Metropolis

I recently watched the 1927 science fiction classic, Metropolis, and was amazed and delighted to see the mind, body, and spirit characters so precisely defined. The movie has definite religious overtones and is a presentation of the Apocalypse from the book of Revelation. Several verses and themes from Genesis and Revelation are used throughout the movie.

The Body Character: Grot

The society in Metropolis is divided into two very distinct classes - the working class and the ruling class. Grot is a worker foreman and represents the worker class as a whole. The workers are called the "hands" throughout the film, meaning they are the means by which things get done. The are depicted as impoverished slave labor. They only exist to operate the Machine which keeps the city going.

The Mind Character: Joh Fredersen

Fredersen has an office in a tall building in the middle of the city. When there is an explosion in the machine, he is more concerned with who told him about it than he is with the workers who were hurt. He was one of the city's creators, who helped build the "Eternal Garden" for the pleasure of their sons, but Joh is not concerned with leisure activity. When he fires one of his associates, he shows no sympathy when others tell him the associate must now go into "the Depths." Joh Fredersen lacks any emotion or empathy toward almost everyone he knows. Where the workers and Grot are called the "hands," Joh Fredersen is called the "head."

The Spirit Character: Freder (Joh Fredersen's son)

Unlike his father, Freder enjoys recreation. When Maria brings in a group of children of the workers, his heart is moved so much that he leaves the Eternal Garden to speak with his father about the situation. When Joh fires the associate, the associate goes out into the hall to kill himself, but Freder intervenes and hires the man as his own employee. Because his father refuses to help, Freder takes it upon himself to go down to the Machine and experience what the life of a worker is like. He knows something has to change. When Maria shows up again, this time as a prophetess speaking of a coming "Mediator," Freder finally sees hope. He soon learns he is the Mediator who will show the "hands" and the "head" the path to one another. At end of the film, he does this literally by taking each of the other's hand and guiding them into a handshake.