Giorgio Moroder's Metropolis (2002)

Critic Reviews

Jeffrey M. Anderson, Combustible Celluloid
With Moroder's color tints, snappier pace, and sometimes silly music, the movie is often a great deal more fun, and certainly something more along the lines of a cult classic than a masterpiece of world cinema.

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Greg S

METROPOLIS, Fritz Lang's silent German Expressionist movie about a future city where enslaved underground workers allow the rich people above to live in decadence, is of course a classic. Moroder, the Academy Award winning composer of "What a Feeling" (FLASHDANCE),… More
METROPOLIS, Fritz Lang's silent German Expressionist movie about a future city where enslaved underground workers allow the rich people above to live in decadence, is of course a classic. Moroder, the Academy Award winning composer of "What a Feeling" (FLASHDANCE), restored the film and added new tinting, incorporated some stills and explanatory intertitles to replace some of the lost sections, and, most significantly, re-scored the film with a controversial 1980s synth-pop soundtrack. It could have been a disaster, but the results are actually very good; the dated proto-techno music actually fits the futuristic setting well, and thankfully the much-promoted vocal numbers are kept to a minimum. You only cringe a couple of times when Pat Benetar comes on the soundtrack to sing "Hearts on Fire" during a love scene, or Billy Squier observes "now it's hit the fan" when the proles are about to revolt and flood their own homes. Not as good as watching Kino's newly restored printfrom 2010, but a worthwhile experiment for fans of the original, and certainly a more palatable way to introduce the film to someone who thinks they don't like silent movies. (The release date should be 1984).