Metropolis Reviews and Ratings


  • 21rclemente
    November 10, 2009
    21rclemente
    Uhhh. ok? I've seen silent films in the past and don't get me wrong Metropolis die-hards but this movie needs to be reconcidered by the IMDB critics who place it so high on their lists. I understand that this movie was incredibly innnovative at the time... but only at that time. ...( read more)Its horribly dry and should be ranked with movie within its time period.
  • Epicouros
    November 8, 2009
    Epicouros
    It's an epic poem of urban dystopia (and class warfare) by a misanthropic director who, in his Weimar Republic phase, had a taste for spectacular imagery that, for all our modern digital wizardry, has not been aesthetically surpassed. And his imagined world remains, after all the...( read more)se years, eerily prescient.
  • Steel20
    October 26, 2009
    Steel20
    A great benchmark and something to aim for when it comes to science fiction or fantasy films. It is sad that some of it was lost, but good that the pieces that are still there have survived. I generally do not like silent movies (it is sad to be born in an era of great technology...( read more)) and the music drove me nuts. The story is beautiful and it played out well on screen. The sets were amazing and I don't want to imagine how long it took them to accomplish all of this back then. Some of the cinematography is astounding even for today's standards. I almost want to see a re-make of it....but afraid that it would ruin the story of this one and never reach the heights like this one has.
  • hayneslauren
    October 21, 2009
    hayneslauren
    Such a beautiful movie and my favorite silent feature.
  • ElCochran90
    October 18, 2009
    ElCochran90
    "There can be no understanding between the hand and the brain unless the heart acts as mediator."

    METROPOLIS (1927)


    Director: Fritz Lang
    Country: Germany
    Genre: Action / Adventure / Drama / Fantasy / Romance / Sci-Fi / T...( read more)hriller
    Length: 153 minutes

    Photobucket


    Metropolis is much more than just a sci-fi film. Certainly, we are talking about the most astonishing project of a German genius named Fritz Lang, who definitely had the guts of experimenting with something different in order to create cinema. What Fritz Lang offered to the world in 1927 became one of the most ambitious and fascinating cinematographic projects in cinema history, not only because of its thematic elements, but because of its visual style. Basically, Metropolis created a whole new world, a world that opened some people's eyes, and inspired other people start to reconstruct the world that existed by then, taking it to a higher industrialization level. The most characteristic aspect about Metropolis is the fact that it was done in a key historical moment of humanity. The First World War had already ended, and since the Industrial Revolution (and even before), the world structure started to divide itself into international great powers (which are nations capable of exerting their influence on a global scale) that sought for competition against the world in order to become the most advanced countries, socially, economically and technologically speaking. What Metropolis achieves towards its audience is to offer a chillingly accurate vision of a director about the path that the actuality (the actuality of the 20's, that is) was following by then. More than a simple sci-fi film, the movie constituted a controversial social commentary towards slavery caused by endless work and the nonsense this work caused in humanity.

    Metropolis is set in the year of 2026, in a futuristic city completely ruled by technology, constant work and the colossal influence of industry, and is divided into two main social classes: the city planners, who really don't know how anything works and who live on the surface, and the working class living underground in the machine level, which although it establishes and accomplishes its goals, it doesn't posses a vision, since the very social structure prevents it from doing it. The true plot of the film starts when the son of the city's mastermind visits the underground where the workers toil, and after being astonished by what he sees, falls in love with a working class woman who prophesies the coming of a savior that would act as a mediator between the differences among the social classes.

    The movie speaks like a person thinking out loud, like a hair-rising commentary towards modern society. It is curious how elements such as fantasy, society's constant riots and religion come to a point where they form a part of a whole and combine themselves in a very catastrophic way. The scenes including the workers walking together towards the machine level are pretty peculiar. The musical score is very attractive, and somehow represents irony contrasted with harmony. The rhythm in which the working class walks makes it seem like cattle, and like if it were conformed by inferior human beings.

