Giorgio Moroder Presents Metropolis: Special Edition [Blu-ray] by Kino Lorber films by Giorgio Moroder Fritz Lang

For a long time Metropolis confused me because of the severe editing. This new version fixes that by putting back most of what was cut out. Some of the restored scenes are still pretty rough with scratches and a little blurred image sometimes, but now ALL the scenes are in the correct order. other previous versions had scenes re-positioned which made the story hard to follow.If your reading this, do yourself a favor and buy it, you won't regret it.

There is nothing I can say that hasn't already been said before to do this amazing film justice, It has a timeless message that should resonate with everyone. It's heartbreaking and uplifting, it shows the best and worst of humanity, and it demands your total attention. The film uses powerful, yet simple metaphors to get it's message across, and pretty much goes straight to the white hot center of what it is trying to say. It is a film about US, about our strengths and flaws on a fundamental level. It's just as relevant today as it was 93 years ago when it was made.The BluRay itself is well done, I have not had the chance to explore all of the extras, but the digital transfer was done about as well as it could be done, given the condition of the some of the elements they had to work with, it had to be a painstaking process, and I'm glad we've got what we got. Of course finding a pristine, complete 35MM print would've been ideal but unfortunately none exist that are known, and we are fortunate to have a 96-97% more or less complete version that is much more in line with the original cut. If you are a fan of Science Fiction, or just Films that make you think, you owe it to yourself to watch this. I can't praise it enough and I'm beyond thrilled to at last add this to my collection.

If you are a movie lover, someone who seeks out culturally significant films you need to pick this up. I simply can’t get over how well it’s acted and how well thought out the story is. It’s such a complex story, and yes it’s dying to be remade. But I think a remake would also take away from the mystique of the movie. If you have looked into this movies history it’s almost as fascinating as the movie itself. Yes the quality of the 16mm scenes is quite jarring, it’s unfortunate that it was all they had to virtually complete the movie and even then some scenes were still so damaged they could not be used. But this is as complete as it’s going to get. The complete Metropolis also looks amazing in HD, it almost gives it a whole new life. To me that’s how you need to watch. Also do yourself a favor and watch the documentary about the making/restoration of the movie. Like I wrote before it’s almost as fascinating as the movie itself. I literally cringed every time they talked about the editing that resulted in portions of the movie being completely lost, sooo sad.

This Blu-Ray set is absolutely astonishing on two enormous levels. Firstly, that it even exists. For anyone who is familiar with Metropolis, you know that the story of its editing, like many films of the era, is one of giant cuts without any thought to the preservation of the "deleted" scenes. There simply was no home media in the 1920s so anything that hit the chopping block was, in many cases, gone forever for the sake of eliminating running time and getting as many people into the cinema throughout the day as possible. From its original release to present, the deleted scenes were simply lost or destroyed and it was accepted that a complete cut of Metropolis simply would never materialize.Somehow a complete 16mm duplicate of the original 35mm negative was discovered in the late 2000s and Kino went through the arduous task of restoring it. It was in rough shape, to say the least. But the result is what we have on this disc. A nearly complete version of Metropolis. Some scenes, in which the film was simply too damaged, were not included however detailed intertitles explain the story elements. As for the newly discovered scenes, the jump from crystal clear 35mm film stock to the 16mm material is jarring but, for a film that was released and edited in the '20s, its simply amazing that it exists, was located and reunited with the original material.As for the film itself, it's commonly accepted that the it is the first sci-fi film. Period. Metropolis has influenced the likes of Blade Runner and Star Wars, amoung a laundry list of movies that have been released afterward. The Blu-Ray presentation is crystal clear and the orchestral soundtrack is performed in accordance with the original's live accompanying composition.Fantastic film and a definite purchase for any sci-fi fan.

