37 odpowiedzi

1. I also thought the ending was odd. I thought Freder would died after saving the children, cementing himself as a Jesus character. That would be a sufficient punishment to Joh to justify his redemption.

2. its a huge miracle, that over a decade ago, they found over 20 minutes of lost footage from the uncut premiere print, in Argentina, back in 2008, however, some of the footage was sadly too damaged to get put back into the film, but i think the film now is 95 percent complete, or either 97 or 98 percent complete, i think 2 major scenes were too damaged to get put back into the film

3. I love this film. One takeaway is the rebellion. The lesson to learn is being opressed is not a reason to get stupid. Had the rampage continued the city would have been destroyed. Too bad Germany didn't learn that lesson. I read a critique of Metropolis by HG Wells. He hated the film. When they were making "The Shape of Things to Come" Well told the staff to do everything the opposite of Metropolis. I think the critique made Wells look bad.

4. One of my favorite silent films, but I also have The cabinet of Dr Caligari and Nosferatu

5. Please forgive the wordplay, but this is such a wonderful review of a movie full of wonder! Again, the context is so helpful. I'm glad you touched on the weak aspect of the very ending (tho, I guess my own looking at it as more of a fable than standard fiction may make it a little more palatable to me…barely).
   Wells took issue with this film, in part as he felt it took from his novel, WHEN THE SLEEPER WAKES, but…Wells took issue with a lot of things (but I love him nonetheless).
   Oh, and I couldn't agree more re that 80's Moroder version. Yuk.

6. Maybe Metropolis was what happened between the Time Traveller leaving the 1800's and arriving in the future and meeting up with the Eloi and the Morlocks?

7. I have read the von Harbo novel. It's not a bad read at all.

8. METROPOLIS might have been a passable movie if von Harbou had been able to say what the hell the "workers" we're doing fighting the clock hands, and why disaster ensued if they lost the fight. Kind of anticipated the logical disconnects in THE MATRIX. eg, interesting visuals, very little to offer otherwise.

9. Terry, you can vet or debunk this. Returned to my native Wash., DC from L.A. after careers at two top major film studios and in film/TV production in the early 2000s. At that time, The Kennedy Center had a week of movies (musicals and science fiction) where maestro John Williams conducted the National Symphony Orchestra (NSO) to accompany the movies, like an organist, silent film style, in real time. HE claimed, HE had researched who might have been the contemporary composer to come up with the original score for Metropolis. WILLIAMS said, contemporary newspapers made mention of Gottfried Huppertz. Williams plugged in some pieces and discovered Huppertz compositions timed out nicely into many scenes of Lang's Metropolis. Eureka! Williams conducted that night with the help of a clunky-looking laptop with two overlaid graphs on the screen: one was the beginning and end marks of the Huppertz score and the other was the tempo of the NSO. Williams manipulated the tempo as all conductors do , of the orchestra. And you're right about the various evolutions of the film: I've seen it many, many times and have yet to see the same version twice. Cheers!

10. Thank you for adding the historical context. I was unaware of 1920's Germany and how bad their country was suffering. I'd like to see an updated release of Metropolis with a Peter Jackson treatment, like he did with "They Shall Not Grow Old". I think it would humanize some of the performances. Cheers!

11. Hi Terry . Love your channel . Have you ever seen this film Argoman the Fantastic Superman Would love a review of it. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JXbu1GWw5WE&ab_channel=VultureGraffix

12. I might be wrong but don't think I am. Does or did Queen own the Lang catalog?

13. From Sex and the Single Android:
    Implications of Human-Robot Sex as Presented in Film and Television

    by Patrick S. Baker

    In Fritz Lang’s 1927 film masterpiece, Metropolis, robot Maria, played by Brigitte Helm, is an explicitly sexual and dangerous figure. An exact physical copy of the chaste and good human Maria, also Helm, robot Maria uses her nearly hypnotic sexuality to encourage the workers to destroy the city. Robot Maria also uses this same enthralling carnal power to enrapture the upper-class males of Metropolis while dancing half-naked in the Yoshiwara, the city’s red-light district. Despite her open sexiness, during the film, no human has sex with robot Maria.

14. DC's Metropolis is gone? I stopped reading new comics years ago.

15. Great film, I agree with you about the ending. Too simplistic. I've read Hitler loved the film and thought of himself as the "Heart" mentioned at the end.

16. I really like this movie and need to give it a re-watch. I believe I have the version you mentioned, but it may take some time to dig it out. As for the ending, I do disagree with you. Speaking as an United Statesian, since America is more than the US, if the workers ever did rise up and force the elites to pay a living wage there would be no consequences for their past behavior. In fact, the elites would be portrayed and viewed as heroes who did what was right. But maybe I'm just cynical.

