Metropolis
by Fritz Lang
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DVD Cover Information
Actor: Alfred Abel, Gustav FrohlichDirector: Fritz Lang
DVD: Region Code 1
Audio: English (Unknown)
Format: Dolby, Full Screen, NTSC, Surround Sound
Running Time: 123 minutes
DVD Release Date: 2008-11-20
Studio: Triad Productions Corporation
Movie Reviews of Metropolis
Movie Review: Industrial Strength Nightmare - The New Remastered Film!
Summary: 5 Stars
Tonight I saw the presentation of Metropolis, Fritz Lang's 1927 masterpiece -- many scenes thought lost were re-discovered and put together by Kino Video, which is slated to be released in November 2010.
The scenes that were missing were black-streaked since these parts were originally badly damaged. You can see the difference between these scenes and the cleaned-up, restored scenes. English subtitles with some of the German language scenes and nice, bright white, easily read fonts graced the screen.
What an interesting story! And so complex!
Lessons: The Machine is All! The machine must be tended to at all times. When the workers change shifts they march into work, slow, heads down, laboring, laboring, laboring. The whistle blows after a ten hour shift. Then they go below to the underground workers' city deep in the earth.
The industrialist brain behind this shiny, bright city is Joh Fredersen. His son Freder is a playboy who gets his pick of the women at The Club of the Sons. He's checking out the girls and having a great time until a strange woman comes into the Club with a bunch of ragged children. "These are your brothers", she intones.
Who was that girl?
Freder then explores the inner city and is shocked by the working conditions. He imagines the machine is a god and that the workers are slaves, sacrificing their bodies and flesh to the maw that is The Machine.
Clearly the director is making a statement about where the Industrial Age is heading.
But then we get to the Inventor, his plan within a plan. We discover Maria, a passionate woman who says that the workers (Hands) and the management (Brain) have no way to communicate. They need a "mediator". A Heart. And she falls in love with that Heart.
Amazing tale, insightful, and at times unintentionally funny -- the scenes with the humanoid made flesh to look like Maria dancing at a club with "the upper ten thousand" is very humorous -- the prancing, the staring and ogling -- just too much.
Highly recommended! Do get the new release from Kino Video as soon as they release it!
Quotable Quotes from Metropolis!
* Freder: It was their hands that built this city of ours, Father. But where do the hands belong in your scheme?
Joh Frederson: In their proper place, the depths.
* Maria: There can be no understanding between the hand and the brain unless the heart acts as mediator.
* Maria: "We shall build a tower that will reach to the stars!" Having conceived Babel, yet unable to build it themselves, they had thousands to build it for them. But those who toiled knew nothing of the dreams of those who planned. And the minds that planned the Tower of Babel cared nothing for the workers who built it. The hymns of praise of the few became the curses of the many - BABEL! BABEL! BABEL! - Between the mind that plans and the hands that build there must be a Mediator, and this must be the heart.
Other Fritz Lang Recommendations:
M - 2 Disc Special Edition - Criterion Collection
Woman In the Moon
Destiny (aka Der müde Tod)
Summary of Metropolis
Metropolis by Fritz Lang (Enhanced) 1927This film has been enhanced using a Video Enhancement Program that reduces noise and enhances video quality.
In the future, Metropolis, is a bustling city-state where two groups make up the population. The thinkers live above ground and enjoy the fruits of life, while the workers live underground creating the fruits that the thinkers enjoy. When Freder Fredersen, the son of the city leader, journeys underground with Maria, advocate for the workers, he witnesses first hand the horrors that the workers live in. Can he and Maria bring the parties together or will the thinkers further dominate the underground workforce?
Metropolis has been through many edits since its initial creation by Fritz Lang. After its German premiere lengthy portions were cut from the film. More was edited out for American audiences. Through the years much of the original film has been believed to be lost. Metropolis stars Brigitte Helm as Maria, Gustav Fröhlich as Freder Fredersen and Alfred Abel as Joh Fredersen, Freder s father and city leader.
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Fritz Lang's Expressionistic masterwork continues to exert its influence today, from Chaplin's Modern Times to Dr. Strangelove, and into the late 1990s with Dark City. In the stratified society of the future (Y2K no less), the son of a capitalist discovers the atrocious conditions of the factory slaves, falling in love with the charismatic Maria in the bargain, who preaches nonviolence to the workers. But even the benevolent leadership of Maria is a challenge to the privileged class, so they have the mad-scientist Rotwang concoct a robot double to take her place and incite the workers to riot. The story is melodrama, but it's the powerful imagery that is so memorable, with one of the most arresting images being legions of cowed workers filing listlessly into the great maw of the all-consuming machine-god Moloch. --Jim Gay
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