The Influence of “Metropolis”
Fritz Lang’s “Metropolis” has been a source of influence and inspiration for an extremely long time now. I have found an interesting example of this. It can be found in the official music video for the song “From the Pinnacle to the Pit”, by the Swedish rock band, Ghost. I have included the video with this essay.
It is not possible to watch this music video and not see how it has been influenced by “Metropolis”. It shares the same retro sci-fi vision of a futuristic city. It also shows what appears to be an elite class living in the top of a high-rise while all the workers live on the ground level. Amongst this elite class, there is a very obviously influential female figure. There are also some comparable looking shots and scenery inside the high-rise. Towards the end of the music video, it shows the singer of the band at ground level exclaiming that “the light belongs to the people”. The music video ends right after this, but if it hadn’t, I would say that he would have possibly just started a revolt amongst the “workers” at ground level.
I am sure that the footage in this music video is taken from another old film, that was also inspired, in itself, by Fritz Lang’s “Metropolis”.