    The cinematography alongside with the editing created a world that had never seen before, a world which is not based in real life, but in the possible consequences of the events that took place back in the 20's. That is why I consider Metropolis the mother of sci-fi films, and it is officially one of the first movies that were made concerning that genre. Another giant icon within the sci-fi genre is the short film Le Voyage dans la Lune (1902), directed by George Méliès. Metropolis is brilliant in every single aspect, and both the art direction and set decoration is ultimately unparalleled. In fact, both the art direction and the constructed sets for the film are the most impressive ones I've seen in cinema history. Also, Metropolis was one of the first feature films that handled scenes with great amounts of people in its shots. The movie included 37,000 extras including 25,000 men, 11,000 women, 1,100 bald men, 750 children, 100 dark-skinned people and 25 Asians. These scenes were extraordinarily shot and made. Certainly, Fritz Lang was the best director for the job.

    Metropolis also possesses the best special effects I have ever seen. Just like Le Voyage dans la Lune (1902), The Ten Commandments (1956), 2001: A Space Odyssey (1968), Star Wars (1977), Aliens (1986), Terminator 2: Judgment Day (1991), Jurassic Park (1993) and The Matrix (1999) are films that I particularly admire because of their special effects and because they are the best representations of what technology can achieve in movies, Metropolis also has the best visual effects in the history of cinematography, as far as my opinion and taste go. Please consider that the technology that exists nowadays for creating some special effects in particular (such as the overused CGI) didn't exist in those times. We are talking about 1927! Analyze that figure. The most astonishing special effect of the film is some rings spinning around a machine up and down that transformed it into a guise of Maria. Audiences back then were left amazed, and I definitely felt the same way 4 years ago.

    As mentioned before, Metropolis is one of the best social criticisms ever made about automation along with Modern Times (1936), by Charles Chaplin. However, while Chaplin used a comical tone accompanied by irony, the purpose of Metropolis scatters terror. It is a very-well structured opinion, but very direct for its audience, especially for the 20's. Probably for those times the message of Metropolis wasn't understood in its totality. It is a film ahead of its time. One interesting trivia about the film is that reportedly it is one of Adolf Hitler's favorite films. Carefully analyzing the subject matter and the narrative structure utilized by the film, it isn't so surprising that one of the cruelest and greatest leaders that humanity ever had in its existence had favorite this film.

    Metropolis is, without a doubt, the best film by Fritz Lang for my taste, even better than his next sci-fi film Frau im Mond (1929), Dr. Mabuse, der Spieler - Ein Bild der Zeit (1922), which is the longest movie I have seen so far, M (1931), Le Testament du Dr. Mabuse (1933) and Fury (1936). Metropolis may go beyond our own comprehension; its incomparable dystopian and apocalyptic vision influence several artists and filmmakers in the future, specially within the cyberpunk movement that was highly promoted in Japan, being the best examples Akira (1988) and Kôkaku Kidôtai (1995), which influenced The Matrix (1999). Also, it is one of the first films that masterly established and portrayed the concept of the conflict between men and machines. Too many directors have paid tribute to Fritz Lang and his masterpiece for literally redefining a genre that really isn't so easy of treating. That is why Metropolis, being one of the most ambitious projects in movie history and the best sample of German Expressionism, is one of the best films of all time, and one of the best proofs of how a big budget can be productively used for a movie. The budget was around 5,000,000 marks which, adjusted for nowadays inflation, represents an approximate amount of $200,000,000. Finally, this was the first film (being the second one Los Olvidados [1950]) that was registered in the "Memory of the World-Register" of the UNESCO.

    100/100
  • ifitz
    October 8, 2009
    ifitz
    With the exception of the dull parts near the start where I fell asleep and the inserted titlecards to explain what was lost :-(, I really, really liked this. I didn't think I would, but I really, really did. It was so smart and so clever. But what really takes the cake, what I r...( read more)eally loved, was Brigitte Helm. She does the real Maria well, but the robot Maria- blows my mind! If they had had Oscars back then she should have won! Her facial expressions! Her naked (very naked for the 20's!) dance! Perfection! And in case you missed it: 'The mediator between the head and the hand... IS THE HEART!!!!!" Ahhhhhhh!!!!!!
  • Hellshocked
    October 1, 2009
    Hellshocked
    Kino is releasing a version with the recently found footage (all 90!!! fucking minutes of it) by 2010.

