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Metropolis

Metropolis

List Price: $5.98
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Rating: 5 stars
Summary: Portrait of our D-evolution or Learn From History?NEVER!!
Review: Can someone come up with a guide to the musical soundtrack? I mean, there are string quartets, solo strings, and full orchestra. I am a big Mahler fan. I know it's not him. Maybe BRUCKNER? Please help me, post the soundtrack. Zemlinsky?

Rating: 1 stars
Summary: Extraordinary film, lousy transfer
Review: The film itself doesn't get one star. I'd give it five stars. Unfortunately, you can't give it a breakdown. Five stars film, four stars for music, etc... anyway...

I think this film is fantastic. Every serious fan of the medium should watch this work. However, this dvd transfer is very disappointing. I'm not going to go on at length about it because I've read some very creative and, sadly, accurate descriptions of what it looks like. While this DVD is a bargain, it is not worthy of the film. Don't buy it and wait for a nicer version to come along. Now, I know the film is over 80 years old, so I'm not expecting crystal clear quality, but they could do a better job.

Rating: 1 stars
Summary: great early classic as a poor DVD
Review: This is one of the great classics of early German cinema but this DVD version is just awful. You get what you pay for here and what you get is junk. This DVD looks like it was projected off-center on a sheet. Almost unwatchable, a real embarrassment that Amazon even carries it.

Movie 5 stars DVD 0 stars

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: A great movie that could use some TLC
Review: I won't prattle on too much about how bad the DVD quality is since you probably can read it from every other review here. I'm here to give the movie itself five stars. I bought the Madacy DVD version even after reading all the horror stories about it because it was about the only way i could see the movie for the first time. The movie is cropped weird at times and the picture quality is less than spectacular but the thing that bothered me the most was the ending seemed cut short, which left me feeling sort of cheated. Despite all of that i still found the film incredible. The scenery and special effects are way before its time. For being a silent movie, the acting is great and most importantly believable. This movie definately conveys an industrial feeling. The opening scene of the horde of down-hearted workers slowly trudging into the elevator that will lower them into a hell-like machine, reminded me a lot of the first Apple commercial. Watching this movie, you will be able to see how many currrent films were inspired by this one. This is a great film that should have more stars than it does.

Of course, the review would not be complete with out telling what i think is good accompaning music. I like to watch all silent films with no music at all. For me, it makes me pay more attentiom to the movie. I did find that the Smashing Pumpkins "Mellon Collie and the Infinite Sadness" goes pretty well with most of this movie.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: Moroder's version is coming back!
Review: I have just heard news that a new DVD is in the works that will include not only Giorgio Moroder's superb version with a kickin' soundtrack, it will also have the 2001 restoration that premiered in Berlin. Finally, a good DVD is on the way! No word yet on any special features or a price, or when it will be released, but it's coming. Note: I'm giving 5 stars to this new DVD (I already know it's gonna be superb), not to this awful Madacy release. Finally, all those who have been wanting to see Moroder's version will get their chance, and don't worry if you have Vestron's, although there is a good chance Moroder's will also be released on VHS, remember Vestron is a defunct company and the original release (hopefully the 2001 version will also be released on VHS, as many fans as possible need to see this). This is the best thing to happen to "Metropolis" in years, and I highly look foward to it.

Rating: 1 stars
Summary: Great film, very poor transfer
Review: Save your money on this DVD. I have never seen such poor sound and picture quality on any tape let alone DVD. This disk was made by a roomful of monkeys, all of whom were blind and deaf.

Rating: 1 stars
Summary: A BUTCHERING OF BRILLIANCE
Review: This may be the worst transfer in the albeit short history of DVD, but it might quite possibly qualify as the worst in the entire future of DVD transfer as well. It looks like some company decided to be the first out the gate with Metropolis on DVD and didn't bother to do much more than set a DV camera in front of a TV and taped the screen image of a bad transfer on VHS. I'm not sure which version this is in terms of content (there have been several different edit versions circulating on tape over the past twenty years or so). The reason I don't know is because I couldn't watch more than about ten minutes before I said, "Screw this!" and ejected the disc. The only reason I gave it one star is because "no stars" wasn't a choice.

Rating: 1 stars
Summary: Madacy ruins Sci-Fi classic
Review: The Madacy Entertainment version of Metropolis is just plain horrid. It's very inexpensive and I guess you get what you pay for. This particular DVD looks like it was produced using THE worst print of the film that could be found and THE worst transfer equipment that could be found. It has the appearance of being the first experimental project someone tried who was just learning how to transfer film to video. We won't even begin to discuss the nasty soundtrack and silly music on this version.

I'm only glad I didn't spend very much on this disc - it'll make a nice drink coaster, I guess. I'll be on the lookout for a better DVD version of this amazing Sci-Fi classic.

Rating: 1 stars
Summary: DO NOT buy the Allied Artists release!
Review: Despite the fact that Allied Artists lists their version as 126 minutes, do not be fooled, it is EXACTLY the same as the Madacy release. Same stupid freeze frames of the opening titles and intertitles, same horrible print, same musical soundtrack that has NOTHING to do with the film, and the same tacky looking end title card. However, this version still scores higher than the Madacy release because this one was at least recorded in SP, while Madacy's is in EP. So, at the very least you'll get better video quality, if not film quality.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: A minefield.
Review: Of all the great films, 'Metropolis' needs to be seen not only in decent quality print (which goes without saying), with content and (more importantly) editing as close to Lang's specifications as possible (see Elsaesser's BFI Classic on the film), but a decent soundtrack (my votes go to the BFI print and the Eureka video version).

Because it really is one of the great films. It is too big to encapsulate in a brief comment, but I particularly like the way the simplistic sentiments and linear narrative of the script are subverted by the four dream narratives (Lang's own on visiting Manhattan; Freder's hysterical hallucinations of everything as celestial or infernal; ethereal Maria's double exulting in dark desires; the sleepwalking life of the workers), the repeated motif of the circle and the post-modern conflation of vastly different historical time-spans.


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