merelyaninnuendo
M A smart approach towards pacing up the feature by focusing on the big events or sequences amd investing all the chips in and mesmerize the audience along with the essential information that proves worthy later on. Fritz Lang is definitely no short on execution but also introduces some new lights on the whole 'mystery' genre with Thea Von Harbou where it focuses on the thrill of it and not the responsibility of it that mostly looks like homework in the end. Peter Lorre; the anti-hero in here has easily the hardest work given since he barely had enough verbal sparring between anyone and had to communicate the audience through the visual medium throughout the feature and he has done it well. M is that rare feature that shows the viewers its different perspective towards genre, characters and even humanity and this is where it sweeps away all the charm.
Edgar Allan Pooh
. . . but M is carefully crafted to show that there's even less Virtue to be found among police and government officials. Director Fritz Lang's provocative thesis is that all it takes is one evil man--say a failed painter or an Emmy-losing game show host--to corrupt and curse an entire nation. Lang's M presents Peter Lorre as a crazed child killer who elicits the intrusive Big Brother German Fascist Efficiency that would soon send Gestapo thugs fanning out across Europe for building-to-building Terroristic searches resulting in Anne Frank and millions of other moms, pops, and kiddies being tattooed, recorded in ledger books, stripped, gassed, and burned. All basic Human Rights are suspended in the face of M, as happened in Real Life within a few years of its premier. As Mark Twain's historical tome SAINT JOAN best illustrates, the "Maid of Orlean's" top general turned out to be a notorious child killer just like M, cursing France to be conquered at least a dozen times by England, Russia, Germany, Algeria, and Vietnam. Most people know that the Chicago Police Hob-Nobbed with the infamous child killer John Wayne Gacy as a prelude to the Troubles facing the U.S. Today. Every American, therefore, should view M ASAP.
roblesar99
Considering the fact that I regard director Fritz Lang's Metropolis as one of the crowning achievements in sci-fi cinema, I expected M to be an early hallmark of the thriller genre. However, while there's plenty to admire about Lang's first "talkie," it doesn't live up to the high standard set by Metropolis. The film follows two distinct groups, one composed of criminals and the other composed of police investigators, as they search for a serial killer of children after he strikes for the ninth time. What's most interesting about the film from a storytelling standpoint is that Lang eschews having a principal protagonist. Instead, Lang presents a three-prong narrative that focuses on Otto Wernicke's Inspector Karl Lohmann, Gustaf Gründgens' The Safecracker, and Peter Lorre's child killer Hans Beckert. Lang's decision to weave three story lines into one coherent narrative is a bold move, especially for a film nearly ninety years old, but Lang struggles just a tad to harness them all, leading to some slack pacing. The structure of the film felt akin to that of L.A. Confidential, but whereas that film functioned as a fascinating three- pronged character study, the characters in M unfortunately aren't as complex.However, it is refreshing to see Lorre receive plenty of screen time, considering his status as the film's antagonist. Most mystery films today spend their entire run time building up to the "big reveal," but Lang's decision to reveal the identity of the murderer halfway through allows for the film to benefit from Lorre's phenomenal acting. Carried mostly by a wide range of facial expressions, Lorre's performance elevates the film to a classic of German cinema. Despite his largely nonverbal performance, Lorre is also the beneficiary of one of the film's highlights: a powerful third act monologue in which Beckert reveals his motivations for the killings. The monologue itself proves magnificent, but I cannot help but feel that it's somewhat ill- conceived. I appreciate the fact that Lang devotes time to developing Beckert, crafting a more well-rounded character as a result, but I cannot sympathize with him. At his core, Beckert is still a child murderer, regardless of the contents of his speech. It almost feels like Lang uses the speech in an attempt to garner some last-minute sympathy for the character, but in that regard, he fails to hit the mark. Additionally, while the film's climax in and of itself is fantastic, the abrupt ending struck me as lazy and rushed. I can understand why Lang would want to leave Beckert's fate ambiguous, but another minute or two wouldn't have hurt.However, the film finds success in a multitude of other areas. For one, the camera work feels remarkably fluid, with Lang and his cinematographer Fritz Arno Wagner pulling off an array of technically impressive crane and tracking shots. Wagner's harsh lighting lends itself perfectly to the film's tense atmosphere as well. Apart from Lorre, the rest of the cast also delivers fine performances. Gründgens has a particularly solid turn as a career criminal driven to capture Beckert for his own sake while Wernicke makes the most of his cunning, unlikable detective. Lang also makes it clear that his career as a filmmaker began in the silent era, experimenting with the presence or absence of noise in certain scenes. The scenes bereft of noise are the most notable, with Lang selectively using them to amplify the tension. Initially, it feels jarring to see dozens of people milling around on screen without the presence of background noise or an orchestral soundtrack, but Lang's directorial skill prevent these scenes from feeling disconnected from the main narrative. Perhaps the main achievement here is that these overtly experimental scenes do not feel overly so.While I expected more from the director of one of sci-fi's most enduring cinematic masterpieces, I enjoyed most of what M had to offer. The cast, especially Lorre, delivers uniformly strong performances, while the film proves technically impressive in regards to its cinematography as well. And like any great thriller, there's also an underlying message that still resonates today, if even it is a bit too on the nose. However, while the film has certainly endured with age and still proves compelling from a mystery standpoint, it fails to reach the level of Metropolis because of Beckert's somewhat questionable characterization and storytelling flaws concerning the uneven pacing and overuse of exposition.Rating: 8/10 (Great)
