Metropolis, a Greek word actually consisting of two words - meter (mother) and polis (city). Hence, metropolis can be translated into English as mother city. Curiously, some languages prefer an even stronger translation: In Czech, for example, they like to refer to their own metropolis as Praha, matka mest, which literally means, Prague, mother of cities.

In the ancient times, the term metropolis was reserved to a specific type of a city: The capital of an empire, state, kingdom and other places from which "the rest of the world" (or at least some major territory) was ruled. Thus a metropolis would rank considerably higher than a provincial city.

In modern days, any major city likes to be thought of as a metropolis, even if it is not the seat of the government. This is true particularly of the cities in the United States because a typical US State Capital is not a big city. By the same token, most US States have at least one big city which is not the Capital of that State.

Furthermore, at least in the US, the population in the area surrounding a major city is typically much larger than the population of the city itself. The two populations are typically added up and published as the population of the greater metropolitan area.

Naturally, if we follow the ancient tradition, any State Capital still deserves the title of metropolis even if it is not the cultural and business center of that state.

So, a modern meaning of the word metropolis often is any place which is a political, cultural, or economic center, though not necessarily all of the above (we might even think of E2 as a virtual metropolis).

Curiously, there is a Metropolis association which accepts any city as its member if it is a capital of a country or if it has at least one million inhabitants. It calls itself the World Association of the major metropolises. It is a somewhat strange association in that no US city is a member, nor are any of the four capitals of Central European countries (Prague, Vienna, Bratislava, Budapest.

Editorial: In my opinion calling oneself the World Association of the major metropolises is insensitive at least, even outright offensive to non-members. For one thing, a city either is a metropolis, or it is not, there are no major ones, and certainly not the major ones. And if there were any such things, certainly at least some of the cities in the US and the capitals of Central European countries would qualify. You can see a world map with the member cities listed at metropolis.org.

Metropolis is the truth. Metropolis is every city. All cities are part of Metropolis. It is an infinite territory with no boundaries, always expanding.

Metropolis is beyond time. Middle-age cities exist next to ancient Rome and futuristic 27th century cities. There are 20-miles tall towers, glass palaces, small clay huts and squares as large as a sea. The sky is always filled with a yellowish black smog.

Some parts of Metropolis are abandoned, others are inhabited by terrifying creatures or humans who wandered here and never found a way back. The most common creatures in Metropolis are the Azghouls, our old servants when we were gods (you gotta read the book, I'm not gonna explain that here). Wolvens, four-legged carnivores, are often seen roaming the streets in search of fresh blood.

The vast majority of Metropolis is a ghost town. Palaces are rusting away, huge machines are falling to pieces. Thousand-years old ruins, connected with alleys and stairs are now silent. Some parts of the city are connected with our own illusionary world. Some blocks in Manhattan, slums in New Delhi, burned-down ruins in Paris coexist in Metropolis and on "Earth".

There is also the Machine City. This area is several thousands square miles. It contains massive machines, old pistons, huge silent generators and high-voltage conductors. This place is in fact the only one "building" made entirely of steel, glass and wood. Iron tubes are connected to clay levers, without any significant meaning. Ladders, dark alleys and metal gangways are connecting the different parts of the building. Cooling chambers are standing next to steam turbines.
The Machine City is inhabited by Techrones, weird spider-like creatures made of steel, bones and silicon. They always wield torches and hammers, repairing or creating new parts of machinery. Nobody knows if Techrones actually created the Machine City or if it was created by humans, thousands and thousands of years ago.

Metropolis has a huge underground complex too. The mazes of sewers and tunnels under every big city are parts of Metropolis. Children exploring the local sewers may suddenly find themselves walking in a dark corridor with flickering neons and rattling steel floors. The underground is an enormous maze but always lead to his center. Near the center of the city, thousands meters down, lies the Cube. It is a huge black cube made of an unknown material. It is 100 meters on every sides and strange tubes filled with glowing liquids and wires are connected to it. Humanoids called Achlytides worship the Cube. They say it is a part of a god named Achlys.

As you can see, Metropolis is a vast city and nobody explored it all. There are 7,777 temples for the 7,777 living gods, now mad demonic monsters. Here lies the model of the Tower of Babel. Here lies the City of the Dead, the resting place for all dead creatures for many million years. Tall mausoleums rise above the ground. Mumbling creatures, though dead, still live in their dark chambers.
A 30-miles large Abyss lies where the Demiurge citadel is said to have been before his dissapearance. Clans of fools are ruling over small territories. Living deads walk freely in the streets.

