----------------------------Original message---------------------------- Philippe Mather wrote: > Gene Stavis' comments regarding Moroder's 1984 version of >_Metropolis_ are similar to those of David Smith, in the sense >that they are both basically evaluative (one likes subtitles and >the other doesn't). The underlying disagreement, however, appears >to be an ethical one: Smith argues that Lang's film has been >desecrated, whereas Stavis contends that this adaptation has allowed >the film to reach a wider audience. And we are both right (you're right too, Phillipe). Last night I had the opportunity to view the full video version of Moroder-cum-Lang's METROPOLIS (recall that my original post of 3/8 was based on 'a quick preview') and here is my amended assessment (ahem): Lang's class analysis, if that is the right word, in METROPOLIS basically deserves Moroder's mawkish rock ballads. They are an embarassment. As a sometime student of Weimar culture, I can only cite the political confusion practised by small men like Friedrich Ebert during that dire era, as a possible mitigating factor in Lang's case (in other words, criminal stupidity in political thinking was endemic. Still is.). Lang also evidently suffered a dire cultural confusion of his own, at least in the making of METROPOLIS. The film reflects then recently bygone aesthetic concerns, notably the Futurists' mechanolatry, in a mish- mash of expressionism (the cellar with the crosses is especially painful to watch) and nickleodeon melodrama. If Lang had only set out to make a debauched monster feature and dropped his insane social theories (slaves who rebel only wind-up destroying their own homes, for one), then I think he would have produced an enduring classic. I know there are those who will continue to insist that is exactly what METROPOLIS is (an enduring classic, not a debauched monster movie). As for Moroder, I put it to you that labelling him a 'composer' (based on this score, anyway) is perhaps going too far. Tin Pan Alley tune- smith, perhaps. Consider this: if Moroder was starting this project today, he would almost certainly enlist the vocal and instrumental talents of Guns & Roses to deliver guaranteed box office audiences to his extended music video (a very insightful metaphor, Phillipe). That's how seriously we need take him as a composer. Some of the subtitling was tolerable. David Smith [log in to unmask]