When this film first appeared in 1984 there were howls of protest from practically everyone in the film community especially those who were silent film aficionados. The idea of combining contemporary pop music with a silent film classic was sacrilege. Once the furor died down and the film became available on VHS, it developed quite a cult following but then the video disappeared. After over 20 years of waiting, it has finally appeared on Blu-Ray and DVD and it has been worth the wait. This version, while not Fritz Lang's METROPOLIS, is still worthy of being seen because of how well it's put together.
The color tints used for the film are beautiful and effective (Lang's original has no tints) and the editing of the film, paring it down to 87 minutes from over 2 hours of material, is quite masterful (instead of title cards there are subtitles which eliminates a lot of time). Some of the performers that Giorgio Moroder selected as musical accompaniment are quite appropriate especially Cycle V, Jon Anderson, Freddie Mercury, and Loverboy. Pat Benatar's HERE'S MY HEART (reminiscent of TITANIC's MY HEART WILL GO ON although it predates it by more than a decade) is a bit much as are some of Moroder's synthesized realizations but they do not detract from the overall impact the film makes.
METROPOLIS' editing was always edgy to begin with which makes it an ideal candidate to be treated like a music video. Check out the famous robot creation scene or the son's hallucinations and you'll see what I mean. Adding contemporary music to silent films is nothing new these days and Moroder deserves credit for being a pioneer by helping to bring a celebrated silent film to the big screen and to the attention of younger viewers almost 30 years ago. This METROPOLIS briefly had a limited release in theaters thanks to Kino Classics complete with a Moroder supervised restoration of the soundtrack (which now has nostalgia value) in conjunction with its first release on home video in the digital medium.
Hopefully you can see it in a theater but if not, then snap up this release as it too could disappear once again. It's not Fritz Lang's METROPOLIS (which now exists in a complete original version also from Kino), it's Giorgio Moroder's METROPOLIS and it's beautiful to look at and to listen to. It clearly shows how silent cinema is an art form unto itself and how, like other great art forms, it can be reinterpreted for future generations. This release comes with a wonderful short documentary THE FADING IMAGE which illustrates how the film was restored and then scored by Moroder...For more reviews visit The Capsule Critic.