This is our reality. The essence of our world. When someone breaks the illusion, he sees Metropolis. Slums, crime scenes, disaster areas are exposed places where one can see through the veil. This was our city where humans ruled when they were gods.

Metropolis is also the home to a seven foot tall fiberglass statue of Superman. The statue was erected in 1986, after a small group of locals put together about $1000 to do it.

Metropolis' association with Superman began in the early 70s, when Robert Westerfield moved to Metropolis from Owensboro, KY. Surprised that the town had no formal association with Superman, he spearheaded the movement to officially "adopt" Superman.

In 1973, a museum dedicated to all things Superman, The Amazing World of Superman was built. Unfortunately, due to a gasoline shortage at that time, long delays in the completion of Interstate 24, and other factors, the museum closed a year later. All of the merchanside and fixtures were auctioned off. The Superman association was pretty much abandoned until 1979, when the first Superman movie came out. As Metropolis was getting indundated with telephone calls about Superman, they hit upon the idea of the annual Superman Celebration.

|Directed by Rintaro
|Screenplay by Katsuhiro Otomo
|Based on manga by Osamu Tezuka
|Manga based on Fritz Lang's 1927 movie of the same name

Metropolis pulls character animation from the 50s, background animation from the most high-tech computer technology, and music from American jazz. Its plot is taken from both a good sci-fi/fantasy book and a story of civil strife --- with a little Blade Runner thrown in for good measure. And it does it damn well.

Without even getting into the plot whatsoever, one must say that the audio and visuals were masterfully done. The animation style pulled straight from the 1950s manga was set on top of the jazz from the same time period. This amazing combination set with the state-of-the-art computer generated futuristic city of Metropolis.

The music that was chosen for the movie is nearly humorous, especially in the latter scenes. However, it does do the movie perfect justice, allowing the nearly ironic music to actually reinforce the scene, thus making each scene (especially the ending) twice as powerful. This helps reinforce English-speaking watchers with something powerful to listen to, as they will miss the Japanese-spoken dialog (there are subtitles, of course).

The city of Metropolis is filled with both real and false life. You see, humans have finally created artificial life that is just as powerful as their real living counterparts. This creates natural problems that have been predicted in movies since the dawn of the art form, such as the civil strife involved with creating a life form that can compete with humans socially, in the work force, and for rights. Humans start revolting against robots, and wish to deny their rights. However, robots already feel as if they do not have enough rights as it is. Robots are titled as second-class citizens simply because they cannot have feelings like humans do. This is questioned with several key robots during the movie, which are undoubtedly "special". These robots are shown as full characters, and not just industrial tools. This factor alone makes this movie extremely different from previous movies, and creates a completely new impression of robots among its viewers.

Each movie has its flaws, however. In Metropolis, its flaws revolve around the concept itself. This movie isn't your typical anime movie, and isn't exactly easy for most people to grasp. The animation style is something interesting, but also is very foreign (about 50 years foreign, exactly) to viewers. The music, while really wonderful, is placed in the movie at odd times that many viewers might not understand. I must say that it took me a while to really sink in... about a few days, to be exact. But, that's where the flaws really end.

An easily understandable plot separates Metropolis from other anime movies, and the other aspects of its design surely define it as a true masterpiece. I just can't wait until this comes out on DVD in this country. However, it is only playing in two theatres in the United States - both in New York City (bigDATup!). Anyone not living in New York will probably see it first at home. I for one would be pleased to watch it spin in my DVD player!

GoogaGrade: A

Update: 02/07/02--Ereneta has informed me that Metropolis is now playing in Los Angeles (CA), New York (NY), Boston (MA), San Francisco (CA), Washington, D.C., Austin (TX), Seattle (WA), Chicago (IL), Toronto (ON), Vancouver (BC), and Honolulu (HI)
Thanks for the info, Ereneta!

Update: 03/24/02--Qousqous let me know that Metropolis is now playing in Portland (OR). By this time, I assume that it's in many more places than are listed here. The DVD's release date, btw, has been set back until April 23rd in the US. I assume that this is due to the success in the theaters.

