Metropolis/YMMV

• Adaptation Displacement: The title of this page used to refer to Osamu Tezukas Metropolis.
  • Also, just about every sci-fi film made in the past 80 years references this movie.
  • Yep, there is a book. It was written by the director's wife at the time.
• And the Fandom Rejoiced: At the restoration.
• Better on DVD: Way better, especially now that this movie has been found nearly complete and has been released on DVD and Blu-Ray
  • Although Georgio Moroder's Cult Classic musical soundtrack version has not been released on DVD at all, prompting fans to Keep Circulating the Tapes.
    • Kino is going to be releasing the Giorgio Moroder version on DVD and Blu-Ray in November 2011. No more need to circulate.
• Broken Base: Opinions on the Moroder version are sharply divided, to say the least.
• Crowning Music of Awesome: The original reconstructed soundtrack by Gottfried Huppertz; "Cage of Freedom" from the Moroder version.
• Ensemble Darkhorse: Rotwang's robot who only gets a couple minutes of screentime has become the film's unofficial symbol in pop culture. It's the only character shown on the film's most famous poster. Osamu Tezuka's version was inspired by nothing other than that famous image. Of course, technically, the Maria Machine actually has a ton of screentime, just not in that form.
  • In the new restoration, the thin man.
• Ho Yay: Freder is a very physical person. Especially with Josaphat and 11811. On the other hand, it's very firmly established that he loves Maria...
• Macekre: if you compare the 1928 American release to the original film -- editing by chainsaw, and Channing Pollock boasting about having rewritten the whole thing.
• Misaimed Fandom: Partly. Adolf Hitler said Metropolis was one of his favorite films. The writer, Thea von Harbou, was a dedicated Nazi. The director, her husband Fritz Lang, divorced her and moved to Hollywood soon after the Nazi rise to power. The movie certainly doesn't have anything supporting the Nazi ideology, unless you take extreme liberties at interpreting the Aesop. It's directed against all forms of tyranny, from ruthless capitalism to mob rule.
• Narm/Anvilicious: The ending. Even Fritz Lang admitted he didn't like it in an interview he gave several decades later. In an essay that is available in the booklet of the Masters of Cinema DVD, Jonathan Rosenbaum has this to say: "one of the lamest endings of any great film I can think of".
• Vindicated by History: When it was first released it was a huge flop that nearly bankrupted Ufa, the studio that produced it. Now, it's considered the forerunner to all science fiction films ever. Including (and especially) Star Wars.