Comparison of Metropolis and Blade Runner

1551 Words4 Pages

From the silent epic of Fritz Lang Metropolis (1927) to Ridley’s Scott’s spectacular Blade Runner (1982) the connection between architecture and film has always been intimate. The most apparent concepts that connect these two films are the overall visuals of both films and their vision of city of the future. The futuristic city of both Scott and Lang are distinct in their landscapes, geography, and social structure. These two films sought to envision a future where technology was the basis by which society functioned. Technology was the culture and the cities would crumble without it (Will Brooker). Metropolis and Blade Runner uses the themes relationships among female sexuality and male vision, and technology. However, Gender roles and technology seems to be the most important part in both films.

Blade Runner became a cult classic. “The film may have survived long enough to benefit from a renewed taste for darker, more violent sci-fi. It’s appeal has less to do with a fascination for outer space (which does not feature beyond reference in a few lines of dialogue) than with a vision of earth and humankind in the near future” (Roberts and Wallis Pg 157-8). Both films have a timeless quality to it, as they are representative of the future of our planet earth. I find it so interesting that even though these films were made in different times their ideas about the futuristic city and society are almost identical.

The futuristic aspect of these films seems to be the main theme that connects the two films, but there are of course many other similar aspects that these films share, such as gender roles and the idea of masculinity v.s femininity, which we touch upon as class discussion when we’re talking about the film Blade Runner. ...

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...dir, by Fritz Lang (Universum Film AG. 1927)

Bibliography

Will Brooker. “Reel Toads and Imaginary Cites: Philip K. Dick, Blade Runner and the Contemporary Science Fiction Movie. (London: Wallflower Press. 2005)

Ruppert, Peter. “Technology and the Constructions of Gender in Fritz Lang’s Metropolis.” (2000) [Accessed 18 December 2012]

Andreas Huyssen. “The Vamp and the Machine: Technology and Sexuality in Fritz Lang’s Metropolis.” New German Critique: and Interdisciplinary Journal of German Studies. (1982)

Janet Lungstrum. “Metropolis and the Technosexual Woman of German Moderninity.” Women in the Metropolis: Gender and Moderninity in Weimar Culture. (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1997)

Bordwell Thomson, David. “Sex in Science Fiction Films: Romance or Enginnering?”. (New York: BFI Publishing, 1984)

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