Metropolis

When I found out that I would be watching the movie "Metropolis", the thought was exciting for me. For, being an architect in the making, I have heard a lot about it from my design professors, and was intrigued to find what the fuss was about.

As the screening started, I tried to be very attentive, for I knew that it being a silent movie must mean that there are certain visual details one must SEE. And so I tried to take mental notes for what I thought was relevant and/or sometimes peculiar; certain words, behaviors and movements captured my attention.

As the movie went on, I found it to be at times boring, other times quite funny. For the overall eccentric feel that it possesses takes on different perspectives throughout the movie. The burst of sudden and sometimes silly movements makes it absurd to watch. However, the fact that is it silent maybe reason enough for such movements to occur. Keeping that in mind, comes the surprise that the movie actually gave me chills at times, for it certainly had a definite impact on my perception of things.

"The mediator between hand and head must be the heart". What was really noticeable in the film was the fact that each of these 3 parties are exaggerated in character, each character representing a symbol - hand, head and heart. Head stiff and expressionless, heart hyper-expressive and sensitive, and hand robot like, formed the pillars of the "Metropolis"; at least the dream of it, where all three join hands just like they literally do at the end of the movie.

Other than that, perhaps the most impressive aspect of the movie is its ability to persist through time. In a time where no such things existed, Lang was able to portray a futuristic city and create a story that is not attached to a certain period of time nor to a city is specific. Even now I could relate to where the story is coming from. It made me think about some of my everyday activities, some maybe lame, it made me think. 

 

The largely expressionist mood of the film along with its topic and futuristic aspect made it most remarkable for me to watch. For a first time experience in watching a silent movie, I could say I was pleased.

Hemingway vs "Soldier's Home"

When I first read "soldier's home", I got a bit depressed. I found the story to be sad and unavoidably painful; not your everyday treat. How can it be when it revolves around the despair of a soldier, once back home, lost and inevitably bruised finds himself to be an ugly duckling.

As I read about Hemingway, I could understand where the story is coming from. In "soldier's home", krebs was a conformist young lad. Eager to become a man, he enlisted himself in the Marines in 1917. What is interesting about this particular date in the story is that, that same year Hemingway himself got rejected for military service because of a defected eye, but still managed to get enrolled as an ambulance driver for the red cross, putting him in the foreground of world war I. Here we can relate Krebs to Hemingway in character, both wanting to prove themselves at a young age, both wanting to be worthy of their uniform.

While in service, Hemingway was injured in 1918 and was hospitalized. During recovery he met and fell in love with Agnes von Kurowsky, an American nurse. However Agnes did not share that love and rejected Hemingway's marriage proposal, leaving him heartbroken and alone. In the story, Krebs showed hesitance and fear of consequences when it came to "girls in town". It said that krebs liked to watch the girls and that he would like to have a girl, but didn't want the trouble of courting or the politics, "it wasn't worth it" he said. It is as if Hemingway was expressing his frustration of his own experience - Agnes - through Krebs.  He didn't want Krebs to have to go through the consequence, that of a broken heart. "it wasn't worth it".

 

On another note, a few months after Hemingway went back home, he received a letter from Agnes explaining her disapproval. It was the fact that see saw him as a "kid", she expressed her regret of misleading him from the start, she found him "aimless" and a "spoiled child". Which also underlines the previously mentioned frustration Hemingway must have felt, and has expressed through the character of Krebs.

One can say that the story "Soldier's Home" is in fact to some extent an autobiography, or at least a fragment of it. For it is closely linked to Hemingway's personal life and experiences, it is almost as if Hemingway embodied his own values in the main character, those of fervor, courage and endurance.