Metropolis (1927 film): Difference between revisions

Up to 25% of the original footage was considered lost before turning up in a museum in Argentina in 2007, albeit in inferior picture quality. The rediscovered footage was cleaned up as well as possible and integrated into the existing restored footage. The rediscovered version also confirmed the exact running order of shots, which in previous versions could only be guessed at. This new version runs only about five minutes short of the original 1927 German cut, as opposed to nearly an entire hour shorter in some versions. Unfortunately, two scenes still remained too badly damaged to restore, and were replaced by title cards. It made its big US debut at the Turner Classic Movies festival in 2009 and on television on Turner Classic Movies in November 2010. This nearly complete version was released on DVD and [[Blu Ray]] in late 2010.

 

 

Also notable is the 1984 color-tinted restoration by composer Georgio Moroder, which is [[Keep Circulating the Tapes|only available on VHS and LaserDisc]] due to its [[Broken Base|controversial]] [[The Eighties|80's]] [[Notable Original Music|pop soundtrack]]. [http://www.themortonreport.com/entertainment/video/kino-to-bring-giorgio-moroders-metropolis-to-blu-ray-and-dvd/ Until now, anyway.] Moroder's version is now available on Netflix instant streaming (alongside the full restored cut), and a DVD/BD release is soon to follow.<br />

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=== Works it has inspired: ===

* ''[[Blade Runner]]'' in particular is considered a [[Spiritual Successor]] to this film.

* An ''[[Elseworlds]]'' one-shot that combined this Metropolis with [[Superman]]'s.

* Singer [[Janelle Monae]]'s ''Metropolis'' series of [[Concept Album|Concept Albums]].

* A [[wikipedia:Metropolis (musical)|musical theater adaptation]] of the film.

* A mad scientist named Rotwang appears in [[Tiger and Bunny]]- complete with [[Robot Girl]] creation.

* Mechanique, a DC comics robots villainess, IS supposed to be the (time traveling) creation of Rotwang (and is obviously based on Robot!Maria.)

* [[You Are Number Six]]

 

 

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* [[The Big Guy]]: Grot aka the Thin Man, and the main enforcer of Fredersen's schemes.

* [[Big Word Shout]]: "MOLOCH!"

* [[Brain Fever]]

* [[Burn the Witch]]: "Burn the witch!" [[Recycled in Space|On a pyre]] made of I-beams and [[Made of Explodium|burning automobiles]]. Too bad {{spoiler|[[The Reveal|she's a robot]]}}.

* [[Crucified Hero Shot]]: {{spoiler|With the Paternoster Machine turned into a metaphorical clock that is going backwards, all the while threatening to overload and explode.}}

* [[Crystal Spires and Togas]]: The upper class' city.

* [[Disneyfication]]: Fritz Lang admitted after making the movie that saying "The mediator between the head and hands must be the heart!" is too simplistic of a way to deal with labor-management relations.

* [[Disney Villain Death]]: {{spoiler|Rotwang}}

* [[Magic Versus Science]]: This is Rotwang's whole theme. Inside a giant future [[Mega City]] is a little [[The Constant|thatched cottage]] inside of which is a pentagrammed [[Mad Scientist Laboratory]] inside of which is a man dressed in robes with a robot hand. Robot Maria's transformation makes him practically a necromancer. In fact the whole film is both a pioneer of sci fi despite being very heavy on biblical imagery.

* [[Male Gaze]]: Dramatically demonstrated with the montage of eyes watching Robot Maria during her striptease.

* [[Milking the Giant Cow]]: Rotwang only loves one thing more than Hel, and that is wild gesticulation. Robot-Maria shares his liking for it, too.

* [[Missing Episode]]: Missing ''a third of the entire movie'' for many years.

* [[Morality Chain]]: In the novel, Hel for both Joh Frederson and Rotwang. She not only kept both men from killing each other (though you could hardly blame them, what with their love triangle and all), she also made sure both men didn't let power go to their heads.

* [[Morally-Ambiguous Doctorate]]: Rotwang

* [[Necromantic]]

{{quote| '''Joh''': Let the dead rest in peace, Rotwang. She's as dead for me as she is for you.<br />

'''Rotwang''': She isn't dead for me, Joh Fredersen! For me, she lives! [''gesticulates wildly''] }}

* [[Nightmarish Factory]]

* [[Notable Original Music]]: The original soundtrack, plus the entirely different [[The Eighties|Moroder]] version (see below).

* [[No OSHA Compliance]]: Something of a plot point: The "M-Machine" that Freder stumbles upon during his trek through the underground city overheats and explodes, killing everyone in its vicinity. The dead workers are casually hauled off and a new set comes in to take their place. Witnessing this scene is what makes Freder sympathetic to the workers' plight.

* [[The Tower]]: "Gigantic, unimaginably huge, looms-over-everything" variety.

* [[Tower of Babel]]: referenced, with significant alterations. Maria's retelling alters the facts and changes the moral. The hubris is inverted ("And on the pedestal these words appear: 'Great is the world and its Maker, and great is Man!'") and retribution comes from paying too much attention to the idea and ignoring the workers. There is no confusion of tongues, but another clever inversion ("The praises of one became the curses of another. Although they spoke the same language, they could not understand one another's words"). The New Tower of Babel at the heart of the city is {{spoiler|absolutely untouched by the destruction and the divided classes are reunited.}}

{{quote| '''Joh''': Surely a mind like yours must be able to forget...<br />

'''Rotwang''': ''([[Milking the Giant Cow|shaking a fist in Fredersen's face]])''I only ever forgot one thing in my life: that Hel was a woman and you a man! }}

** [[Rule of Symbolism]], for the most part. You have crucifixion imagery, giant clock face, personified Whore of Babylon, retelling of the Tower of Babel story, animated gargoyles personifying Death and the Seven Deadly Sins, a hidden church in catacombs, an inverted pentagram, talk about "brothers and sisters", the machine as Moloch...

** The Moroder lyrics add a bunch more, with [[George Orwell|Orwellian]] [[Shout-Out|shout outs]] (the edition was timed to release in [[Nineteen Eighty-Four|1984]]), references to "[[Ouroboros|infinite circles of snakes eating their own tails]]" and the like.

** Much of the lost footage also pertains to the Thin Man, who follows Freder, Georgy, and Josaphat at Joh Fredersen's behest.

* [[While Rome Burns]]: {{spoiler|The happy crowd from the Yoshiwara club while the city is being blacked out by the workers' revolution.}}