Metropolis Movie Review

Classic meditation on technology and mass mentality, about the mechanized society of 2000 A.D. where workers are trudging drones on constant duty underground, as upper classes dwell in splendor and decadence on the surface. Then the son of an elite leader falls for a prominent worker chick. Disapproving dad commissions an evil android duplicate of the girl to incite the workers into doomed revolt. Part fairy tale, part allegory of Capital and Labor, so politically simplistic it had admirers simultaneously in the Reichstag and the Kremlin; all inspired by German director Fritz Lang's awestruck first sight of Manhattan by night. Outstanding set designs, colossal crowd shots, and still-striking f/x made this innovative and influential, though the silent-mime style of acting badly dates the material. True landmark of the genre, and generally held to be the first sf screen epic. Certainly set a trend by nearly ruining the German UFA studios, who spent about six million marks on its cost (and the red ink continues: a recent British stage musical version was a mammoth flop). Foreign export re-edits and the loss of the original negative in WWII means that various versions circulate on video and laserdisc. The 1984 re-release features some color tinting, partial reconstructions of long-lost sequences, sound effects, and a controversial rock score with songs by Pat Benatar, Bonnie Tyler, Giorgio Moroder, and Queen. A special treat for completists: the little-known, recently republished novelization by Lang's then-wife and screenwriter Thea von Harbou, which fills in the gaps between title-cards.

1926 115m/B GE Brigitte Helm, Alfred Abel, Gustav Froehlich, Rudolf Klein-Rogge, Fritz Rasp, Heinrich George; D: Fritz Lang; W: Fritz Lang, Thea von Harbou; C: Gunther Rittau, Karl Freund. VHS, Beta, LV SNC, NOS, MRV