After having seen the newly restored, authorized version of Fritz Lang's science-fiction masterpiece, "Metropolis" (1927), on DVD, I can say, at the very least, that I am stunned by its cinematography, its social criticism, and everything that made it the inspiration for films such as "Blade Runner" and "The Matrix." The first time I watched the film was, too, on DVD, but the digital transfer was terrible; the titles were blurry and somewhat illegible, and the music used was not the original score, and did not synchronize at all with the action.

However, Kino Video, in association with the Murnau Foundation, restored the classic German silent to its former glory (as much as possible). That is, it is the closest possible version (restored in its full length) to what people saw in 1927. And no, this is not hype. In fact, the restored version of "Metropolis" has been selected as the VERY FIRST FILM to be entered in the "Memory of the World" databank, alongside Beethoven's 9th Symphony and the Gutenberg Bible.

Aside from what is said on the back cover of the DVD keep case, the film, which has been cleaned up, removed of scratches, dust, and other "artifacts," is absolutely incredible, in both its scope and context. In fact, I was inspired to make a remake of the film* after first seeing it on the other DVD version of the movie, which is, by the way, (as virtually all versions of the movie are, until now), "shortened and truncated." Now, after seeing the restored Kino version, "the definitive version," apparently, I am convinced that a remake would be wholly unnecessary, and the movie, as it now stands, is in of itself a complete masterwork.

Finally, several scenes that were originally in the movie when it premiered have long been lost, so the people at Kino Video and at the Murnau Foundation took their time to insert new title cards, explaining what occurred, so that there are no plot holes.

*By this, I mean that that I actually began to write out what the look of my version of the movie would be like, a paraphrasing of the premise, and so on. After having seen the new version, I think I will delete those notes, for they are no longer needed; there does not need to be a remake, at least by me.