Discuss Fritz Lang's Metropolis and Charlie Chaplin's Modern Times
Very few movies portray the relationship between the government and civilian masses during trying moments such as Fritz Lang's “Metropolis”, and Charlie Chaplin's “Modern Times”. These are two critically acclaimed films made in the late 1920’s and mid 1930’s. The time period captured is the great depression, and examine the role of the governing authorities in relation to those governed.
“Metropolis” simply passes as one of the original science fiction movies in the world, and it has vivid imagery in it. Its’ main themes revolve around cultural exploitation and political issues facing the citizenry. It is set in Germany and tells the story of a metropolis where there are
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It concentrates on the effects of know-how on the society and how human beings are living side by side with them. They effects of mechanization are evident from the opening scene of this film where workers are being monitored by machines in a factory lending credence to his view of human enslavement by technology. At the time of making the film, America was going through high unemployment rates, and corporate downfall as a result of the great depression. Hence, the idea of saving money and time so as to amass huge profits came up hence the introduction of machines to work on behalf of humans.
Many film critics have argued that these two films resemble each other even though they were produced almost a decade apart. Both are about the suffering of the ordinary person in the hands of a ruthless upper-class. The ordinary man is seeking to live in a normal environment where there are no controls, and work is not mechanized. They all talk about a future where machines take over from human beings and do all the work. The machines even subdue the humans. In both films machines are at the centre of businesses as they make work easier, and increase profits for the elite. Governments in a capitalistic society do not control businesses. Furthermore, in both films the government is unable to take care of the masses as the elitist control all the resources available.
In “Metropolis”, it represents a capitalistic society where only those with the means
As Marx’s states in his theory, when the working class becomes aware of their exploitation, this will result in a revolt lead by the proletariats. The major theories studied by Marx can be used to analyze the characters and situations presented in the film.
These fears arose from the global recession due to the stock market crash in 1929, where unemployment, poverty, and crime greatly increased, and from the rapid decline of their government. M was also Fritz Lang’s first sound picture, and he therefore had the opportunity to use sound in ways that had not been done before. He used sound, and silence, to help shape the mood and tone of the film, making the emotions and the message he was portraying that much more effective. By doing so, Lang created a film that will remain as one of the greatest films of all
In the 1920s, Americans were trying to figure out what was everyone’s role in society. During this time women started to take on bigger jobs then housekeeping and African Americans are finally standing up for their race. Once 1929 hit, Herbert Hoover, America’s newest president, was viewed as an ‘American Superhero’ at that time because of everything he promised society; however, America gets hit by the Great Depression leaving society in a hole. While banking systems were unstable and overproduction were leaving people bankrupt, Herbert Hoover was blaming Europe and was failing to keep society financially stable. As his presidency went on, filmmakers made film cycles and gangster pictures like Little Caesar that portrayed America’s corrupt society during the Great Depression. By the end of his campaign, Hoover was known as the worst American ever which led to the rising of Franklin D. Roosevelt in 1933. Roosevelt saw the struggling society as an opportunity to help his campaign in which he created the New Deal. America was given an opportunity that allowed them to look forward to the future. During Herbert Hoover’s presidency, America did not support the federal government, but after Franklin D. Roosevelt ran for president and promised a New Deal, they began to look more favorably on the government.
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’.
First, technology is making the society smarter due to new machines; furthermore, technology has impacted in the America culture which is great. The influenced that technology has in America culture is good because it will change the way people think and develop new ideas in the future, so it can affect the American culture in good ways. For example, people will get educated due to new advanced technology because machines or programs will always be there to help human beings. Actually, computer and machines have the ability to think faster than humans being, so according to Thompson, “The computer would bring the lightning fast” because computers or machines have a database ready to think really fast (344). Every time human beings develop new innovations people worry about that the life is not going to be the same because technology will change their people’s lives because according to Thompson, the machine’s way of “thinking” is fundamentally unhuman” (243). In addition, when machines get better than the human beings, there will be great help from computers or machines. The America culture can be affect by the technology because new machines, but it will never have some negative influences. Technology will improve American culture in good ways because technology will help people in so many ways as thinking, developing new ideas, and new creations.
Dystopian science fiction films of the past have frequently presented a critical dystopia, by projecting future cities that perpetuates corporate capitalism’s prominent features. Examples of these features are urban decay, commodification, overcrowding, highly skewed disparities of wealth and poverty, and authoritarian policing. An example of a Dystopian science fiction film that project cities that perpetuates
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 first aspect that arose in these two films is greed. Greed was described fairly well in the films through Popiel and Bohdan Khmelnytsky. Although the characters were placed in different centuries, the films did not fail
The trauma of the Great Depression is also shown in the inability of government and authority to complete their tasks. In most of Hawks’s films, governments, which represent law and order, are useless and corruptive. Hereoes and heroines have fun to fool the government or the police. For instance, Vivian and Marlowe fool the police through telephone. Susan in Bring Up Baby simply deceives the police to avoid the parking ticket. In the screwball comedies, psychologists are always wrong and they are the unfortunate characters to bear the loss. Americans at that time would like to see the misbehavior of authority and government, and the films express people’s fear of Great Depression and memories
It shows our generation as lacking spirit and recognized by consumerism. The economic element plays a huge role in this film. The director is trying to prove that society cannot survive without material possessions. We are built on consumerism. The more possessions a person owns, the greater the economy is. The movie shows that consumers are attached to material possessions and that materialism and consumerism go hand in hand. Society has adopted the values that possessions are the highest value in life and that the only way to be successful is to have a large amount of nice material possessions. These items control the people that society has become and people spend their whole lives trying to find their identity through material items.
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.
It is important to realize how society works because it helps us to better understand how the film views the economic system that produces people like Travis. It also helps us to better understand what it is like to be like Travis who falls under the Proletariate category. 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 illustrates Marx's ideas in order to critique the capitalist
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.
My example that I will be using is Modern Times by Charlie Chaplin. Modern times is a film developed after the industrial revolution. It serves the purpose of critiquing capitalism and the social world. Modern Times begin with a factory worker who starts developing anxiety through the lack of breaks and repetitive work. When the Worker is on break, his boss is always keeping an eye on him and demands him to go back to work due to the loss of production. Soon after, the factory worker goes on lunch break, but is again distracted by his boss due to the desire to try out a new lunch contraption. At first, the new technology seems to work since the factory Worker was being fed. But, after a few seconds the contraption goes haywire and starts hurting the worker. The factory Worker goes back to work, but suddenly starts to mess up. He goes around ruining all his co-workers’ work and even get himself in prison. However, he ends up saving all the cops from the inmates’ revolution and is released early from jail. He does not want to leave since he is treated properly in jail and will be homeless in the outside world. He tries to get himself in prison again, but meets a beautiful woman Gamin who is also homeless and workless. They run off together and commit burglaries to feed themselves, but is soon discovered by the police. They manage to escape and run off to live in a small house by themselves. The factory Worker and the Gamin decides to have lunch together, but finds out that a