Metropolis (1927)
Average Rating: 9/10
Reviews Counted: 109
Fresh: 108 | Rotten: 1
A visually awe-inspiring science fiction classic from the silent era.
Average Rating: 8.9/10
Critic Reviews: 32
Fresh: 32 | Rotten: 0
A visually awe-inspiring science fiction classic from the silent era.
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Average Rating: 4.1/5
User Ratings: 58,283
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Movie Info
The biggest-budgeted movie ever produced at Germany's UFA, Fritz Lang's gargantuan Metropolis consumed resources that would have yielded upwards of 20 conventional features, more than half the studio's entire annual production budget. And if it didn't make a profit at the time -- indeed, it nearly bankrupted the studio -- the film added an indelible array of images and ideas to cinema, and has endured across the many decades since its release. Metropolis had many sources of inspiration,
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Cast
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Alfred Abel
Joh Fredersen -
Gustav Froehlich
Freder -
Rudolf Klein-Rogge
Rotwang -
Theodor Loos
Josaphat/Joseph -
Heinrich George
Grot (Foreman) -
Brigitte Helm
Maria/Robot -
Fritz Alberti
Robot -
Grete Berger
Female Worker -
Erwin Biswanger
Georg No. 11811 -
Max Dietze
Working man -
Erik Frey
Female Worker -
Heinrich Gotho
Master of Ceremonies -
Lisa M. Gray
Female Worker -
Georg John
Worker -
Margarete Lanner
Woman in Car -
Fritz Rasp
Slim -
Hans Leo Reich
Mafinus -
Arthur Reinhard
Worker -
Olaf Storm
Jan -
Erwin Vater
Working man -
Rose Lichtenstein
Female Worker
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All Critics (110) | Top Critics (32) | Fresh (112) | Rotten (1) | DVD (20)
Lang hardly moves the camera; he knows all the angles, and keeps the focus on the overwhelming, colossal contrivances that arise from an ambient megalomania and the infinitesimally calibrated, razor-sharp machinations that they provoke.
I have just had a sensational night at the movies, and the picture was only 83 years old.
Kino's The Complete Metropolis contains nearly a hundred instances of restored footage, ranging from brief reaction shots to entire sequences.
This movie is certifiably nuts and naive in many ways, but it is so exciting.
There's no denying either the influence of Lang's vision -- so much of what he did in this film lives on that we take it as cultural assumption -- or the still valid energy of his storytelling.
Here's a coincidence: The first must-see movie of 2010 is also the must-see movie of 1927. The difference is that you can actually see it now. Or most of it.
A visionary science-fiction spectacle; a still relevant dramatization of 'class warfare'; a pulp nightmare of Freudian-Marxist-Christian symbolism and Expressionist-Futurist-Old Testament imagery; and a source of inspiration for Nazis and Utopians alike.
Here for the first time the chill mechanized world of the future... has been given reality. Here is the city, that tormented circus of buildings which touch the sky, of tunnels that disrupt the places under the earth.
Legendary silent sci-fi masterpiece has semi-nudity, riots.
A perfect gateway drug for old movies.
A miraculous feat of movie love, this near-complete restoration of Fritz Lang's silent masterpiece is nothing if not the non-Criterion Blu-ray release of the year.
Devoted film- and music-lovers alike will enjoy the latest reconstruction (images and sound) of Fritz Lang's truly marvellous tale of mediation over violence.
Lang's visionary visual creation remains impressive almost 80 years later...
Every dystopian vision owes a debt of gratitude to Metropolis.
Oh, it's wacky. But the visuals are unlike anything we've ever experienced. For the film aficionado, it's a cinematic must-see.
Among the most famous and influential silent films ever made, Metropolis has lost none of its ability to inspire awe and provoke debate.
A luminous and resplendent visual masterpiece yoked to a puerile and embarrassingly trite plot.
Master cinematographer Karl Freund fills the screen with an array of stylized shadows, oblique camera angles, geometric images, and nightmarish labyrinths.
The visionary qualities of the visual creation become more impressive with each restoration, and the narrative more interesting.
Audience Reviews for Metropolis
Super Reviewer
Super Reviewer
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- Joh Fredersen: Off where they belong...
- Freder: Of where they belong?...In the deeps? ...And if those in the deeps one day rise against you?
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- Maria/Robot: The mediator of the head and the hands must be the heart.
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Latest News on Metropolis
June 26, 2012:
The World's Most Valuable Movie Poster for SaleWould you pay $1 million for a poster?
August 24, 2011:
Giorgia Moroder's Metropolis Heads to TheatersThe 1984 film's arrival on Blu-ray will be celebrated with a 20-city theatrical run.
April 23, 2010:
Restoring Fritz Lang's MetropolisAfter 80 years, nearly half an hour of lost footage from Fritz Lang's "Metropolis" has turned up --...
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Foreign Titles
- Metropolis (1927) (UK)
- Metropolis (1927) (CA)


Top Critic
I found Metropolis to be overrated and a numbingly slow film and I watched the truncated 90 minute version! To add insult to injury the acting is atrocious and so far over the top that I was either laughing at it or shaking my head in disgust. And on top of all of that Moroder's musical contribution is just plain stupid and serves to add further unintentional humor to the goings on. It did have some pretty far out and original ideas for its time and the sets and FX are really impressive but I will never sit through this bore ever again.