    Most curious.
  • JayeeBeee
    September 23, 2009
    JayeeBeee
    The Plot: Rage Against the Machine - 1920?s style.
    Acting: Ever watch a silent film before? Dude checking the time is flickin? dramatic!
    Special Effects: So good it?s hard to comprehend this flick was made in 1927.

    The Skinny: Did you just say silent film?!?
    Yes Meldiana, ...( read more)yes I did. Hey, The Flicker loves movies and will give any flick a day in court. Some times that?ll bite me (see last review) but some times I?ll be pleasantly surprised. So, I had heard whispers of this flick in the past, would see it on some pundit?s top 100 list, and so on. But a Christmas ago, Mrs. Flicker set me up with this book called 1001 Movies You Must See Before You Die and this flick made the cut. Before this, the oldest flick I had ever seen was The Wizard of Oz which was made in 1939 so as you can imagine I was a little apprehensive making this flick queue-worthy. But I threw caution to the wind and plopped it on there. Yes I know, I?m dangerous. Fast forward almost a year later (yes my queue is that flickin? long) and Metropolis came knockin on my door. I said hey, we?ve been waiting for you! Ok I just lied to you. I did not sing the theme song to Three?s Company to this flick. Basically it arrived and I sat on it for like a month. Finally I talked myself into watching it and plugged it into the dvd player. WOW, was seriously good. I mean if you can get past the dramatic chipmunk acting and the keystone cop-like running around, this flick is good. Great story and for 1920?s technology the effects are impressive! Hollywood could remake this movie today and the story would be completely relatable. Check it out:

    Metropolis is about a big city and its great divide between the upper ruling class and the lower working class. The city is run with a heavy hand by Joh Fredersen who holes up in his tower hawking all the day to day activities. His son Freder, spends his days in the Eternal Gardens frolicking through flower meadows and chasing tail. (Which by the way was apparently extra fine in 1927 Germany) But, during a typical slacker day for Freder at the Eternal Gardens a woman named Maria busts in followed by 30 or so children. Apparently on a field trip from Kindercare, we find out these are the children of the workers and she tells them ?Look! These are your brothers.? Freder catches flies as he stares open mouthed at the huddled dirty children and is visibly touched. Enter Eternal Garden security team. But as the goons usher out Maria and her ragamuffin bunch the damage is already done. Her haunting soul piercing look has hooked Freder and he frantically chases after her.

    In his search he finds himself lost in the underworld of Metropolis. Remember those old filmstrips you were shown in school about the industrial revolution? It looked kind of like that. Bodies everywhere, big machinery, large billows of smoke rising above. Just as Freder is watching this ruckus, he witnesses an industrial accident as the machine bursts into flames. One of my favorite parts of this flick, Freder begins hallucinating something straight out of Pink Floyd?s The Wall. He watches in horror as the machine feeds on its workers. Awesome! Well, as you can imagine this doesn?t sit to well with our hero and he starts to really question if Daddy knows how much the people are suffering.

    He rushes to his father and barges in just as some major shit goes down. A foreman turned in some secret plans he found in one of the dead worker?s pants from the accident and old man Fredersen is pissed! He fires his number one henchman for not knowing of the secret plot first. The son is basically blown off as Fredersen desperate to translate the secret plans storms off to the local crazy inventor. Freder returns to the underworld and decides to trade places with one of the workers to really get taste of crap life. As his son slaves away at one of his machines Fredersen shows the secret plans to Rotwang. So, in addition to being a bat-shit crazy inventor he also has the worst name known to man. Rotwang quickly translates the secret message as a map of the underground catacombs and an invite to a secret worker meeting. Of course Federsen immediately wants to bum rush the meeting but Rotwang gives him the ole ?hey wait, while you?re here, check this shit out?. Now I?ve established this guy is crazy, right? Well apparently he?s pretty lonely as well because they guy built a robot he calls Machine Man. All proud of his creation he introduces his toy to Federsen.

