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Metropolis
Various Information about the film |
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Metropolis is based on the graphic novel by Osamu Tezuka, a leading Japanese
cartoonist and producer, who passed on in 1989.
The film's character designer, Yasuhiro Nakura, successfully managed to keep the sweet old-fashioned feel of Tezuka's
style. Director Rintaro's other works include Astro boy (1952), Tezuka's most famous cartoon in the West. |
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Metropolis is originally a cult film by German director Fritz Lang,
first released in 1927.
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The films opens on a quote from 19th French writer Jules
Michelet, famous for his extensive study of religious and spiritual history. And there are several
religious references throughout. A text is projected onto a building's wall during the Mayor's speech,
which can only be
read in parts: "in Heaven are ... the land You are the shepherd ... of the cosmos ... the cosmos You are
Shamashl ... ocean of which all the Gods ... the depths, ... to let the monsters know of ... a rope to tie
everything together ... your extensive canopy ... day after day... even in the darkness ... to unknown ...
God...". All I could find out is that Shamashl is a character from the ancient Old Babylonian version
of an Akkadian myth, the Gilgamesh Epic. It makes sense since the movie also alludes to the
Biblical tale of the Babylonian Tower of Babel. The symbol and name of the Marduk party (Metropolis's
rough equivalent of the Gestapo) refer to a Babylonian creature with a serpent's head and
a scorpion's tail: the dragon of Marduk.
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Then there are also many political references, especially to
fascism and revolutions. First there is an allusion
the 1789 French
revolution through a free representation of Delacroix's famous painting, La liberté guidant le peuple
(= Freedom leading the people),
in the mayor's office.
A flashback during the coup d'Etat seems to refer to World War II and nazism. The members of the Marduk
party wear a band on their shoulder, just like nazis soldiers did. Idealist communism is also alluded to,
through the character Atlas. A picture of Che Guevara and
some writing on a board (where the word proletariat can distinctly be read) are shown behind Atlas
in several shots. Che Guevara was a most admired socialist doctor, who had played a part in the Cuban
revolution, hoping to end oppression and build a fairer state. He was murdered in Bolivia and became an
internationaly renown figure to idealist freedom fighters everywhere.
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