The Complete Metropolis Blu Ray is the best way to watch this monumental silent film. It has a few good special features about the movies’ importance and the history behind this project. Basically, this movie was almost lost to history. It was originally a much longer movie, but it was cut down for various reasons. The extra footage has barely survived, and is lower quality than the rest of the movie. Unfortunately, there is a crucial scene/sequence towards the end of the movie where some footage is still missing. During this scene, there is descriptive text which tells us what was SUPPOSED to take place in that scene. So, until the groundbreaking discovery of existence of footage from that scene is made, this is the best we’ve got.The movie itself brings up some complex themes but doesn’t explicitly resolve all of them. It has elements to it which are very ambiguous. I’m not sure if that’s intentional or not, but I’m sure that’s part of the reason why it was cut down in the first place. While this movie has always been important and influential for technical and surface level reasons, the reintroduction of the new old scenes makes it an interesting case study from a thematic perspective

A Rare and precious find, at least for old film fans like me. Ever since I saw Metropolis when I was a young lad, many years ago I knew it was an important film and wanted to know all about it. Principally because the released version seemed to jump around between key scenes I knew something was missing, I had no idea it was about half of the finished film. When I saw the Morodor version I realised some of the missing bits had been restored and the new sound track was interesting, then I learnt about the Argentina find and knew I had to see the finished masterwork, It has taken me over 60 years from first seeing it to owning the complete film, playing it on my BlueRay and seeing it on a 56 inch UHD screen was awesome even if my grandson thought I was nuts, he liked the robot though.

This is the ultimate version to get for the lovers of this movie. Apart from being the ultimate cut - with loads of recovered footage -the Blu-ray itself is a masterpiece made for your collection - the outer sleeve is a beauty and the booklet is such a wonderful touch. (check the images attached)I would sincerely recommend this to those that already own a different copy.

I had previously only ever seen short extracts of the film on television over the years (from the severely cut Paramount version made for the US) and accordingly had a completely distorted view of its content, assuming it to be an uncritical semi-documentary homage to modernism whereas it provides rather a warning of the dangers of a society in which the head (capitalism) and the hand (labour) lack a mediator (the human heart). This mediation is, at the end of the film, rather naively provided by Freder, the formerly idle son of the arch capitalist Joh Frederson, who has encountered the workers in their subterranean city and falls for their spokeswoman, Maria. Nor is there any shade of irony when the true representative of labour in this denouement is seen to be one Grot, Joh Frederson's erstwhile informer in the workers' city. However, the set designs for the city of the future are wonderfully imaginative and the special effects seem quite marvellous for the time, most of all in the scene where the feminine robot created by the evil inventor, Rotwang, is animated with the spirit of the captured Maria. Best of all is the expressionistic acting, which conveys the drama of the silent film extremely well, with only a minimum use of intertitles. although it can look rather comical at times to a present day viewer. The film itself is often of remarkably good restored quality with only a relatively few grainy, damaged parts derived from the full print discovered in Buenos Aires which was itself a print of the original and thus bore the indelible, unrestorable, scars of the damaged original but which enabled the restorers to reintroduce the Paramount cuts. (This is explained fully in the very good documentary footage that also comes with this package.) I would recommend this film to anyone who enjoys watching 1920s cinema and especially to anyone who has my originally mistaken view of what Metropolis was all about.

Though the accompanying documentary is in German / Spanish with about 5 seconds in English gleamed from what felt like something from Channel 4, don't let that dissuade you from purchasing this Sci Fi Classic; much emulated and homaged globally.A number of people have taken a dislike with its content, one would disagree on that point, that at this juncture in history, this is the print intended by Fritz Lang, this has the score written for it, and if you want a piece of cinematic excellence on a modern format; that is Metropolis, this is it.This version readdresses the issues that the 70's and 80's versions put forward, such as continuity and excised characterisation, scene featured then through deletion of completing parts, renders a confusing story approach.Beautifully packaged, easy to navigate menus and restored to the best level possible with the best technology available, this deserves a place in any Science Fiction appreciators collection.

The picture and sound quality on this blu-ray is amazing. As per the Masters of Cinema website, the extras available in this 2 disc edition, which were not available in the 1 disc blu ray are: 1. The Fading Image, a rarely seen behind-the-scenes documentary about Moroder’s restoration and scoring of Metropolis. 2. Metropolis Refound - a 2010 documentary by Evangelina Loguerico exploring the rediscovery of the most complete print of the Fritz Lang masterpiece in an Argentinean film museum. 3. Giorgio Moroder presents: Metropolis - the 1984 re-imaging of Metropolis featuring a soundtrack by Moroder himself and artists such as Adam Ant, Pat Benatar, Freddie Mercury and many more. You of course also get the other extras from the 1 disc edition too.