Metropolis -- 1927 -- NR

If you only watch one silent film in your life, this is the one to watch. I watched the restored version that makes the robot an image of the lost love as opposed to a ripoff of Frankenstein's monster. 

This film has everything a movie needs: full characters, plots and subplots, current social and political themes, development, and amazing visuals and special effects (for 1927 and even today). As a silent movie, it also minimizes the intertitles and lets the visuals tell the story as much as possible once it gets going. Once the film was over, I knew the names of every one of the major characters, and for a silent movie, that is a big accomplishment. Fritz Lang directed, and he is clearly a genius.

This film follows a guy from the upper class called Freder who finds his way into the underworld of the workers. He had seen a woman named Maria while playing in his upper class world, and discovered she was a deaconess of sorts for the workers, giving them hope for a mediator between them and the upper class. Freder falls for her, and they plan to meet later. Unfortunately, Freder's father, Joh, is concerned about a possible worker uprising and goes to an inventor named Rotwang, who has always been able to give him obscure info before. Rotwang has created a "machine-man" in the form of a woman, and Joh wants Rotwang to give the machine the form of Maria. In one of the best special effects sequences EVER (especially when you consider this is 1927), they give the machine the form of Maria and she wreaks havoc among the workers. 

This is an iconic movie in the history of film, and more than worth watching.