originally posted on tumblr, Mar 5th 2026 

Movie-A-Day-Thon #10: Metropolis (1927)

I remember watching Metropolis (2001) for the first time back when I was young, I had caught it close to the end on some TV channel and I think it’s one of the reasons I’m so in love with robots and sci-fi in general. I also remember someone mentioning Metropolis as a fantastic classic and I was so ready to agree even though I had only watched the finale of it, and then they showed some scenes of some lady in a black and white movie doing some funky dancing, and I was very confused.

Of course much later I went on to deep dive more into sci-fi and dystopian stories, and just how much robots as a modern concept is steeped in socialeconomic critique, and I’ve tried to watch this movie four. different. times. All those times something happened that bounced me right off, and I kind of washed my hands from it. But no more. Today’s the day.

Just the prologue alone is wonderful in setting the scene for the story, and just what kind of machine the city is. It’s a land of incredible wealth and well, life inequality, and it’s not afraid to show it. I don’t think cyberpunk movies of recent do as good a job of showing just how subjulgated the working class is, then having them all step in march like wind-up toys at the shift change. Or just how devilish it all is, then Freder seeing the mouth of hell open to receive damned souls in a bursting machine that injured several workers.

And like, I could have told you this place is steeped in human hubris before they name dropped the New Tower of Babel.

Can’t really go off enough about how far it goes to set up just how nightmarish the city itself is. Not just in how it’s run but in it’s very structure. It’s all very Escheresque, buildings going on top of skyscrapers in nonsensical patterns and angles, to the point it’s overwhelming to conceive in your mind’s eye. Even stuff like a newspaper stand is set up in abstracts and messy angles. It’s good fucking shit, wish we had more of that instead of just more Blade Runner glummy-night-cities-in-the-rain redos.

There’s really not much I can say, to be honest. Everything about this movie is iconic, and even the less known scenes and plotbeats are well-driven and managed. If anything drags, I’d say it’s mostly as a trapping of the time and needing to rely on pantomime because of the lack of speech. It’s been so lauded and acclaimed for a reason and it truly shows in every minute of it.

I’m so glad I finally psuhed through the whole of it and get to properly appreciate it! Took my sweet time with it, but it was worth the wait and then some <3