    Well Federsen isn?t that all impressed and gives Rotwang a ?wow man, um that?s awesome but can we hit those catacombs now?? So Rotwang shows Federsen down his personal tunnels into the underworld. Meanwhile Freder is wondering why the hell he changed places with the worker dude when he could be chasin? some German von bosom instead of sweatin his ass off. As the shift whistle blows a fellow co-worker fills him in on the secret meeting and they both make their way through the catacombs. So guess who?s leading this secret swaray. Yep our frizzy haired Maria. She preaches to the workers about the downfalls of not having open communication with the ruling class and warns them of impending doom if things don?t change. And then she drops the best line of the entire flick. Seriously, the chick is a philosopher. Ok more like whoever wrote the screenplay is but still:

    There can be no understanding between the hand and the brain unless the heart acts as a mediator.

    Brilliant! Tell me you could not apply that today. So as the shindig ends Fredersen is livid. How dare this tramp feed HIS workers this. Afraid they may revolt he instructs Rotwang to turn his Machine Man into a copy of Maria and have the robot version of Maria perform some seriously character assassinating actions. While they return to Rotwangs house we notice that Freder stuck around after all the workers left so he could profess his love to Maria. As they talk she pleads of him to become the mediator she spoke off and of course he immediately agrees. He wants in her lederhosen after all. As he speeds away to prepare Rotwang shows back up and kidnaps Maria in preparation to have Machine Man replace her. At this point we discover that Rotwag has a serious grudge against Joh Fredersen. He does what he asked in turning the Machine Man into a copy of Maria but instead of discrediting Maria he programs it to stir the pot even more and incite a riot of the working class. So basically she goes Chicago Seven and whips up the masses into believing its time to burn this mutha down.

    Freder realizes right away that this is not the Maria he fell in love with and seeks out Rotwang. Playing the role of Underdog he rescues Maria and they jump into action. See in the masses rush to burn the city they don?t realize that in doing so and shutting down the brain of the city it will in turn end up flooding their underworld. And being a riot is no place for children, all their ankle biters look to be a part of a water park that makes Wisconsin Dells look weak sauce. Well our dynamic duo swoops in to rescue the kids and usher them up to higher ground. At this point our working class realize the oopsies and start blaming the evil version Maria. They capture and burn her at the stake. In burning she turns back into Machine Man and they realize that they?ve been duped by Rotwang. During this time Rotwang is chasin what he thinks is his robot tail. Freder comes flyin off the top rope like Jimmy Superfly Snuka and saves Maria. Once again. Rotwang ends up falling to his death and the working mass celebrate Freder and Maria as the mediators they truly are. Aww life between the working class and ruling class is now equal. OK, the ending may be a bit far fetched.

    The Verdict:
    The kumbaya ending aside, I really liked this flick. Again you have to go into it with different expectations but if you like a good story and can deal with the lack of audible dialog, you will enjoy this flick. So hey! Live life on the wild side and take a chance. Your artsy fartsy sophisticated side will thank me.

    See the full review and other funny flickers visit: http://theflicker.com/.
  • dax4u
    September 15, 2009
    dax4u
    A CLASSIC....truly with no sound of it's own. The best version has the music of 'QUEEN' dubbed in.....but the story holds and IS powerful. ENJOY!!!
  • citawijaya
    September 7, 2009
    citawijaya
    Holy Crap, this movie really kicks some ass!!!!

