By virtue of command of subject matter and instincts grounded into social trends, great directors have a way of marching into history and Fritz Lang was a product of this phenomenon.

Lang, a product of the Berlin school of film, had a creative vision that he developed into immortality as he stood on the deck of the ship Deutschland and observed New York City as the liner approached the vast metropolis.

As recounted by Lang's biographer Patrick McGilligan in "Fritz Lang:  Nature of the Beast," the experience fascinated and intrigued the director to the point where a film idea was born, one that would be carried to fruition in the 1927 release "Metropolis."

One of the major problems confronting society is the Catch-22 element of harnessing technology alongside the growth of major cities.  This is the issue that Lang tackles superbly with an account of a futuristic metropolis modeled alongside the New York City that Lang viewed from a ship deck.