Social Values In The Film Metropolis

The movie Metropolis incorporates aspects of various political and social values in order to correctly convey its multiple underlying messages. The Authoritarian themes in this film are robust with the workers and higher class society operating their economy in parallel with that of a Fascist governmental system. The worker class who help the machines function are clearly designed to be viewed as short-sighted and easy suaded. Whether their leader be an seemingly normal pretty girl or a firm figure, as a collective they have a pack personality, they will not lead, only follow the person whom is perceived to have the answers. However, this lack of direction and purpose found in the workers is not solely their own as Freder and his father as …show more content…
This gives us a bleak understanding of the man and for most of the film he is perceived as shallow and without emotion. But as we witnessed during the tower scene of Freders fight to the death, his father expressed genuine fear and sorrow over his son’s endangerment. Despite the fact that early on he had just learned of that troubling acts that threaten to tear Metropolis down, he showed more emotional connection to his son than the city he devotes his entire life to. This gives the viewer the notion of his true humanity and that even though he wishes the workers, and perhaps even himself could become apathetic machines without human error he is unable to accomplish this. So the question now is, if this man feels great emotion like any other human, why did he attempt distance himself from emotion all together? This correlates to the death of his wife, and the loss of his passion. The finality of a loved one is a crushing blow and whenever this happens, the idea that if they never existed is a reassuring thought. This is exactly what is occurring with Freders father, by envisioning himself as a cold heartless machine, he is protecting himself from further emotional damage. This distance is so great that he only gains full emotion awareness when his son is on the verge of death. Looking at it this way, his father was searching for a way …show more content…
Freder and his father both lost the woman that is supposed to love them most and because of this they both in their own way emotionally distant themselves from life. The workers emotions are bleak and flimsy with very little distinguishability, this because of the loss of themselves and who they are is as ambiguous to them as it is to Freder and his father. For the circumstances causing their instability is the loss of something dear to them and each are fragmented to only a shell of themselves. Communication is key here, Freder and his father should be more open about their true feelings of their relation and Freders mother and the workers should be honest about how they feel. Which brings us to the final message of the movie that the trauma associated with loss is troublesome and isolation might be our initial goal however, coming together with our problems and communicating them is a more effective and healthy solution when addressing our