    The best silence movie ever!
  • isabelleweber1
    September 7, 2009
    isabelleweber1
    "O mediador entre o cérebro e as mãos deve ser o coração". Metropolis é um filme muito significativo na história do cinema, e, retratando um futuro em que a elite e o proletariado estão em completa oposição e desacordo, traz a idéia da necessidade de um mediador que diminua a exp...( read more)loração ao trabalhador e possa atender seus interesses de maneira pacífica.
  • twraiderfan
    September 4, 2009
    twraiderfan
    everyone has to see this at least once..grandaddy of sci-fi movies
  • StewartMc
    August 21, 2009
    StewartMc
    One of the most influential films of all time. This silent classic is way before its time.
  • donaldwhite1
    August 15, 2009
    donaldwhite1
    Pioneering Science Fiction movie. This is one of the first Science Fiction films. I have the 1998 DVD. It was made from a poor copy and you can't see a lot of the pictures. It has poor contrast and a lot of the pictures are so faded you can't make out what's happening. I als...( read more)o got the restored authorized version. It's 100% better. The pictures are clear with good contrast compared to the 1998 unrestored version. It is a silent picture that makes it hard to follow since it's too long. Since the new version has restored some lost scenes that makes it even longer. There are lots of classic scenes that are used in TV and modern movies since the film was in the public domain for many years. There is also a scene not shown on TV, a topless scene where the android does a exotic dance in a night club. The new version has been digitally restored and missing scenes added. What looks like a topless scene in the unrestored version turns out to be large pasties that can't be made out in the faded out version but can be seen in the restored version. The restored version added text descriptions of the scenes they couldn't find. There is supposed to be new footage found in South America but wasn't added in this 2001 version. Maybe another revised version will come out in the future. They copied the robot for C3PO in Star Wars. The German director was inspired by a trip to New York. However his wife wrote the script and she was a socialist who later became a Nazi. Her vision of the 21st century looked a lot like the world Hitler tried to create. This was supposed to be Hitler's favorite movie. This shows what the Germans were thinking in the 1920's. They believed they lived in a world where the people were cogs in a machine and the planners lived in luxury. All that was needed for a perfect world was a savior to set things right. This was the theme of the movie. When Hitler came along the German people latched onto him as that savior. The director Fritz Lang later realized how stupid the story was years later. When Hitler came to power he split Germany and moved to the United States to make movies in Hollywood while his ex-wife stayed behind and became a loyal Nazi.
  • svmainus
    August 2, 2009
    svmainus
    Most amazing that this brilliant forward thinking film was made 90 years ago. Director Fritz Lang brings a film about the classes of society where the rich live above ground in a luxurious Metropolis and the workers live below ground where they toil 10 hrs of each day to keep the...( read more) machines running that control the city. This is a classic of silent films and many consider it a masterpiece. It truly is a visionary piece of work.
  • brenorb
    July 14, 2009
    brenorb
    Efeitos especiais fantásticos para a época, além de ter uma estética bem significativa. Muito bem feito. Um clássico.
  • lupaup
    July 14, 2009
    lupaup
    é aquela ficção bem básica, mas pelo fato de ser 1927 ganha 3 estrelas
  • R0L0D3X
    July 5, 2009
    R0L0D3X
    This movie, was VERY weird, but i liked it.
  • sanjurosamurai
    July 3, 2009
    sanjurosamurai
    often considered cinema's first great masterpiece, its a shame that some of the scenes from this fritz lang classic are lost to us forever. i feel that the film only preserves so well despite its missing pieces because it is a silent film and can be filled in with text screens, ...( read more)because i was still engaged in the story from start to finish. the only real critique of the film is that some of the actions of the characters didnt fit the story that well, but overall this film is highly effective in its scale as it tells a great science fiction story for its era. an impressive film that any true film fan should see.
  • stevenfry25
    June 30, 2009
    stevenfry25
    rip of off Tezuka's Metroplis
  • columbiatch
    June 28, 2009
    columbiatch
    Kind of a like a Michael Bay blockbuster, except more technically impressive (for its time). The sets are the stars rather than the actors, which give some incredibly histronic performances even for a silent. No matter how much I was impressed by the visuals and the avant garde p...( read more)arts of the film (probably the closest we can get of an Art of Vision remake by Michael Bay) I can't quite get past the nonsensical mess of a plot even though a lot of the film is missing, and the naive ideology of the film. And I hated the Heart-is-the-Mediator-between-Brain-and-Hand bullshit and that ridiculous ending. The band 3epkano did a great job though just like last year with Sunrise, so overall it was a very enjoyable experience.
  • amonra183
    June 27, 2009
    amonra183
    This is what i call art!!!
  • Germantangos
    June 27, 2009
    Germantangos
    Fritz Lang's silent sci-fi film is a significant point in cinema. A Must See for any movie enthusiast.
  • xXxXHorrorFanxXxX
    June 25, 2009
    xXxXHorrorFanxXxX

