Review of M (1931) by Ryan H — 06 Sep 2010

This is undeniably one of the best films ever made. Fritz Lang was a master filmmaker. There are so many things that made M a film way ahead of its time. For example, the obvious reason that the movie follows a serial killer who murders and (what we understand) molests children. And the shots were highly original as well. I love the scene where we go into the restaurant and scope out everything around to get a feel for the place, which helps us understand the main character, the people of the city as a whole, and then the shot moves to the back of the restaurant, up the wall, which transitions into an outside wall with a window and then we go through the window and into the police headquarters. Beautiful. The opener was quite perfect having the little girl sing a song about the murderer. This sets up the mood for the movie. Fritz Lang also takes his time to introduce us to the townspeople and the police before jumping into the story, which proves to be a key part of the movie. Peter Lorre is perfect as well.

*SPOILERS*.

No one could pull off the creepiness of Becker quite like him. In the end when he is begging for the forgiveness of the convicts is perhaps one of the best pieces of cinema. We actually feel sympathy for a man who is murdering children! I felt like Lang was talking to every single person. We all have a certain sin that controls us, just his are quite a bit worse. This made me think of the song John Wayne Gacy Jr by Sufjan Stevens. The leitmotif was quite brilliant as well. Whenever he started whistling the song I was screaming to every child "run! get out of there!" Lang set the standards pretty high right off the bat for films with serial killers, and I don't know how many have made the cut of simply being as good as M.