Update: 05/02/02--Today I bought the movie on DVD, as it came out last Tuesday. I must comment on the true lack of good English voice-overs. I do not with upon my worst enemies the fate of watching Metropolis with the provided English voice-overs. They are horrid, and many feel they actually make the movie feel as if it is progressing slower. Stick with the Japanese voices w/ English subs, I say.

Update: 06/27/02--mkb has announced that Metropolis is currently all over French theatres.

An English-language weekly magazine published in and about Tokyo by Crisscross KK media.

Metropolis (metoroporisu in Katakana) is delivered to 67,500 subscribers and has an additional 30,000 readers beyond that, according to its publisher (http://metropolis.japantoday.com/common/crisscross/about_us.asp). Its readership is "79% business professionals in Tokyo with an average income of ¥437,375/month," again according to its publisher's statistics.

When I attended International Christian University's Summer Courses in Japanese in 2002, the administrators always had several dozen copies of Metropolis on hand. It's very useful for finding information on concerts, festivals, restaurants, and other information relevant to day-to-day life in Tokyo. While the magazine's articles are written entirely in English, they display a complete familiarity with Japanese culture and life in Tokyo.

By far, though, the most entertaining part of Metropolis is the classified ads. Since the magazine caters to expatriates and business travelers, specialty advertisers are always seen in the back pages. Ads for hostess bars promise huge payoffs for attractive foreign ladies, particularly blondes, looking for work. Head shops are also well-represented. Importers sell American groceries and items like books and movies at highly inflated prices.

Ads for merchandise and services are pretty boring. What intrigued my classmates and me were the personals. If you've never heard of enjo kosai, consider the personals to be a crash course. Some of the "men seeking women" ads are from "discreet" American businessmen who seek young Japanese women for fun. Likewise, some of the "women seeking men" ads come from young (19-21) Japanese women who want a sugar daddy to buy them expensive gifts. This doesn't describe all the ads, of course; many of them are for language instruction or friendship with a business or military person. Most of the personals are in English, but Metropolis prints ads in any language. Some ads are in Japanese, a few are in Chinese or Korean, and rare others are in western European languages. Every week my classmates and I would seek out the most outrageous ads from kinky 40-something white guys and Engrish-speaking ko gals alike.

All of the content in Metropolis, including those wacky personals, are on-line at http://metropolis.japantoday.com/. I strongly recommend it to any gaijin in need of a weekly guide to Tokyo.

There can be no understanding between the hands and the brain unless the heart acts as a mediator

'Metropolis', a silent black and white film directed by the Austrian director Fritz Lang and released in 1927, is considered to be the first science-fiction film ever made, and is still well received by modern audiences. The underlying theme of the film is that of class struggle, the bourgeoisie suppression of the proletariat. It set in the year 2026, and the story unfolds in a industrial city where the skyscrapers are inhabited by the thinkers and the workers forced to live and work underground.

I must admit that I had never heard of this film before this weekend; cinema is not one of my hobbies and most of the films I love tend to be stumbled over by accident. This film is no exception. I saw Metropolis in the Mediamix Tent at the Big Chill Festival with an electronica rescore performed by D.I.N.. I had no particular interest in seeing the film, but my friend was eager to watch, having wanted to see the film for years, and it seemed cruel to deny her this opportunity. Also, it was 1.15 am and I was freezing. I'll be completely honest with you; I was hooked within the first few seconds of the film starting. The special effects are amazing, and yes, I am talking about a film that is nearly 80 years old.

Plot

The aim of this write-up is to encourage you, yes YOU sat here reading this, to go and see this film. With this in mind, I'm not going to be giving you any plot spoilers, so please read on.

The story centres on Freder Frederson, the son of the Master of Metropolis, Johhan 'Joh' Fredersen. Gustav Fröhlich, a fluffy-haired Leonardo DiCaprio-type who spends most of the film demonstrating the fine art of ham acting, plays Freder, a playboy who spends his time messing around the Eden-like Eternal Gardens of Pleasure being entertained by various women. One day, he encounters the beautiful Maria, played by Brigitte Helm, a member of the working class who campaigns against revolution and for mediation between the two classes in order to achieve unity in society. Smitten, Freder follows her down into the underworld where he witnesses the cruel treatment of the working class for the first time. Shocked, he descends to the underworld to join Maria's cause, where he trades clothes and identities with a worker, 11811.