    In the extraordinary Gothic skyscrapers of a corporate city-state, the Metropolis of the title. Society has been divided into two rigid groups: one of planners or thinkers, who live in luxury on the surface of Earth, and another of workers who live underground

    ...( read more)toiling to sustain the lives of the privileged up above. The city is run by Johann 'Joh' Fredersen (Alfred Abel). The evangelical figure Maria (Brigitte Helm) takes up the cause of the workers. She advises the desperate workers not to start a revolution, and instead wait for the arrival of "The Mediator", who, she says, will unite the two halves of society. The son of Fredersen, Freder (Gustav Fröhlich), becomes infatuated with Maria, and follows her down into the working underworld. In the underworld, he experiences firsthand the toiling lifestyle of the workers, and observes the casual attitude of their employers (he is disgusted after seeing an explosion at the "M-Machine", when the employers bring in new workers to keep the machine running before taking care of the men wounded or killed in the accident). Shocked at the workers' living conditions, he joins her cause.Meanwhile his father Fredersen consults with the scientist Rotwang (Rudolf Klein-Rogge), an old companion and rival. Fredersen learns that the papers found with dead workers are plans of the catacombs and witnesses a speech by Maria. He also learns that Rotwang has built a robotic gynoid. Rotwang wants to give the robot the appearance of Hel, his former lover who left him for Fredersen and died giving birth to Freder. Fredersen persuades him to give the robot Maria's appearance, as he wants to use the robot to tighten his control over the workers. Rotwang complies out of ulterior motives: he knows of Freder's and Maria's love and wants to use the robot to deprive Fredersen of his son. The real Maria is imprisoned in Rotwang's house in Metropolis, while the robot Maria is first showcast as an exotic dancer in the upper city's Yoshiwara nightclub, fomenting discord among the rich young men of Metropolis. After descending to the worker's city, the robot Maria encourages the workers into a full-scale rebellion, and they destroy the "Heart Machine", the power station of the city. Neither Freder nor Grot, the foreman of the Heart Machine, can stop them. As the machine is destroyed, the city's reservoirs overflow, flooding the workers' underground city and seemingly drowning the children, who were left behind in the riot. In fact, Freder and Maria have saved them in a heroic rescue, without the workers' knowledge. When the workers realize the damage they have done and that their children are lost, they attack the upper city. Under the leadership of Grot, they chase the human Maria, whom they hold responsible for their riot. As they break into the city's entertainment district, they run into the Yoshiwara crowd and capture the robot Maria, while the human Maria manages to escape. The workers burn the captured Maria at the stake; Freder, believing this to be the human Maria, despairs but then he and the workers realize that the burned Maria is in fact a robot. Meanwhile, the human Maria is chased by Rotwang along the battlements of the city's cathedral. Freder chases after Rotwang, resulting in a climactic scene in which Joh Fredersen watches in terror as his son struggles with Rotwang on the cathedral's roof. Rotwang falls to his death, and Maria and Freder return to the street, where Freder unites Fredersen and Grot, fulfilling his role as the "Mediator".
  • lazywomanfromouterspace
    June 13, 2009
    lazywomanfromouterspace
    Fritz Lang was a visionary and a genius, is hard to believe how that man could have that futuristic vision of the 21th century in 1927. who don't like silent movies won't apreciate this movie. is a little slow but s great!
  • ohagankieran
    May 28, 2009
    ohagankieran
    Fritz Lang's groundbreaking landmark remains one of the biggest mysteries in the world of cinema. How can a movie that'll soon turn 80 years old still look so disturbingly futuristic?? The screenplay by Thea Von Harbou is still very haunting and courageously assails social issues...( read more) that are of all ages. The world has been divided into two main categories: thinkers & workers! If you belong to the first category, you can lead a life of luxury above ground but if you're a worker, your life isn't worth a penny, and you're doomed to perilous labor underground. The further expansions and intrigues in the screenplay are too astonishing to spoil, so I strongly advise that you check out the film yourself. It's essential viewing, anyway! "Metropolis" is a very demanding film-experience and definitely not always entertaining. But, as it is often the case with silent-cinema classics, the respect and admiration you'll develop during watching it will widely excel the enjoyment-aspect. Fritz' brutal visual style still looks innovative and few directors since were able to re-create a similarly nightmarish composition of horizontal and vertical lines. Many supposedly 'restored' versions have been released over the years (in 1984 and 2002, for example) but the 1926-version is still the finest in my opinion, even though that one already isn't as detailed and punctual as Lang intended it. "Metropolis" perhaps is THE most important and influential movie ever made. "2001: A Space Odyssey", "Star Wars" and "Blade Runner" owe their existence (or at least their power) to it.
  • HorrorMovieCinema
    May 24, 2009
    HorrorMovieCinema
    This movie is set in 2026 and had great speacial effects for 1927 movie and great Sci-Fi movie and in the future, and humans are divided into two groups: the thinkers, who make plans (but don't know how anything works), and the workers, who achieve goals (but don't have the visi...( read more)on). Completely separate, neither group is complete, but together they make a whole. One man from the "thinkers" dares visit the underground where the workers toil, and is astonished by what he sees.

