Metropolis Review

Messages: In this era of huge corporate profits and Wall Street protests, the movie's themes related to class and labor still seem relevant. Rather than placing blame, its idea is that the "head" (the corporations and managers) and the "body" (the workers) need a "heart" or a mediator to get them together and help them to understand one another.

Role models: Freder is a wealthy playboy, who, when he discovers the drudgery and danger of the workers' conditions, risks his life and livelihood to help do something about it, although he is partly motivated by a beautiful woman. Maria, too, inspires and motivates the workers with her secret underground meetings; she promotes a non-violent revolution.

Violence: There are some fistfights, chases, and escapes as well as some frightening imagery. There are angry mobs rioting. A woman is chased through eerie catacombs, and there are nightmare sequences with creepy moving statues, skeletons, and skulls. Workers are injured and hauled away on stretchers, and a flood threatens to wipe out the city. A character is nearly burned at the stake.

Sex: In one scene, women are gathered and chosen as amusement for the sons of the wealthy, and some of them wear see-through clothing. The hero is seen beginning to seduce one of these women. The robot double of Maria dances for men in a nightclub; she's almost topless except for pasties covering her breasts. The men pant and leer while they watch, as if she's driving them into a sexual frenzy. There's a brief drawing of a topless woman in a book. The hero and heroine kiss twice.

Language: The title cards include one use of "damn."

Consumerism: Not an issue

Drinking, drugs and smoking: Some minor characters smoke cigarettes in a background way. One character has a glass of liquor on his desk, but doesn't drink.