December 14, 2009

Metropolis



Data
Title: Metropolis
Year: 1927
Length: 123 minutes
Director: Fritz Lang
Writer: Thea von Harbou, based on her novel
Starring: Alfred Abel, Gustav Fröhlich, Rudolf Klein-Rogge, Brigitte Helm
Music: Gottfried Huppertz
Distinctions: currently #93 on IMDb's Top 250

My reaction
Synopsis: a robot leads a socialist revolution
How I saw it: on video a couple times, most recently (rented from Netflix) yesterday
Concept: Great. The plot has been recycled too many times to still have anything left in it after all these years. But Art Deco Expressionist Steampunk? Yeah, okay.
Story: Bad. Unless you like being beaten over the head with an allegory of dated relevance.
Characters: Bad.
Dialog: Indifferent.
Pacing: Good.
Cinematography: Great.
Special effects/design: Great.
Acting: Bad.
Music: Good. I didn't really like it, but it's right for the movie.
Subjective Rating: 7/10 (Good). For once Netflix has the good version of a silent film. We'd seen a different version (about a decade ago), and it was boring and kind of hard to follow. This version (the Murnau Foundation restoration released by Kino) is entertaining throughout. The footage is played significantly faster, it uses the original score, it has all the footage that was known to exist at the time it was released (early 2000s), and, absolutely essential if the movie's going to make any sense, it tells you what happens in the missing scenes.
Objective Rating: 7/10 (Pretty good) 2.6/4 (Good).

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