42.
Metropolis (1927) -
Fritz LangIn the future, the society of Metropolis is divided in two social classes: the workers, who live in the underground below the machines level, and the dominant classes that lives in the surface. One man from the "thinkers" dares visit the underground where the workers toil, and is astonished by what he sees. Metropolis is about as visually stunning a movie as it gets. Whenever I see it, I'm always reminded of an art painting coming to life, or some weird graphic novel given full motion. This, unbelievably for a 1920's German silent movie is deep in Science Fiction. Movies like Dr. Strangelove, Blade Runner, Frankenstein and no doubt Tim Burton's gothic Gotham City would borrow elements form this film and are all influenced in some way by it's look. Probably even more eerie of Metropolis, is that the film's main theme even holds up and is relevant today. The movie is about technological advances and the fear of progress, which makes man worthless. This is way before computers were ever in existence. It's about class difference, and the conflict between the working class slaves and the sons of a rich society who can live life in total ease and fabulous pleasures. Visuals of hundreds and hundreds of workers working to and from their slave labor in perfect synchronization, the nightmarish cathedral, the haunting visuals of the "M" machine are all edged out on the minds of those who watch this film, never to be forgotten. Like the other movies that were coming out of Germany at that time, you can almost feel the pain and suffering the country was in. These are true visions of horror, born out of living in one of the worst time periods in their country's history.