Rating: NR
Length: 124 minutes

Standard 1.33:1 B&W

MUSIC: Dolby Digital Mono

English, French, German, Spanish

It's far off in the future and society is broken into two parts; the working class and the elite. The working class live and work underground in 10 hour shifts. The elite live above ground in a life of leisure.  The son of one of the political leaders discovers the underground and the people working there while following a lovely lady he fancied.  From there we have class warfare, revolt, love stories, scheming, and it all ends with a handshake. There were over 37,000 extras in this film including 25,000 men, 11,000 women, 1,100 bald men, 750 children, 100 dark-skinned people and 25 Asians.

Once you take into account that this was filmed in 1927, you will simply be amazed at some of the things they were able to do on screen; the special effects were ground breaking to say-the-least.  The story is captivating and deep for a silent film; many silent films were short and somewhat silly. And the restoration performed on this film has made the picture absolutely beautiful. And while you're at it, you have to watch the making-of documentary on this disc to truly appreciate how much work was done and how they were able to pull off the incredible special effects.

About one quarter of the movie is missing.  The parts that they do not have film for are explained on the screen so you will know what is happening.  The good news is in June of 2008 they found what they believe is an original unedited version of the film in a vault in Argentina.  Let’s hope it’s in good enough shape for the experts to work with! 

• Audio Commentary
• 43-Minute Documentary on the Making-Of Metropolis
• Featurette: The Digital Restoration
• Photo Galleries featuring Production Stills, Missing Scenes, Architectural Sketches and Poster Artwork
• 13 Cast and Crew Biographies

Whether you wait until this movie is released on Blu-Ray or not, every true film buff has to have this film their collection. Do not pick up any other versions than this one or the Blu-Ray; there are dozens of different ones out there that are incomplete with crappy pictures. If they are able to include the previously lost footage in the next release, this movie will get the perfect rating it deserves.

Fritz Lang   [M, The Testament of Dr. Mabuse]

Alfred Abel - Johhan 'Joh' Fredersen

Erwin Biswanger - Georg - No. 11811

Gustav Fröhlich - Freder Fredersen

Heinrich George - Grot

Brigitte Helm - Maria/The Machine Man/Death/The Seven Deadly Sins

Rudolf Klein-Rogge - C.A. Rotwang, der Erfinder

Theodor Loos - Josaphat

[M, The Testament of Dr. Mabuse]

Fritz Rasp - Der Schmale/Slim