Metropolis (1927) Summary
The movie is set in a city, Metropolis, where the society is made up of two inflexible groups; the thinkers and the workers. The thinkers or the planners who live a luxurious life on the surface of the earth while the workers live underground, beneath the planners. The city is under John Fredersen. The good-looking and evangelical character Maria takes responsibility of the cause of the workers. Maria warns the workers against forming a revolution but rather wait for a mediator to unite the two groups, Freder, a son to Fredersen. Freder is inspired by his passion for Maria and hence follows her to the underworld where the workers are living. In the underworld, he experiences the condition of the workers and sympathizes with their toiling life. He notes that the workers have a casual attitude towards the planners or their employers. An incidence occurs whereby the M-Machine explodes. The first thing the employers do is to search for new workers to ensure the machine continues to run instead of first handling and taking care of those workers who have been wounded or killed in the incidence. Freder is disturbed by this and the general living conditions for the workers. He therefore becomes part of Maria’s in the cause of the workers.
Freder’s father, Frederson seeks the advice of a scientist Rotwang, a former friend whom he considers a rival. Frederson realizes that, besides the dead bodies are papers that are believed to contain a planned speech by Maria over the workers’ conditions. He also realizes that Rotwang has made a robot gynoid that he intends to build and take the appearance of Hel. Hel is his ex- lover who he had broken up with and she left him for Fredersen, and eventually died while giving birth to Freder. Freder is convincing enough to amke Rotwang change his mind and build the robot in the appearance of Maria so that he is able to exercise strict control over the workers. Rotwang is persuaded by Fredersen’s idea since he knows about Maria and Freder’s affair. This would separate Fredersen and his son, Freder.
All these happen while the real Maria is retained in a house belonging to Rotwang in Metropolis. The robot of Maria is displayed dancing exotically in Yoshirwara night club found on the upper side of Metropolis. Maria’s robot is therefore seen pleasing the wealthy young men of the city. The robot Maria then goes to the workers and mobilizes them into a rebellion leading to the destruction of the “Heart Machine” which forms the power station of the city. Freder and Grot’s attempts to stop the destruction of the machine are not futile. Grot is the foreman of the heart machine. While this massive destruction takes place, the reservoirs in Metropolis overflow with water causing a flood on the underground city of the workers. The incidence drowns the workers’ children. Without the workers’ knowledge, Freder and Maria rescue the children.
The drowning of the children causes the workers to attack the upper city under the leadership of Grot where they hold liable the human Maria for the loss of their children. As the workers get into the city they get hold of the robot Maria which they burn. Freder gives up without realizing that this is Maria’s robot, but then after the robot is burned, Freder and the workers notice that it is indeed a robot. The real Maria is chased after by Rotwang while Freder struggles with him on the cathedral’s roof. The movie ends with Rotwang falling off the roof to death, while Maria and Freder go back to the city where Grot, the leader of the rioting workers unites with Fredersen by Freder.
In the Metropolis, Fredersen persuades Rotwang, the scientist, to build a robot of Maria who is displayed by the film acting for the cause of workers. The human Maria is hidden in Rotwang’s house, while the robot of Maria is displayed dancing exotically in Yoshirwara night club. The club is found on the upper side of Metropolis. Maria’s robot is therefore seen pleasing the wealthy young men of the city. The robot Maria then goes to the workers and mobilizes them into a full swing rebellion leading into destruction of the “Heart Machine” which forms the power station of the city. Freder and Grot’s attempts to stop the destruction of the machine are not futile. While this massive destruction takes place, the reservoirs in Metropolis overflow with water causing a flood on the underground city of the workers. The incidence drowns the workers’ children.
Fredersen uses Maria’s Robot to display her as someone has changed from what she used to be. This is what is referred as the makeover. Rotwang uses the robot Maria to show the radical transformation of the real Maria. Rotwang has been convinced by Fredersen and also acts on his own cause to destroy the relationship between him and his son Freder. Rotwang uses the robot to make clever use of normalization’s language of identity, within which an outer self must be brought into line with an inner truth (Heyes 21). The robot Maria is used to destroy the heart machine which is used in the power station. This causes the reservoirs to overflow and cause flooding which destroys the lives of the children belonging to the workers. Considering that destruction of the power station would have impacted negatively on the lives of the workers, the real Maria would have not led the workers into such destruction. To the contrary of what Maria would have done, Rotwang uses the makeover of the Maria as a robot to convince the workers into the destruction for his own cause.
Maria is at the beginning employed to bring to an end the workers who are not satisfied, but then finally provokes the workers into rebelling gainst her employer. Freder, the son to the ruler of Metropolis falls in love with one of the workers, Maria and this is against the father’s wishes. To stop this Fredersen, a great thinker convinces the scientist Rotwang to build a robot Maria such that it is used to build the robot in the appearance of Maria so that he is able to exercise strict control over the workers.
The robot Maria is used by both Fredersen and Rotwang to make an “appropriate surface presentation” (Bordo 20), of the Maria who is not Maria the real sense. Maria is trusted by the people and therefore her appearance is enough to convince the workers into riots. Maria’s robot is also displayed dancing exotically in Yoshirwara night club. The club is found on the upper side of Metropolis. Maria’s robot is therefore seen pleasing the wealthy young men of the city. The human Maria would have not exotically danced for the rich young men who oppress them as workers.
Works cited
Bordo, Susan. "The Body and the Reproduction of Femininity"in Writing on the Body: Female Embodiment and Feminist Theory. Eds. Katie Conboy, Nadia Medina, and Sarah Stanbury. New York: Columbia University Press. 1997: 90-110. Bordo 1997.pdf
Ringrose, Jessica & Walkerdine, Valerie. "Regulating the Abject: The TV Make-Over as Site of Neo-Liberal Reinvention Toward Bourgeois Femininity" in Feminist Media Studies. 8(3). 2008: 227-246 Ringrose 2008.pdf
Heyes, Cressida J. "Cosmetic Surgery and the Televisual Makeover: A Foucauldian Feminist Reading" in Feminist Media Studies. 7(1). 2007: 17-32. Heyes 2007.pdf
