Lang was trained as an architect, and he designed a future city that was as organic as any real city. Interiors, such as John's office, are marvelous interpretations of the future, overlaid with Art Deco elements, and they foreshadow developments such as computer displays and two-way video conferencing. The climatic flood scenes as the workers' riot destroys their residences remain powerful today. The film is usually considered an example of the German Expressionist sub-genre. Expressionist artists endeavored to invoke a mood or emotion at the expense of realistic representations, and no one did it better than the post-W.W.I Germans.
Expressionist films carry their own set of codes and symbols.
The studio immediately demanded that it be cut, and cut again. The result is that many original scenes are lost forever, and that no authoritive print remains. It is probably the closest to an authoritive print as is currently available on VHS tape. The film runs for 90 minutes, and looks like it was mastered from a back and white print that includes a jazz orchestral score on an optical sound track. The film appears to have been mastered at 24fps.