I kept talking about this film in another thread, so I thought I'd be proper and post my complete thoughts on it.

If you ask anyone familiar with silent films what the best ones are, Metropolis is bound to come up. While the most striking part of this film are the special effects used in its narrative, there are quite a few reasons why this film is such a great one to watch.

This film has everything a movie needs: full characters, plots and subplots, current social and political themes, development, and amazing visuals and special effects (for 1927 and even today). As a silent movie, it also minimizes the intertitles and lets the visuals tell the story as much as possible once it gets going. Once the film was over, I knew the names of every one of the major characters, and for a silent movie, that is a big accomplishment. Fritz Lang directed, and he is clearly a genius.

This film follows a guy from the upper class called Freder who finds his way into the underworld of the workers. He had seen a woman named Maria while playing in his upper class world, and discovered she was a deaconess of sorts for the workers, giving them hope for a mediator between them and the upper class. Freder falls for her, and they plan to meet later. Unfortunately, Freder's father, Joh, is concerned about a possible worker uprising and goes to an inventor named Rotwang, who has always been able to give him obscure info before. Rotwang has created a "machine-man" in the form of a woman, and Joh wants Rotwang to give the machine the form of Maria. In one of the best special effects sequences EVER (especially when you consider this is 1927), they give the machine the form of Maria and she wreaks havoc among the workers.

It's a clever mix in that it creates a world where the upper class has the vision to create and the lower class has the know how to make it happen. It's a clear symbiotic society where neither can truly survive without the other making Joh's decision that much more potentially damaging.

If you only watch one silent film in your life, this would be the one to go with, in my humble opinion.

I was watching TV not long ago and an Australian critic was going on about this movie a lot. He called it the most flawed masterpiece in history. I've wanted to see it since then, because the footage they showed from it looked pretty spectacular, especially considering the era in which it was made. Unfortunately, films of this, for lack of a better term, obscurity, are hard to come by in this poorly-hydrated, rarely-visited corner of the globe. I'll probably have to go to eBay or Amazon to get a hold of it, which unfortunately means I'll have to buy it without seeing it first. And I've only done that for Citizen Kane and Apocalypse Now. Luckily both of those ventures have paid off, but Metropolis will be my first silent film experience, so I'm not sure how I will react to it. Quite the pickle I've got myself into. I want to see this movie, but I have absolutely no idea how to get a hold of it without paying top dollar. Goddamnit.


Cheers, Chismeister.

Try to get ahold of the "restored" version. They reconstructed parts of the story that were destroyed or missing to give you an idea of the whole plot instead of what was released in the US originally back when it came out. Granted this involves reading some modern intertitles describing the missing footage, but it creates a more complete film overall. The shortened version has a different feel altogether.

This is one of those films that you won't be disappointed with if you are one who appreciates a good movie. Worth buying blind if you can't get it any other way.

I got the one I watched from the library.

I'm a big fan of Fritz Lang. I love Metropolis, but I think 'M' is probably his best and most accessible film.

I also really like the Mabuse series. Difficult viewing at times but well worth checking out.

M is  Lang's masterpiece in my opinion. That's just a stunning accomplishment.

What was the soundtrack like in the version you saw George? I had to watch this for one of my modules at University and the score was terrible, it sounded like the Ghostbusters theme! (and detracted from the film quite heavily, it resulted in lots of laughter during the screening lol). There is apparently a version of it with a soundtrack made up of Queen songs too! But I think another version has an orchestral score which probably compliments the film a lot better.

I was definitely impressed with how ahead of its time it was, quite astonishing. It's not really my thing and with the bad soundtrack and the film's length I was feeling kinda weary (then again the screening was at 9am so I was probably hung over and functioning on four hours sleep like a good little first year student so I won't read into that too much lol), but can appreciate its brilliance even if I don't personally enjoy it that much. The sets were so huge and futuristic; I had no idea anything like that existed way back when.

I have only seen parts of M but from what I saw I gathered it was more "me" than Metropolis. I ought to watch that one in full.

The one I saw had an orchestral score that I believe was done specifically for the release. I don't know if it was original music or not, but the performance of the music was for the DVD.