Metropolis

When Percy invited me over to watch a 1927 silent science fiction film set in 2025, I'm not going to lie--my hopes were not so high. But actually, I thought this film was fabulous--it not only kept my attention, but provided plenty of opportunity for me to less-than-typically annoyingly interrupt the film with comments.

"The mediator between the head and the hands must be the heart!" The message of the film is overt and often repeated. But the themes are interesting: There are significant religious themes, not only against erotic dancing as provoking the masses, but also the workers gathering in the catacombs to hear of a coming mediator (who, when he arrives, is nearly killed). And references to the tower of Babel and the whore of Babylon. There are Hawthornesque themes of the danger of divorcing thought from emotion. The relationship of the worker to his work is also treated in the film. The dangers of technology are another important theme, particularly in regard to the scientific attempt to create life. And, of course, there's love.