Metropolis

Review of the Giorgio Moroder version: The version of Metropolis I’m used to seeing is the incredible 2010 restoration, which to this day is the closest we’ll ever get to Fritz Lang’s original vision—it’s a miracle that even in the rough shape it’s in, the cut footage was found in Argentina.  To see the entire film almost complete and beautifully cleaned up, while the film was unavailable in good quality until the DVD era, is a great step forward for film preservation, and I feel a bit spoiled that our generation is able to see this film in its almost full 2-1/2-hour version.  Case in point, generations before ours were stuck with either a poor-quality edited version or the Giorgio Moroder cut, which was depressingly the best quality version out there for a couple decades.  This was my first, and likely only time seeing the Moroder cut, which the new restoration has rendered nothing more than a cultural oddity of the early home video era.  I love Giorgio Moroder’s work in pop music and film scores alike, he is a synth god and the key to my love and defense of disco music. The score itself is quite good, if far from his most memorable, and makes for some really jarring moments in the film’s intense finale.  Some of the incredibly 80s Moroder-produced pop songs on the soundtrack are decent if mostly generic, Pat Benatar and Freddie Mercury’s contributions being highlights—the latter undeserving of a Razzie nod.  However, the vocal pop songs occasionally distract from the onscreen action, especially in a silent film.  There are some additional janky-looking animations inserted here and there that, while charmingly grungy, also feel out of place in a film from the 20s.  If you are seeing Metropolis for the first time, DO NOT watch the Moroder cut unless you’ve seen the 2010 restoration first, which is thankfully the most widely available version.  While it’s admirable that the 1984 Giorgio Moroder version sought out to restore the film, and it seems he cared deeply about preserving it, you can probably forget it unless you’re curious, or already a fan of the film, or a fan of 80s music in general—all of which I am!