    As for the Moroder cut, I remember in the early days of VCRs renting this and just couldn't get into it and turned it off after a few minutes. At the time I was new to silent film and mostly was familiar with Charlie Chaplin and the silent comedies. When I finally saw it, whichever version it was, it was so much more impactful and entertaining.

17. So what is your view of the anime Metropolis that developed from a Manga inspired by the author seeing a movie poster for the Fritz Lang movie but not having seen the actual film?

18. I saw the Moroder version on a Tuesday back when Cineplex in Canada had "2.50 Tuesdays" and was amazed that a silent movie had a sold out audience in '85. People were mostly there for the music and it's a reflection of how music videos influenced popular media like films and TV (Miami vice). After a bit some of the audience got restless and left. I was taking an intro to film analysis class so I was trying to make sense of it. I remember my film teacher not being impressed by it. Ultimately it was okay, but forgettable. At least it made 18 yr old me feel like a film academic😛

19. I should point out that the idea that Reparations were the cause of the great German Hyperinflation of early 1920s is bluntly over stated to put it mildly. In fact the various German government's since 1919 had been deliberately sabotaging reparation payments and one of the ways they did it was by policies that reduced the international value of the Mark through inflation and thus screw reparation payments.

    The actual story is of course pretty complicated and messy but the bottom line is it is not simply reparation payments that did it. In fact after the hyperinflation the German government finally started to actually make payments without trying to sabotage them. Also the Hyperinflation enabled the German government to eliminate a huge amount of debt, mainly owed to people who had bought War Bonds during the war. The Hyperinflation rendered them basically worthless. Also has part of dealing with the Hyperinflation the German government negotiated with the USA the so-called Dawes Plan which gave large loans to Germany which were then used to pay reparations among other things. The end result of all this was that Capital inflows from the Allied powers into Germany exceeded by a wide margin Reparation payments. With the Great Depression and then the Nazis, and even before the Nazis, various German governments screwed over the investors in the Dawes plan by various means.

    After World War II it is interesting to report, that contrary to popular belief, massive reparations were taken from Germany in various ways, (Especially by the Soviets in East Germany.), which vastly exceeded World War I reparations

20. Good to see that you’re keeping up with these wonderful silent science fiction films! I noticed that you had the Kino Lorber release, but here in the U.K. the main release is the Masters of Cinema version. Do you know what the differences are, if any? I was about to buy the Eureka/MoC release when your review popped up. You may not know the U.K. version, of course, but if you do, I’d be grateful for any comments that you might have. TIA.

21. TCM boasted the most complete version *EVER*. Played Halloween.

22. I rented this movie about two weeks ago. It was MUCH better than the version I saw back in the 80's. Maria was the star of the film. She goes from saintly to full on Robo-Slut. In all my days I have never seen a woman move her hips like that with out dislocating a hip. And like you I still feel that whole The heart mediates for the hands and the head thing was too simplistic a solution for the class problems they were facing. But it's only a movie, not real life. I'm glad it's been restored to it's former glory.

23. This is one of the best movies ever made visually and topic of this film is very the same as we in the world have today. I watch this show at least 2 times a year, I agree the copy you have is the best out there. When the machine blows up the you see the people flying this was done so well. The images on the screen as the machine builds and heats up, with other images I won’t bring up, this film is amazing to watch.

24. I like your videos but don’t just synopsise the movie

25. I think METROPOLIS is more a pro-reform/ANTI-revolutionary film, Terry, because the "worker's revolt" the false Maria foments nearly drowns their children. Had it not been for the real Maria, Freder and Joh's assistant Josaphat leading the children to safety, the flooding would have been an incalculable tragedy rather than a wake-up call for both the Aristocracy and the Workers. It's because the three classes (the Aristocrat's son Freder, the White Collar worker Josaphat, and the Workers' "angel" Maria) work together that mass death was averted, a solution Freder and Maria expand on when they get Joh and the Workers' "supervisor" (? – he's listed as "Guardian of the Heart Machine") Grot to join hands and agree to work together as equals.

    I also get your thinking that Joh deserved to be punished for putting all this in motion and neglecting his obligations to the Workers, but I'm also reminded of the scene in Godard's LA CHINOISE where the middle-aged Leftist college professor politely listens to the revolutionary rhetoric of shutting down the Universities (because they're seen as pandering to the status quo), then asks, "And after you've shut down the Universities? Then what?" Without the knowledge of how to build the infrastructure that Joh has, it's unlikely that what they rebuild will stand for long. Lang had seen what "revolution" brought first-hand — Communists fighting Nazis in the streets, with neither side caring about collateral damage and blaming each other for the violence rather than finding a way to stop it.

26. A great film yes Moroder version is awful but was first one o saw even then about 30 years ago I turned sound off and turned colour off.
    The complete version was revelation and yes the ending is problematic.

