Event 1: Metropolis

Though this seems like a dramatic expression of worker’s conditions, it’s not too far from how some Amazon employees feel today. Emily Guendelsberger recounts her experience as one of the company’s warehouse workers where she felt like she was “being held to the productivity standards of a robot.” In her article, she describes the strict time constraints workers like her were expected to follow. You could liken Jeff Bezos to Joh Frederson, both men who seem to value productivity over humanity in their labor practices.

During the first scene of the film, workers with their heads down are packed like sardines into an elevator. We knew Metropolis had something to do with robots based on the film’s posters and the week’s topic, so several students in the Zoom chat, including myself, guessed that the workers must be robots. They looked like robots, and they were treated like them. The most telling scene, in my opinion, is the one where Freder sees a worker manning a clock-like machine. The man falls into Freder’s arms in exhaustion and says “…the machine!... Someone has to stay at the machine!” He is clearly worked to the extent of his physical capacity yet is concerned with the penalty of leaving his workstation, the penalty we saw in earlier scenes where workers are stripped down and fed into machines to be crushed and killed.

Despite the portrayal of worker’s conditions that seem increasingly relevant in industrial society, Metropolis was unsuccessful in its original German release. Its length was cut down in length to remove scenes deemed inappropriate by the Nazi government. It seems like Benjamin Walter was right when he said, “the conventional is uncritically enjoyed, and the truly new is criticized with aversion.”

Images from top to bottom: Metropolis workers in an elevator, an exhausted worker at the clock-like machine

Works Cited:

Guendelsberger, Emily, and On the Clock: What Low-Wage Work Did to Me and How It Drives America Insane. “Amazon Treats Its Warehouse Workers Like Robots: Ex-Employee.” Time, Time, 18 July 2019, time.com/5629233/amazon-warehouse-employee-treatment-robots/.

Martin, Nick. “Amazon Warehouse Workers Knew Someone Would Get Sick.” The New Republic, 19 Mar. 2020, newrepublic.com/article/156967/amazon-warehouse-workers-knew-someone-get-sick.

“Metropolis.” Encyclopædia Britannica, Encyclopædia Britannica, Inc., www.britannica.com/topic/Metropolis-film-1927#ref286759.

“Metropolis (1927) Full Movie 1080p.” YouTube, YouTube, 31 Aug. 2020, www.youtube.com/watch?v=5BBnMCAIuQg.

“METROPOLIS [2010 RESTORATION].” Roger Ebert's Film Festival: Metropolis, archive.ebertfest.media.illinois.edu/thirteen/metropolis.html.

Wikipedia contributors. "Metropolis (1927 film)." Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia. Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia, 22 Apr. 2021. Web. 24 Apr. 2021.