The City

The City is a propogandistic look at the perils of industry and the steps a community can take to pull society out of these so called pitfalls. It begins with a look at a more pastoral time, when simple farmers and craftsmen survived by cottage industry. Then, with teh onset of fatories, the film seques into showing us dirty, dejected, poverty stricken people living amongst the smog and dirt of a factory community. Their shacks are falling apart, the children don't smile, everyone looks like they're ready to kill themselves. The filmmakers are (unsubtly) conveying the ineffectiveness of factory business and how the factory owners exploited their workers. In the city sequence, the hustling, non-stop action is used to show the inevitable mechanization of human beings when they are driven by capitalism and fast-paced industry. The answer to this, according to The City, is to form some suburban haven where people still conduct business, but also enjoy life with an emphasis on family values. I couldn't help but think of Leave It To Beaver when watching this last "solution" sequence - the message being that suburban life is the best, most fulfilling way to live.