Meanwhile, his father Joh, wonderfully depicted by Alfred Abel as being an emotionally detached, austere man, meets with the mad scientist character, Rotwang, for advice regarding some recently discovered plans to sabotage essential machinery. While he is there, Rotwang shows him his latest creation: a beautiful robot modelled on Joh's deceased wife. Joh sees an opportunity in Rotwang's invention to gain control over the restless working classes.

So, what happens next?

Well, I'm not going to spoil the film by telling you, but rest assured there are numerous plot twists and disasters narrowly averted. I should clarify at this point that I watched the recently released modern version of the film; Metropolis has undergone numerous edits over the years, with different slants and emphases being given by different film distributors.

By the time of the films release in 1927, it had racked up prohibitive production costs, around $200 million in today's currency, that nearly bankrupted its financial backers, UFA (Universum Film). It was first shown as Lang intended in the January of 1927, and was then around 210 minutes long. This version of the film is no longer in existence. When it was exported to the US in the summer of 1927, it was heavily edited down to 63 minutes in length by the American playwright Channing Pollock because it was felt that the film's themes were too controversial for American audiences. A similar version to the US release was then shown in Germany later on in the year, running at 90 minutes.

There have been numerous attempts over the last fifty years to piece together the original film, and the most recent version, released in 2002 by Eureka, weighs in at 118 minutes. This version has been cobbled together having sourced out all archives of negatives that still exist in the world, and is the most complete version since the original that was released in 1927. Despite this, it is estimated that a quarter of the film has been lost forever. The Eureka version has a series of handy 'fillers'; screens of text that didn't appear in the original film but serve in this incarnation to explain plot developments that would be baffling without because of missing sections of film.

Musical Scores

Another aspect that will affect your appreciation of the film is which score is playing as you watch. There have been numerous different ones over the years, and there are probably many more unreleased scores that have been created, such as that by D.I.N. that I saw at the Chill. Gottfried Huppertz composed the original score in 1927, but the score that most people would be familiar with would be the rock 'n' roll version that was created by Giorgio Moroder for his 1984 re-release. It is possible to purchase various musician's CDs to listen to while playing the 1984 Moroder re-release on mute; it has even been suggested that Radiohead's 'Kid A' makes a great accompaniment.

Special Effects

The film has amazing depictions of the futuristic Metropolis, with geometric skyscrapers of various heights connected by bridges. Equally impressive is the machinery in the underground city; great industrial behemoths which dwarf the workers trying to keep up the fast-paced working speed of the various mechanisms that they are entrusted to care for. The special effects were produced using Eugen Schüfftan's method of creating imposing scenery using small scale models and mirrors.

Various pieces of trivia....

• The film was apparently one of Adolph Hitler's favourites.
• Stills from the film are used in the video to Queen's 'Radio Ga Ga', but contrary to rumour Queen never contributed to the musical score of the 1984 Moroder version, although Freddy Mercury did pen a small contribution.
• Brigitte Helm, the female lead in the film, always denied that she appeared in Metropolis and refused to talk about the film.

Director Fritz Lang

Script Thea Von Harbou, Fritz Lang

Cast

• Johhan 'Joh' Fredersen - Alfred Abel
• Freder Fredersen - Gustav Fröhlich
• Maria / The Machine Man / Death / The Seven Deadly Sins - Brigitte Helm
• C.A. Rotwang - Rudolf Klein-Rogge
• The Slim Man - Fritz Rasp
• Josaphat - Theodor Loos
• 11811 - Erwin Biswanger
• Grot - Heinrich George

• 1927 - Original (210 minutes)
• 1927 - US release version (63 minutes)
• 1928 - '28 German release (90 minutes)
• 1960's - Staatliches Filmarchiv version (114 minutes)
• 1984 - Giorgio Moroder version, with colour and sound effects (80 minutes)
• 2002 - Eureka version (118 minutes)

Me*trop"o*lis (?), n. [L. metropolis, Gr. , prop., the mother city (in relation to colonies); mother + city. See Mother, and Police.]

1.

The mother city; the chief city of a kingdom, state, or country.

[Edinburgh] gray metropolis of the North. Tennyson.

2. Eccl.

The seat, or see, of the metropolitan, or highest church dignitary.

The great metropolis and see of Rome. Shak.

© Webster 1913.