After watching the 145-minute complete restoration, I was completely convinced by this nearly 100-year-old film. If I were to position myself a hundred years ago, I would probably be more excited than I was when I saw Inception or Interstellar a few years ago. The sci-fi atmosphere created by the film, many fantasies about the future, scenes and pictures are all familiar. Look at the planes flying over the city, the railroad trains in mid-air, the huge dungeons... and the concept of replicants (except that the carrier copied in the film is a robot) If this masterpiece is made of color film Shooting, I believe I would also like to say, even the sci-fi imagination of "Blade Runner" is nothing but the same.
Although it is a sci-fi movie for nearly a hundred years, almost most sci-fi movies since then can find similarities in this movie. It can only be said that "Metropolis" is almost impeccable in terms of science fiction.
But this really isn't just a sci-fi-themed movie. The secondary performance of this film lies in the impact of the Industrial Revolution on human life style and psychology, the exploitation and exploitation of the proletariat by capital forces, and the most important core issue—reflection on the consequences of group unconsciousness. (The performance of this reflection process is extremely compact and methodical, and the choreography and directing skills can be seen to be profound.)
Several psychological features of the horrific mass unconscious, detailed in Le Pen's "The Rabble" (published in 1895), are played out in the film's final 60 minutes.
1. Impulsive and changeable
The squeezed dungeon workers originally hoped that the coordinator (the male protagonist) would participate and negotiate with the capitalists to resolve the unequal employment conflict. However, when the coordinator was not present, under the simple instigation of the replica robot, the workers were instantly furious, and neither man nor woman left and rushed to the core computer room, destroying the machine. In the process, they ignored the warning of the foreman of the computer room, and destroyed the core computer room dungeon, and the water would seep and be destroyed. This is impulse.
After destroying the core computer room, the foreman of the computer room just asked, "Where are your children?" At this time, the workers thought that the children were all drowned by water seepage, and they would not think of remedial measures for the first time. save people. Instead, the group was angry again, collectively shirking responsibility "it's all the witch's fault" and chanting the slogan "burn the witch". It's strange, maybe they were still taking that "witch" (replicating robot) as their savior a quarter of an hour ago, maybe a minute ago they were still dancing a victory dance around her. This is changeable.
2. Vulnerability to suggestion and gullibility
The laborers are under the control of the replica robot, and under the control of the fanaticism, they refuse to distinguish whether the person in front of them is the person they are very familiar with yesterday or N days before yesterday. The only reason in their brains is enough to tell which sentence is an absolute incitement and which is a more destructive suggestion of behavior. and do so.
3. Emotional exaggeration and simplicity
I won't go into details here, go to the movies. Or take a few pictures to see, the dramatic performance of the actors can be lowered by a few steps, and the unconscious emotional exaggeration of the group from the observation of facial expressions can already explain the problem. I still remember the "Black Lives Matter" movement in the United States. There was a photo of a black girl during a parade taken by the media. It made people not believe that such a facial expression would appear on that beautiful little face full of childishness. The heart first emerged. It's not the various ideas about the "Black Lives Matter" movement, but the anger at the unconscious spread and coercion of children by the group. In fact, examples of mass unconscious emotional exaggeration in real events abound, more dramatic than in movies. The word "simple" here seems to be inappropriate, and there seems to be a sympathetic attitude from the perspective of a third party. Or "single" might be better.
4. Paranoia and tyranny
Either black or white, good or bad, justice or evil, life or death... The human world is full of all kinds of dualistic thinking, and we begin to accept the control of dualistic thinking from birth, and the most serious consequences caused by dualistic thinking One is paranoia. During the French Revolution, the group's unconscious paranoia led to the fall of many innocent heads. From the beginning, as long as you were a nobleman, as long as you were in power, and later, as long as you were fuller than me (this is just a simple metaphor), all of them had to be guillotined. . In the film, the workers not only "burned" the witch (and finally "burned" the replica robot), I believe that if only one person shouted "kill" at that time, then the coordinator and his companions, even the kind-hearted heroine , and the capitalists will all be burned to death... even if the coordinator and his companions, and the heroine have just saved their children.
Finally, as a social being, at any time and place, we may or may not be unavoidable to fall into the mass unconscious, or along with the unconscious, or forced into the unconscious, or surrounded by layers of the unconscious... When these moments come, What should we do?
May God bless us all with a clear mind, a conscience and an independent sense of self. No partiality, no blind obedience, no harm!
The happy ending of the film, where capitalists and laborers make peace, seems to displease many. So, what is the best ending? After destroying the dungeon, destroying the dungeon, burning the capitalists and the coordinators (the sons of the capitalists), then dividing their property, the new rulers come to power, and start a new round of brainwashing, exploitation, and oppression... okay? Or, the capitalist is burned to death, his son and the heroine finally get married, and then the capitalist son who is the coordinator finally reaches a settlement with the laborer... I want to ask, how is the capitalist's son? The same sentence "the coordinator between the brain and the hands must be the heart" appears in the beginning and ending subtitles of the film. This sentence appears twice, which shows that the director is emphasizing its importance. The capitalists are the brains in this sentence, and the laborers are the hands. Heart, I don't quite agree with the role of the heart, and thinking about the heart in this sentence seems to have a perceptual tendency in combination with the plot. The brain has serious problems, and the contradiction between him and his hands is a real social problem. The brain is too greedy, irrational, and finally killed by both hands is also a common thing!
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