1984 and metropolis

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Intro quote
Historian and moralist John Acton professed “Power tends to corrupt, and absolute power corrupts absolutely”, and for both Metropolis and Nineteen Eighty-Four this ideology equates to the violent suppression of individualism
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Metropolis intro
Significantly Fritz Lang’s 1927 film Metropolis depicts a futuristic dystopia based upon the contextual concerns of Germany’s Weimar Republic, and growth in both German and Italian fascism and nationalism
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1984 intro
. Similarly Nineteen Eighty-Four by George Orwell illustrates the politically polar opposite danger to society, in the form of a totalitarianism communist government
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Para 1 intro
Lang’s Metropolis, leader Joh Fredersen seeks to create a capitalist dystopia, supported by the faceless undertows of the proletariat. Reflecting the social and national crisis of the German 1923 hyperinflation, Lang argues the loss of individual fre
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Para 1 tec 1
Identified early in the film through sombre costuming and bleak non-diegetic music, the tempo of footsteps paralleling the march of penal chain gangs, individuality is a privilege Lang reserves for the elite of Metropolis
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Para 1 tec 2
Reduced in both size and stature by elevated long-shots, Lang symbolises their dehumanisation, dwarfed by the arches above and entrapped by the jail-like bars around
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Para 1 conclusion
Expressing the fears of the German people, Lang explores the concerning, and present challenges of capitalism, warning of the arrogance associated with such hierarchical systems.
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1984 intro
In comparison to Fredersen’s plutocratic, somewhat idle form of governance, the Party of Nineteen Eighty-Four actively seeks total control
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para 2 tec 1
”. As Syme questions rhetorically, “Don’t you see that the whole aim of Newspeak is to narrow the range of thought”, making “Thought Crime literally impossible!”.
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para 2 tec 1 anaylsis + qoute
!”. Suppressing independence and the capacity for resistance, Ingsoc embodies Stalin’s axiom “Ideas are more powerful than guns. We would not let our enemies have guns, why should we let them have ideas”.
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1984 aim of the party compared to metropolis
Further, the Party seeks to create a centralised control of not only commodities, but thought and humanity, reflecting communist practices of the 20th century, contrasted to the at times laisse faire attitudes that diffirintiatie the extreme right a
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para 2 conclusion
Thus, whilst motives and results diverge - Fredersen’s idleness compared to ‘the Party’s’ active megalomania, both result in humanity’s degradation and the subjugation of individuality.
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Para 3 intro
As argued by Christopher Hitchens, to build on the monopoly of subjugation created through religion was a natural process for totalitarian governments, adding to the the Framework for repression as shown in both 1984 and Metropolis.
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parar 3 religious allusion
Echoing Stalin’s overhaul of religion, and the Catholic churches hypocrisy during the second world war, Fredersen’s monolithic ‘New Tower of Babel’ biblically alludes to the eponymous myth and his conceit, and religions role in legitimising absolute
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para 3 tec 1
An low angle, upper-body close up of Maria,, with outstretched arms and face haloed by light, testifies to her messianic message and the Weimar’s progressiveness.
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para 3 tec 1 anaylsis
Fredersen’s utopia is sustained by classist segregation, and religious legitimisation, a methodology that Lang insinuates defies nature and thus, like the ‘Tower of Babel’, is destined to crumble under its own hubris
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Para 4 intro
In contrast to Fredersen’s ignorant mistreatment, the Party’s power-lust in Nineteen Eighty-Four relies on coercion through subjugation .
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Para 4 tec 1
They aspire “an endless present in which the Party is always right”, where “every record has been destroyed or falsified…books re-written…dates altered
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Para 4 tec 2
Orwell expands this understanding through Socratic allusion “what was terrifying was not that they would kill but that they would be right...if both the past and external world exist only in the mind, and if the mind itself is controllable - whatthen
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Para 4 tec 2 analysis
Here, he alludes to Stalin’s genocidal regime,  “Death is the solution to all problems. No man - no problem”. Furthermore, the intent to induce “the rejection of your eyes and ears” conveys the Party’s totalitarian policies
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Para 4 tec 2 extra
reflecting the sentiments of Nazi Propaganda Minister Joseph Goebbels “If you tell a lie big enough and keep repeating it, people will eventually believe it”.
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Other cards in this set

Card 2

Front

Metropolis intro

Back

Significantly Fritz Lang’s 1927 film Metropolis depicts a futuristic dystopia based upon the contextual concerns of Germany’s Weimar Republic, and growth in both German and Italian fascism and nationalism

Card 3

Front

1984 intro

Back

Preview of the front of card 3

Card 4

Front

Para 1 intro

Back

Preview of the front of card 4

Card 5

Front

Para 1 tec 1

Back

Preview of the front of card 5
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