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• 1 2018-05-22T14:50:12+00:00 Greed/Metropolis 1 plain 2018-05-22T14:50:12+00:00 Fritz Lang’s film Metropolis (1927) is about the exploitation of workers by the elite and the lack of communication between the two groups. It also portrays the proletarian oppression of the lower class by  businessmen like in Grosz’ “Grey Day.” Throughout the film, the lower class experiences dangerous and exhausting working conditions and the higher class appears blinded by greed. Near the end of the movie, the heroine, Maria, tells the lower class of a mediator that will come someday to provide communication between the classes. Freder, the hero, witnesses an explosion of one of the machines which kills many workers. He is the son of Fredersen, the injured people’s supervisor . Freder has been very sheltered up until he witnesses the accident and afterwards wants to help the workers. Fredersen strives to keep things the way they are for the sake of his high class status. He often acts on his fear of any change happening between the two groups of workers because change implies the possibility of the decline of his  economic status.
  
  In the last scene, a bworker goes up to Fredersen, smiling and welcoming. The blue collar worker is ready to make change and to have a better relationship with his superior. Fredersen, however, seems cold and anxious and does not reciprocate the worker’s positive attitude. He is still afraid of change. Freder has to physically pull them together as the self-proclaimed mediator. This ending shows hope for the future, but still depicts the upper class as cold and cowardly without outside help. Fredersen still does not genuinely care about his workers. He resolves in the end to regain his work force with motivation from the love of his son.
  
  The film’s message is ambiguous. On the one hand, it provides hope for the potential of a mediatory force, like Freder and Maria. On the other hand, Fredersen’s reluctance to accept mediation leaves such a positive outcome anything but assured.