Giorgio Mororder's 1984 rock version of Metropolis coming to Blu-Ray!
Earlier this year, our friends at Kino released a superb blu-ray edition of Fritz Lang's silent sci-fi masterpiece, Metropolis. Incoporating roughly half an hour of recently discovered footage, which had been thought lost forever, this edition of Metropolis filled in numerous plot holes, and brought both improved pacing and narrative clarity to the proceedings.
But this most recent offering was not the first time a restoration of Metropolis had been attempted.
In 1984, musician Giorgio Moroder created a controversial reimagining of Lang's film, which not only color-tinted the footage and re-edited several sequences, but replaced the traditional orchestral score with rock and roll numbers from then-current artists, including Freddie Mercury, Pat Benatar, and Loverboy. (Eep.)
A legal nightmare since the day of its release, Giorgio Mororder's version of Metropolis came and went quickly, with out-of-print VHS and laserdisc editions commanding big money on eBay. But despite (or perhaps because of) its scarcity, the movie soon became a cult favorite, prompting one enterprising film lover to create a very good bootleg DVD edition to satisfy fan demand. (Not that we, uh, would know anything about that, cough cough.)
But we have happy news! It seems the legal issues surrounding the music have been resolved at last, and fans of Mororder's off-beat interpretation of a cinematic classic will soon be able to enjoy a legal version for the first time in over twenty years.
Kino will be handling distribution of the forthcoming blu-ray release, making this the third time the company has released a restoration of Metropolis on home video since 2001. (Hey, we're not complaining: every version they've released has been phenomenal in its own way. Keep riding that gravy train!)
No release date or disc specifications have been released yet, but rest assured we'll keep you informed the instant we here anything more. For many of us, Mororder's revamped Metropolis was our initial introduction to the film, and even though the 1984 version may appear flawed and quaint when compared to the definitive restoration, released a few months ago, it's still a nostalgic delight.
(And a pretty terrific film, regardless of version.)
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Comments
Revblake 18 Aug 2011 22:47
So Awesome. I have been listening to a lot of Mororder lately and I was thinking of picking this up but read a lot of split feedback. Your stamp of approval goes a long way!
Maarten Swemmers 24 Aug 2011 21:05
I really hope they made a good deal with Gilchrist Anderson and bring out his restoration.
GregS 23 Sep 2011 19:52
Wonderful! and you can now pre-order it over at Amazon! I've been waiting for this since I first saw it on HBO back when they first ran it ('79 or '80)