    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.
  • MajorWhitlock
    May 24, 2009
    MajorWhitlock
    Surprisingly good for a early silent era film!
  • sketch4eva1
    May 23, 2009
    sketch4eva1
    Amazing film for it's time. Metropolis partly inspired me to get into SFX.
  • redmud13
    May 18, 2009
    redmud13
    This is one of my favs of all time.
  • drstrangeno24
    May 3, 2009
    drstrangeno24
    Beautifully staged, with a good message.
  • FieryPelikula
    April 27, 2009
    FieryPelikula
    This visual feast is one of the best silent films ever made. A groundbreaking film that has bravely brought the issues of the future and present it in the past. A compelling film that will forever be remembered as the father of stunning visual effects!
  • fujhay
    April 20, 2009
    fujhay
    another movie I saw as a kid. what can I say latch key block buster curious kid. especially when I was going threw my rock and roll experimental music stage.

    silent film with rock and roll classic back ground music.
  • dyfortuin
    April 17, 2009
    dyfortuin
    I had expectations about this film, but it turned out to be that my expectations were lower than my judgment of the movie after having seen it with great admiration and awe. The acting performance was I find excellent, with expressions on the faces that you seldomly see in movies...( read more) today; they raise question and they have the ability of reaching into the conscience or inconscience. The story is a classical one, with two groups that posess different qualities and to be first antagonized, then coming to the conclusion that without each other, they won't be able to reach their goals. But, there is still one other thing that has to be accepted will the wished effects be obtained: the one group the workers that have lived in the underground (litterally under the ground) and the thinkers that have lived above the ground, are subsequently the hands and the brains or the minds. The factor that makes the system complete, is the heart. And that seems to be the son of the leader of the upper world, Joh Fredersen, who had come to the workers and had sympathized with them because of their labour and sacrifiction. So he is the ultimate one, the heart, if you will, that makes the system complete. Fantastic cinematography, great story, legendary acting performances. A masterpiece!
  • sagosa
    April 7, 2009
    sagosa
    Vean la version alemana, por que la gringa esta editada para quitar pensamientos comunistas, y carece de sentido (deberian demandarlos por eso)
  • SDTERP
    April 5, 2009
    SDTERP
    The famous, Fritz Lang masterpiece. The 2002 Kino edition is the most complete version of this movie I am aware of. The film has been truncated and much of it lost, but this version has been digitally remastered and reconstructed in the correct order with cards implanted where ...( read more)original film is still missing to fill in the viewer. The film shows video phones at a time before television was known, the first depiction of a robot in a film and a classic tale of the schism between utopia and dystopia.
  • comeinandjointhariot
    April 3, 2009
    comeinandjointhariot
    with something like seven different (all official) edits of this film its hard to know exactly what you're reviewing. The edit I watched having NO ROBOTS AT ALL. Imagine my disappointment. despite that it was still enjoyable, and with a message that is still important today.
  • r44mercer
    March 29, 2009
    r44mercer
