Metropolis: The Evolution Of The Dystopian Film

The dystopian science fiction film presents to its audience a vision of the future full of bleak imagery, hopelessness, and strong words of caution against perceived threats to civilized society: “Images of dystopia are necessarily reflections of their time” (Berg). From the first glimmers of dystopian society in film as seen in the 1927 film, Metropolis to the present day young adult craze, The Hunger Games series, dystopian film has been playing on audience’s fears and anxieties about the future as they relate to the current social, political, and economic circumstances of the age in which they are released. The dystopian film has continued to persist as it adapts to new audiences and new generations, expressing the social fears that speak the target demographic of its time. In order to explore the evolution and adaptations of the dystopian genre I will trace the movement and changes of the genre chronologically from the beginnings of the genre, Metropolis to modern day dystopian films. The films analyzed here do not cover the vast number of movies contributing to …show more content…
In a time when the political divide is so extremely bi-partisan each side feels threatened by how the youth will respond. Perhaps reaching out to the younger crowd with dystopian movies is a way of persuading them of a certain partisan stance as a way of ensuring their side will stay alive as the younger crowd comes of age to begin being politically involved. The extreme bi-partisan nature of our country right now demands that steps be taken to ensure that one’s “side” is incorporated into the younger generation in order to survive. If this hypothesis is true, I would expect to see dystopian movies soon with a tilt towards the left in order to combat these perceived right-leaning dystopian movies target at a young