defilmtv1-2, Exercise 3: Record, reputation and Kracauer

Model answer:

Metropolis is often called the greatest silent film and a landmark of science fiction. That is its reputation. The record is more mixed: the plot and its social message were criticised even at the time, it was a costly production that strained UFA's finances (check), and for decades only incomplete versions survived, so its fame owes much to its images and to the restoration.

Kracauer argued in 1947 that the films revealed a national mood that led towards Nazism. It is influential, but it reads later events back into earlier films and ignores the variety of the period, so it should be treated as an argument, not a proven fact.