How Does Fritz Lang Present Contextual Issues And Concerns In Metropolis

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How does the composer Fritz Lang represent contextual issues and concerns in his film Metropolis? Fritz Lang’s 1927 didactic film Metropolis explores the ramifications of mankind’s hubris and hunger for power, and its consequences on humanity. Fritz Lang excoriates Weimar Republic Zeitgeist; its industrialised and capitalist values: humanity’s willingness to sacrifice basic human rights (e.g. personal freedom) in exchange for power and materialistic wealth, and Weimar’s dictatorial totalitarian regime. Lang emphasises the requirement for equilibrium between the working class and the elite to prevent a cataclysmic milieu, based on observations of his own Weimar epoch. Class struggles become adamant as humans become dehumanised and valued as functional mechanisms, rather than individuals. The juxtaposed representation of machinery extreme close-ups (cogs and pistons), and high angle long shots of the workers en masse in the prelude captures the absence of characterisation and subordination of the workers. The extreme close up of the cogs and pistons, coupled with the frenetic music’s accelerating pace expounds the overwhelming omnipresence of machinery, while simultaneously establishing a social hierarchy between capitalists and industrialists. Additionally, the workers apathetically position their heads towards the …show more content…

The military-like Stimmung evokes a bureaucratic approach to the management of workers, linking back to the autocratic leadership style of the Weimar Republic epoch, and representative of dystopia and Hitler’s

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