27. A beautiful movie, which I have seen many times. I first saw the 'Maria' robot in a book that I borrowed from the library, and it fascinated me, and made me want to see the movie. I saw the Giorgio Moroder version, and was annoyed at the sub-par, intrusive soundtrack he gave it. I saw the proper version a bit later – patrons of my local arthouse cinema had complained about the Moroder version in no uncertain terms, and a copy of the 'proper' version was acquired and shown some time later. Oh, it's gorgeous; apart from the simplistic ending, I just let it wash over me. The huge city, with Rotwang's sinister little house crunched between monolithic blocks, and being TARDIS like huge within. Rotwang's chase of Maria, through the catacombs, eventually pinning her down with the beam from his torch. The creation of the robot, still astonishing today, and the template for every scientific nutter in movies for decades. Freder's feverdream of the Grim Reaper, which is damn creepy, and one of my favourite bits of cinema of all time. The huge machine as the dread god Moloch. All of this from the imaginations of a writer and a movie director.
    Yes, it's old. Yes, it's German. Yes, it's monochrome. Yes, it's silent. Watch it. Revel in it. It's incredibly cool and beautiful to look at, and has more ideas than most modern films put together.

28. “These are your brothers!” My heart stops EVERY TIME I hear that. One of the greatest!

29. I’ve been lucky enough to see Metropolis multiple times with live accompaniment. None of them used the original score though, which gives me impetus to purchase the blu-ray.
    One thing I found intriguing were the individual, perpetually running elevators. They seemed so futuristic to me. Imagine my surprise in finding that they were known as Pater Nostre lifts, were at least as old as regular elevators, and had been banned in most places because they’re so dangerous.

30. I am ashamed to say i have never seen Metropolis , though i have a copy of the complete version at home. It influenced an anime film thematic remake also called Metropolis made by the director of Akira.

31. Thanks for the insight details.

32. Thanx for the reminder! It's time for me to re-visit 'Metropolis' too. It is a couple of silent movies I intend to re-visit now., The Danish/Swedish film 'Häxan', ('The Witch', direct translation) for example, which is for it's times a masterpiece….still is.
    Silent film is an experience and almost an art on it's own.

33. I've got the Madman version of the reconstructed Metropolis on Blu-Ray. It seems to be the same as the Kino Lorber one, with an additional commentary track from 2 University of Melbourne lecturers. I've also got one of the earlier restorations (which I CANNOT find), either the 1993 or 2002 one. Yes, Metropolis is one of my favourite films.

    I remember seeing a TV documentary in about 1969 that was about how special effects were discovered. It had the Melies (?) jump cut caused by a camera blockage etc. It also had a couple of sequences that frankly terrorised me, of some bloke in riding gear seeing men being thrown to Moloch! and then an explosion. It was years later that I found out where those scenes came from.

    One of my first viewings was at Melbourne University (during my very brief Uni episode) as a double feature with Vampyre, so I unknowingly saw one of the unique and source versions. I think we have the Moroder soundtrack, as my wife loves everything Queen. Oh, and I also have Osamu Tezuka's Metropolis anime, which I also recommend as a film.

34. I have seen a number of versions of this great film over my lifetime starting (unfortunately) with the American version. One thing I can say is that HISTORICALLY I am glad they found all of the footage they have, but as for elevating the quality of the film, More does not equal Better. Lang, like many talented film creators, could often benefit from a restrictive hand.
    I have enjoyed many of his works, Woman in the Moon (German Frau im Mond) for example, and always enjoy hearing the history of his creative life and the world at the time. You did a wonderful job of both here.
    One thing I always find fascinating about science fiction of the 20s and 30s is that size seems to be their vision of future advancements mean. Look at the machinery in Metropolis and compare it to the construction is Shape of Things to Come. This of course was not limited to SciFi of the time as the 1940s & 50s both had computers that were shown as advanced by size alone. It seems like the 1970s saw the shift from larger to smaller as a sign of advancement.

35. Apparently this was one of Adolph's favourites and he had frequent private screenings. Thanks for mentioning Kurt Weill: focussing on Mack The Knife helps suppress earworms of the Moroder music. I briefly owned the soundtrack album because I'm into soundtracks but I gave it away to someone who wanted it more.

    Speaking of soundtracks I have this theory that I never really liked Star Wars, I was gaslighted by John Williams. Perhaps because of my childhood love of Lost in Space.

36. Also some my friends at the time saw the musical version of the film,for many time watching a silent film.

37. I have kino's dvd version of the film. Do everyone remember as a filler on the ABC music of firestarter and scenes were from this film, this first time I saw footage of the film, and wanted to know more, so did my own research. I'm glad have copy of this important film in film and Sci fi films.