Queen -- Radio Ga Ga

 

I'm providing a special Reminiscings of Youth here today. No, not because today is a national holiday or anything to do with the Christmas season. It's just that I finally got to see a movie that I had always wondered about: Fritz Lang's 1927 "Metropolis". Former writer and good friend JTM was kind enough to send me a copy of the nearly century-old film some weeks ago so this was an opportunity for an old-movie aficionado like myself.

Probably there are a lot of people who aren't silent film fans or simply can't really understand the appeal of old Hollywood black-and-white movies in general (one friend told me that he really couldn't stomach "Casablanca"...I bit my tongue there). Yeah, I get that...but after seeing "Metropolis", I can still feel that this was probably one very heady and ambitious experience for the original viewers at the theatres with the overall design of the sets and costumes, the special effects and the original gorgeous soundtrack by Gottfried Huppertz. Since I was a kid, I have had an affinity with the whole Art Deco movement (some of those Bing AI images that I've made have had some Art Deco thrown in by me) and "Metropolis" includes this with other artistic influences.

My observations can start with my surprise that this was indeed a feature-length movie of two hours that sped by surprisingly quickly. I hadn't been aware that there were silent films that went on that long back then and even without using the fast forward function, Lang kept the pace going at a fairly zippy pace like some blockbuster. Even having repeatedly seen and known about some of the iconic scenes such as the transformation to the evil Maria from the Machine-Man, it was still thrilling to encounter them again within the near-entirety of the film (apparently, according to the trailer above, my version was still several scenes shorter than this new one that has been plugged). Another observation is that the main actress Brigitte Helm had only been 17 when she began work and this was her first motion picture role, and even with the hamminess that had been part and parcel of being in silent movies, she was very impressive.

I also realized that "Metropolis" showed off a lot of movie tropes that we've gotten accustomed to over the decades and may now find as rather cliché such as two old enemies reluctantly working together for a common goal, one young man fighting against institutional evil by raising his own resistance through kindness and decency, and even the good and evil doppelgangers. But back in 1927, these may have been very fresh ingredients. It was apparently the first time as well for a movie to include a robot, albeit briefly. 

I've read that although perhaps regular viewers were enthralled with "Metropolis", the critics weren't nearly as kind with H.G. Wells himself calling it silly. But since then, it's gained a lot of cachet, popularity and respect and it's certainly provided a lot of influences for the sci-fi movies to come such as "Blade Runner", "Star Wars" and "Logan's Run". 

But the people that I have to thank for introducing that "Metropolis" even existed was the band Queen via the music video for their January 1984 hit "Radio Ga Ga". Getting lots of love on radio and music video programming back in the day, the song itself was Freddie Mercury and band kindly telling folks that radio should still be loved but the video was a lavish tribute to the movie (and Queen itself), even recreating certain backgrounds and sets from "Metropolis". When I first heard it, I thought it was the band getting with the 1980s program and bringing in all those synthesizers while still retaining that anthemic rock stance that they've had since the 1970s. Even watching the movie finally, I could still hear echoes of "Radio Ga Ga" in my head during certain key scenes.

In Canada, "Radio Ga Ga" hit No. 11 on RPM while in the States, it reached No. 16. Meanwhile, several countries in Europe had it go all the way to No. 1. So, what else was being released in January 1984?

Alfee -- Hoshizora no Distance （星空のディスタンス）

Kiyotaka Sugiyama & Omega Tribe -- Kimi no Heart wa Marine Blue （君のハートはマリンブルー）

Teresa Teng -- Tsugunai (つぐない）