    I had a craving to watch Metropolis ever since I saw the different movie posters in my graphic design book. I had never heard of it previously, but after a little research, I found out it was a definite staple in cinema history. To be a silent film, I really enjoyed it. The st...( read more)oryline was really good and the acting, though a bit over-the-edge, complemented it well. The only unenjoyable part was the score - it didn't quite fit. Overall, the movie was a great watch.
  • Tetsuo8
    March 27, 2009
    Tetsuo8
    i like the design of the whole film
  • sspidermann
    March 26, 2009
    sspidermann
    Good from what I remember
  • emiliotejera
    March 24, 2009
    emiliotejera
    Although it is a difficult movie to follow, as it´s a silent movie, the visual work is fantastic, and the story is scarely modern, in a distopic and unpleasant future that is closest to the present times that we would like. This is one of the movies -if I were a director- that I ...( read more)would like to make a new version, to take the best of the original and improve it even more.
  • ahhh1989
    March 21, 2009
    ahhh1989
    The world of this film never leaves my thoughts when I think of Science fiction.
  • sculptbrown
    March 15, 2009
    sculptbrown
    Amazing, visually stunning and actually still a little scarey, the robot is so real, you could be mistaken for thinking she's better than the many who've followed in her footsteps. I saw this film in College and I didn't expect to like it, but its much better than most films of i...( read more)ts age!! Top class!
  • kzhope
    March 14, 2009
    kzhope
    Obra maestra del cine mudo.
    Metrópolis nos presenta una ciudad distópica donde la sociedad "perfecta" está sustentada en la explotación de la clase obrera, la cual vive en una ciudad subterránea.
    Se ha mal interpretado mucho la idea principal de la película "El corazón debe de se...( read more)r mediador entre la mano y el cerebro", ya que la interpretación más justa es que el corazón (entendido por humanidad o sentido común y no como emociones) debe ser el rector entre las clases sociales, por lo que éstas no deben de ser destruidas, deben ser reconciliadas.

    Un logro técnico en TODOS los aspectos con una dirección impecable y actuaciones superiores a las de otras películas mudas, esta película posee una estética sumamente notable y una producción evidentemente generosa.

    Más allá del inmenso logro que representa está película en el sentido técnico, la tesis final resulta de lo más interesante: la guerra entre las clases lleva a la destrucción de la sociedad, solo un trabajo conjunto logra la justicia para todos.

    Una leyenda del cine y un ícono de la corriente expresionista.

    *****
  • denebkaitos
    March 12, 2009
    denebkaitos
    This is a must see for the Cypberpunk fan.
  • jclark751
    March 12, 2009
    jclark751
    Fritz Lang's depiction of the future based on if things continued to keep going on the way they were during his time. Great classic sci-fi film, and a vision far beyond its time.
  • andreavarga
    March 11, 2009
    andreavarga
    Amazing for its innovations, the first science fiction movie ever, you can see its traces in every sci-fi movie up to today.
  • forkincheek
    March 6, 2009
    forkincheek
    I can easily see why George Lucus got so obseesed with this movie when he was writing the Star Wars trilogy. It's a GREAT movie, the first sci fi movie ever made, infact. And that leading lady! She was just plain brilliant. Even if not all of the scenes survived to present date, ...( read more)I would still highly recomend this to movie maniacs like me. It's inspired so many different filmmakers, it's fun to spot things that other, more recent, movies used. :)
  • ifeels1ck
    February 19, 2009
    ifeels1ck
    Fritz Lang's timeless epic and a beloved gem in the cinema of science fiction.

Summary

Metropolis Summary