of this. The beginning shows machine gears and workers marching towards a factory. This place is known as the Workers’ City, described to be far below Metropolis, the city for the upper class founded by Joh Fredersen (Alfred Abel). The lives of the workers and the rich are very different,
The holocaust took the lives of six million persons, Jews, Catholics, and homosexuals. Night a memoir by Elie Wiesel was a book about the life as a Jew in the 1940’s. He explains how he suffered during the year that he was there, the camps he was at. The pain that he went thru getting separated from his mother, finding out that her and his sister Tzipora got sent to the crematorium. Life for a Jew in the 1940’s suck. Elie went thru dehumanization because of the way he gets treated in the concentration camps, from getting called dogs to being choosen like cattle.
In Night a memoir by Elie Wiesel, he uses imagery, simile, and connotation to demonstrate the effects of dehumanization and what affect it has on people.
The working class in this film are forced to endure agonising labour in extremely dangerous environments whilst the upper class, the ‘sons’ are free to live at their will. The dystopic setting of the ‘depths’ becomes evident through Lang’s use of symbolism when the dictator’s son, Freder, journeys to the depths and starts to see the workers being eaten up by the machines in the scene ‘Slaves of the Means of Production” (14.58-17.52). This symbolises the dystopic society in which workers do not have the right to be safe. This idea forms a contextual connection to the 1920’s Weimar Republic where there were two distinct classes, the conservative elite, who were free to live at their will, and the workers who were forced to endure labour with no guarantee for safety. Through the contextual connections of political reform and the shared perspectives of dystopian societies the quote “the object of power is power” is strongly supported by George Orwell’s ‘1984’ and Fritz Lang’s ‘Metropolis’.
My chosen theme, dehumanization, has affected my thoughts about our responsibility to one another by making me realize that we are not different at all, in fact, we’re all the same. No matter what race, gender, religion, or sexual preference. We should be responsible for one another because we are all human, not wild animals. We should not have to fight over trivial things, we are all livings beings but my evidence could almost prove otherwise, these starved, beaten, and tortured men have become
The Los Angeles Riots developed as a way to show frustration at the injustice that occurred at the expense of Rodney King, with the acquittal of the four white police officers. The escalation that occurred as a result, could have been prevented, had police chief Darryl Gates mobilized troops into the affected areas immediately, instead of prolonging the deployment. As a member of law enforcement, with over 42 years of experience, there is no way that he could not have anticipated the backlash that ensued. The complete brutalization and dehumanization of black people in the United States is appalling and it has led to inhumane, atrocious fall out that has had impacts that have carried forward to the present.
Eliezer in Night discusses life and experiences during the Holocaust to show human desensitization and dehumanization which leads me to the conclusion that events like this should not be repeated. By desensitization Eliezer means the change of people from good to bad. Also by dehumanization he means the change of classification of people to objects or animals.
Night, by Elie Wiesel, portrays an autobiography of a young boy who survives the traumatic events of the Holocaust. The Holocaust was a traumatic period of time in which many people, most of which Jews, are taken from their homes and deported to one of many concentration camps. There, the prisoners are either executed on the spot or forced into hard labor. Those working with labor (Including Elie), were subject to many forms of aggression by the Nazis. The worst of all, however, was the loss of humanity with the inmates working in the camps. Dehumanization is a practice the Nazis used in order to deteriorate the people to property. Nazi leaders achieved this goal by using brutal force, promoting the loss of
Dehumanization is the psychological process of demonizing the enemy, making them seem less than human, and therefore, unworthy of human treatment. The Nazis used this tactic to portray Jews as animalistic so that people would willingly persecute them. The Holocaust was a result of persecution. It led to around 12,000,000 innocent people being killed. Dehumanization is evident in Elie Wiesel’s memoir, Night.
The idea of progress being inspired by the past is revisited in Fritz Lang's 1927 film Metropolis.
In January of1927 Metropolis was released to the German public. The film, which was directed by Fritz Lang, was one of the first science fiction movies in the history of film. The film focuses on the differences between the working class who power the city and the wealthy whom indulge in it. The film was host to many German stars at the time such as Alfred Abel and Brigette Helm. As this conflict is going there is a separate yet relative story unfolding, a mad scientist has created an android out of love and desperation. Soon that same desperation drives him to use this robotic woman agansist his fellow man, causing open revolt and bloodshed. As Joh Frederson, founder
The silent film, Metropolis directed by Fritz Lang, released in 1927, reflects the social situation of the time in Germany during the Weimar Period, before the rise of Hitler power. At that time, there was a new political climate, which was in favor of an equity-oriented fascism rather than liberty-oriented capitalism. The film clearly gives viewers an idea that fascism way of the political system is the preferable ideology for the society by depicting the class struggles between capitalists and labours. Thus, the movie was often interpreted as a propaganda movie and being criticized.
The 1976 film Taxi Driver, directed by Martin Scosese does a good job of telling the tale of a working class laborer. Since the working-class protagonist in Taxi Driver seems to fail in directing violence toward political ends, one might argue that the film Taxi Driver rejects the proletarian class as the revolutionary class. However, the film embraces several ideas from Marxist thought, specifically Marx's idea of separate classes; proletariat and bourgeoisie in society. For instance, the use of social structures and the idea of the lower class revolting. Taking this into account is important because it helps us to better understand how the film views the economic system that produces people like Travis. This paper argues that the film
Metropolis is a silent movie by Fritz Lang made in 1927 Germany. The movie has multiple themes and implies many things about modern day theories and views. The movie entails many views on Marxism, capitalism, Industrialism, and organized religion, mostly. Marxism is supported in the movie, capitalism is not supported in the movie, Industrialism is partially supported, and Organized Religion is not supported.
This particular scene embodies the concept of cultural dislocation as this was one of the first times a German film had revisited many of the nation’s cities that were affected most by Nazism. This scene almost forces German viewers to reflect on the past that one associates with these cities and solidifies the movement’s purpose of not shying away from Germany’s history and looking back on it with a nostalgic lens. Near the beginning of the period in which the New German Cinema started gaining ground, Alice in the Cities helped shape what this movement would soon become. Wim Wenders served as one of the most influencing directors apart of the New German Cinema and his major themes are the dislocations caused by living in the modern world; cultural, psychological, and geographical. Another director that achieved an international reputation quicker than Wenders was Rainer Werner