Merry Sottili

Race, Space and Class: The Politics of Cityscapes in Science-Fiction Films

David Desser�s essay Race, Space and Class: The Politics of Cityscapes in Science-Fiction Films examines certain science fiction films’ use of “politicized production design” in depicting future urban landscapes and the subsequent social commentary that this visual subtext generates. Desser defines “politicized production design” as “a way of imagining through the visual space the contemporary conflicts surrounding issues of race, class and gender” and asserts that Fritz Lang’s 1927 film Metropolis was the first in the science fiction genre to use this technique. By literally placing the community of the lower working class below ground while the upper class inhabits skyscrapers and other buildings above ground, Lang gives a visual concreteness to the major plot motivation found in the tension between these two classes. This production/plot relationship employs a doubled binary that Desser sees repeated in many subsequent films’ visual commentary. Citing high/low, inside/outside, order/disorder and technology/nature as some of the common production elements used to mirror thematic issues such as male/female, middle class/working class, self/Other, and human/nonhuman, Desser argues that the establishment of this dominant framework for highlighting societal concerns by Lang is why Metropolis is so historical significant.

Using 11 films and two episodes of a television series, all based in the science fiction genre (with the exception of King Kong which fits best in fantasy/horror genre) ranging in release date from 1930 to 1982, Desser shows a variety of instances where futuristic imagery becomes a crucial tool in exploring contemporary social issues. The examples also illustrate the different ways this technique is utilized from the extremely clear animal/man, dark/light reflection on race in King Kong to the highly ambigious imagery of Other/self that accompanies Blade Runner’s dialectic of nature/technology and ruminations on the role of emotion as a defining quality humanity. While Desser does an admirable job of highlighting this added level of commentary only available to fantasy and science fiction films, many of the examples he uses seem to find their context more in the thematic aspects of the narrative instead of the actual visual imagery.

Questions:

• Though he cites Godard’s Alphaville as an example of science fiction working dealing with issues of emotion vs logic, does Godard’s production values work visual to illustrate this binary? How so? What other issues are addressed through his imagery?
• Using Desser’s examination of these works as a framework couldn’t it be argued all science fiction and fantasy works are some reflection of contemporary social concerns or contain underlying commentary?
• Both Desser and Ryan and Keller in Technophobia chose to use Blade Runner as an example of a film where the binary relationship of logic/emotion is intrinsically ambiguous. How does their reading differ? Does Desser’s inclusion of the ending found in the director’s cut give any added insight?