1984 And Metropolis Comparison

The first half of the twentieth century brought about rapid technological advancement in such a short time period. With these emerging technologies brought the increasing reliance of the machine. The dystopic futures of Fritz Lang’s Metropolis and George Orwell’s Nineteen Eighty Four foreshadows the impeding totalitarianism of a sentient machine. The dehumanising effect created by the machine widens the gap of the social hierarchies, increasing disparities between the working class and the upper class. Both Orwell and Lang concern themselves with the all-consuming fear that a creation of humanity will be the downfall of mankind.
Society’s reliance on the machine has created a universal dehumanisation. The machines survival has become the ultimate goal of society and the need to preserve its health has created a subservient population. Metropolis’ opening scene immediately establishes the machine and its far reaching influence on the entire populace. The towering sky scrapers and multiple overpasses draw heavy inspiration from Lang’s vision of New York, a nucleus for mindless capitalist greed. The multiple shots of the moving gears are contrasting against the following scene of the workers shift change, suggesting that the workers possess as many human qualities as the machine itself. They are completely expendable and synonymous in every way. The recent invention of the assembly line by Henry Ford allowed for a streamline process with each person only having one certain skill. Lang draws heavily on this idea that the workers are no more useful than a simple cog in a machine and can be as easily replaced.
The metaphysical machine of Nineteen Eighty Four chooses to control its population through the use of psychological and behavioural modification manoeuvres. This manifests itself in the language of Newspeak, which the party has chosen to replace English. The party is constantly refining the language with the ultimate goal that no one will be capable of original