Metropolis

Rating:
Summary: POOR PRINT
Review: The visual quality of this print is poor; also, the opening credits are out of focus and the opening intertitles are severely truncated.

Rating:
Summary: Classical Music for Cheap
Review: They should stop marketing this as "Metropolis" and sell it as about 2 hours of classical music. Ten bucks for okay performances of Debussy and Ravel String Quartets, symphonies by Mendellsohn and Prokofiev... Wow, that is a good deal for a classical music lover. Just turn the video off and listen to the music. Don't buy this if you actually want to see Metropolis.

Rating:
Summary: 1 star for the print, NOT the film itself
Review: It's sad to think of the fact that approximately half of all the movies made before 1930 are irrecoverably lost, never to be seen again. The obvious conclusion one can draw from this is that we need to be extra vigilant about protecting the delicate prints we have of the films that are still here. And that's why it makes me angry to see the absolutely awful copy of Metropolis that is to date the only version of the film available on DVD. The film is framed poorly, played at the wrong speed and has awful music accompanying the film. That a company would put this classic film out in this fashion for people to pay money for is a scandal. There are better versions of the film available on VHS, especially the Kino Video release of the film which I was fortunate enough to see, so why should this be the only version of the movie available on DVD? For some reason, some classic films seems to have fallen through the cracks, and despite the heroic efforts of film restorers who are working hard to preserve as much of the early days of motion pictures as possible, it would be a crime if Metropolis ended up being one of the ones that disappears. Anyone who appreciates this film or indeed appreciates film in general should be crying out for Kino to release their version on DVD, or better yet, for Criterion to issue a restored version. THAT would be worth paying for!

Rating:
Summary: A WASTE OF 8 DOLLARS
Review: Quality be damned. Its a silent film, its expected to be grainy. But the music...one can only conclude that they found a cd of public domain classical music and played it for the duration of the film. Nothing matches. In fact quite the oposite. We have music from a comic-opera playing during what might have been a frightening stalking scene. While the children are drowning in the Depths we are treated to happy, playfull, down right romping melodies. What is supposed to be tragic is full of triumph. What is deep is comical. YOu say, it's just 8 bucks; its worth it to check it out. NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO. Buy ANY other edition but this one.

Rating:
Summary: The most stunning silent movie I've seen
Review: Fritz Lang's masterpiece is probably one of the greatest milestones in the history of science fiction. But to me, it's much more. The cruel story of the fictional modern world which is divided between the rich byrochrats and the poor laughbour people is not as dated as you might think at first. Poverty and luxury do not walk hand in hand in this epic film. No, they are the roots of misery. But the story itself might not be the greatest thing of all in this piece; the techinics and stunning camerascenes are still breathtakingly majestetic, and the power of mob is still impressive, no matter how you look at it. Personally I recommend you should buy the version which doesn't have the later-composed music on it; I'm sorry, but from my point of view, 80's synthetisizer pop just doesn't fit in with this epic/silent masterpiece. I had to put the sound off after 20 minutes, that much it pissed me. But, all in all, this is probably the best movie made until the year 1958 (Vertigo took over).

Rating:
Summary: Metropolis
Review: Fritz Lang's most famous silent film uses science fiction and spectacular special effects to tell a story of biting social criticism. In a futuristic time and place, an above-ground city of lightness, culture and respectability is kept going only by the enslaved proletariat laboring beneath in the underground city; a nightmarish, cruel and dark place. An innovative, influential film in its day and now considered one of the hippest films of the sci-fi genre.

Rating:
Summary: need better print
Review: I agree with Jim Gay's review. This is one of the great early films -- the predecessor to Blade Runner in its imagery and its plot, but this DVD falls far short of doing justice to the original. The sound track is an unrelated series of pieces of impressionist classical chamber music, and the picture is almost indecipherable much of the time. When Giorgio Moroder's colorized version came out, purists groaned, but in retrospect it was better than what's currently available.

Rating:
Summary: I like it even less than originally!
Review: I feel sorry for the more unsuspecting people that work for Madacy Entertainment! This is a company that besmirched its own reputation by releasing the WORST quality prints of classic films, and yet they're still pressing on! BTW, I heard a rumor (let's just say a little birdy told me) that quite possibly (but PLEASE don't quote me) Criterion or some reputable company might release THEIR version of METROPOLIS on DVD. If there's any justice from the movie gods, we could use it now!

Rating:
Summary: I threw my copy away.
Review: I'm writing this so you don't make the same mistake I did. The picture quality of this video was so bad that I literally pitched it into the trash. It's a wonderful movie, but this is by far the worst DVD I have ever seen -- it's unwatchable. The tinted Moroder videotape version and laserdisc formats are much, much better.

Rating:
Summary: Sad that this landmark film does not have a quality DVD
Review: It deserves it.

I have only seen this film in cinemas. From what i gather, it is the East German version from about 1975 that is THE version to get. It does have an long and annoying announcement at the begining, declaring that without the socialist goverments willingness for preservation of landmark films, the capitalists would have lost our film heritage. But apart from that, that version will be the closest we can come to the original. Hopefully we will get the Metropolis we deserve.

5 stars for the film.