Fritz Lang's Metropolis

Fantastic review. Just makes me salivate for a Region 1 release of this.

Damn, this sounds awesome...when is that region 1 coming?

I have never seen this, although it was talked about quite a bit in a history class or two in college. I want to see this. Badly. I bet the library has a copy of it in some form or another...

Now if only I can convince my wife to see it when it eventually comes out here... My dad and I rented it once on VHS, but it was tinted odd colors, and had an awful New Agey score added onto it that gave me scurvy. I ended up muting the sound. My favorite part was the job that consisted of moving the two enormous dials to the lights.

What do you guys mean 'When's it coming out in Region 1?'. This was one of the first DVDs ever put out. Hell, it even came in those clear cases, just like Evil Dead, and Evil Dead 2.

Actually, it was seeing the DVD case in a music store many years ago that really got me interested in checking out this flick. But as the review mentions, I'm one of those people that just never got around to renting it. However, once a new DVD version hits these borders, I will make it a priority to view it.

Mr. Sodium, you're thinking of the Georgio Moroder version, with Bonnie Tyler, Queen and a whole bunch of '80 pop stars providing the music/score. Nasty piece of work.

For my fourth year thesis in Political Science I wrote a paper discussing/comparing political themes in Metropolis, Chaplin's Modern Times, and Brazil. The paper was crap, but the research was fun.

Great review Dan. I look forward to a Region 1 release.

The icky lava-lampy one was all they had at Blockbuster™** at the time, unfortunately. I've been dying to see this new version since I heard about it. Oh, well. The updated version could have been worse: the score could have been done by Yanni, and they could have made Greedo shoot first.

** Blockbuster™** is a registered trademark of Blockbuster™**

This movie really does seem modern...it even has the big action climax. I remember thinking that it could pretty much be remade, and hardly any changes would have to be made to make it work.

Oh yeah, I would hate a remake. I think only bad movies with good premises should be remade, not good movies that work perfectly.

The ending reminded me of almost every Blade-Runneresqe climax...the big fight on the roof of a huge building. And you can't go wrong with crazy guys with metal hands as the villain.

The restored version hits our local art theatre the weekend after Xmas. I cannot wait!

Several years back I had the VHS of King Kong on my Christmas list, anticipating Fay Wray goodness. And what did I get? The Jessica Lange version.

So fuck you, Santa. Fuck you so hard.

Great review. I get to see the restored cut about a month from now at a sci-fi marathon in Cleveland. Looks like I have something to look forward to...

I may be wrong....but wasn't Metropolis already remade as an anime film last year?

Bumping this to remind people that this is coming out in just over a week's time, on February 18th.

I just returned from seeing this flick in a theater, and it was a great experience to see it on the big screen. As others have mentioned before, it's incredible to see how advanced this movie is at most times. Its themes seem very risqué for the day, and I'm really surprised that it was made at all. It just doesn't seem to be the kind of thing that people would have enjoyed at all upon its release, and I can understand why the movie tanked at its premiere run in theaters.

Being a big fan of the anime version of Metropolis, I'd recommend other fans of the animated movie to check out this one. Both movies complement each other very well. The live action movie can be more powerful at times because of its use of humans in the story, as opposed to the robots in the anime, but the anime does create a better scale of the city of Metropolis.

I strongly believe that DVD is a great format for this movie. Many people (jerks) in the audience could not stop laughing at the stage acting, pacing, and overall look of the movie. However, I thought it was extremely interesting to see what constituted as entertainment so many years ago, and it's very interesting to see how far movies have come in terms of camera movements and placement. Besides, isn't better to just watch a flick at home without having to smell the disgusting smell of melted butter that the guy next to you has ordered? And while he can pay for the popcorn, he apparently can't be bothered enough to wear deodorant?

The anime movie is a different story, though its based on somewhat on Lang's film. I got both films on DVD, the Lang version was the first one I ever got. Has a great score though I'd love to a digitally restored version that wasn't so blurry.