Customer Reviews

Metropolis: 75th Anniversary Edition

5 star:		(1)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

Thea von Harbou's book is the indispensable companion to Fritz Lang's immortal film. As most people know, Lang's film was butchered by German and American editors-we have lost about 25% of the film. Essential scenes and many of the subplots were deleted to make it fit within a small time frame. Reality Check: The shorter the film, the more times they can show it, and the more money they collect. Consequently, with the best of restorations, we are seeing a film with as many gaps as a hockey player's smile.

This book, which was serially published before the film's release, fills in the gaps. You get a better sense of the story that Lang and von Harbou are trying the tell. The book allows you to get inside the heads of Freder and co. in a way that the film does not allow. You get a stronger feel for the dystopic milieu that Freder fixes.

This story is essentially mythic, so devotees of Joseph Campbell, George Lucas, and James N. Frey will devour the book and the film. You see the messianic and redemptive elements that makes this story so enduring. This story is one of my favorites, and rates with anything C. S. Lewis, J. R. R. Tolkein wrote, although not with the same level of craftsmanship.

This particular edition is the 75th anniversary edition. It includes an introductory essay by Forrest J. Ackerman, a Metropolis aficionado. It is illustrated with a few movie sills, and several movie posters from German and American screenings. These illustration selection could have been better, and for crying out loud, next time please do not put the pictures in sideways!

The only drawback with this book is the size-it is 8 ½ by 11, as opposed to the normal novel-book size of 7 by 4. It is awkward to read and hold. It feels in my hands more like a coffee-table picture book than a novel. So it is a little hard to read in this fashion. The translation, however, is readable, and doesn't have an "Germanisms."

I'm not sure if this book "stands alone" apart from the film. It wasn't conceived as such, but was more of a segway for the film. However, the story or the "feel" of the times and perplexities of the dystopic Metropolis. In this sense, the book achieves it's purpous.

Anything that lasts 75 years is worth investigating. I love film and am glad that I own the novel so doubles my cinematic pleasure.

I was very disappointed to open this book and find very bad quality illustrations. For $24 I would expect better than this. The illustrations, which are mostly stills from the movie, are about the same quality as newspaper photos from 40 years ago---very low contrast, mostly gray tones. This ruins what should have been (and sounded like) a good book. I take issue with the previous reviewer who said it has "improved scans". If this is the improvement, I'd hate to see what they looked like before. Any book about movies that features Metropolis will have far better quality stills from the movie than this book.
Metropolis is one of my favorite films, and its influence can still be discerned today. Moreover, it is a political metaphor for class divisions that grow ever deeper in America. As long as there is a ruling class and an underclass this movie will stay relevant. Your money would be better spent on the excellent DVD of the fully restored film than for this disappointing book.

Long time fan of the Fritz Lang masterpiece. I had never read the original novel before.

Once again, and even though Thea von Harbo authored the screenplay too, the book is in and of itself a masterpiece.

This 75th Anniversary edition of Metropolis had been completely re-scanned and the book reprinted on improved presses (as of 10/2002) so that the interior illustrations and quality are much improved. A very nice present for the holidays and a fitting companion to the recently released digital version of the original film.

I've seen the film multiple times, and constantly fawn over it (Which is a different thing altogether), so when I found a copy of the book for sale, it automatically went to my 'must buy' list. I received this edition for christmas, and I must say, I have not been disappointed by what I have read. I find the book a great piece of romanticism and, for me, an involving and interesting read. In the book, there are more places described, and much more mentioned and going on at once, which goes without saying, as the only limitations in a book are how much you can think of and write, as opposed to how much you can build and film within a budget. It's quite a different experience from the movie, although I believe the book has more to lend in the ways of expressionism and romanticis as well as character depth, plot, and action, to viewers, although it is a definite compliment to the movie.

As for the stillustrations and pictures, I found them enjoyable, but in some cases superflous and detracting from the reading experience. I enjoy looking at the pictures in the introduction and flipping through to see how this person drew this scene and how this was depicted, but overall I found that the layout of the pictures didn't seem as well thought-out as I would have liked them to be. In the end, though, I usually don't come away from the book very bitter, because I have it to read, and not to look at pictures.

The size of it is a bit of a problem- I would have preferred a normal sized edition, as the larger one is harder to transport whenever I want to take it somewhere. I do, however, enjoy the larger print on the pages.

All in all, quite enjoyable, and worth picking up if you want an engrossing science fiction story.

While it is good to have the novel METROPOLIS available once again, it is a pity the presentation couldn't have been better and more professional. The stills from the film are badly reproduced and look like they went through a poor fax. The posters are in poor black & white instead of color.
In addition, since METROPOLIS is a short novel, it would have been quite easy to add a couple of chapters. One excellent one would have been a reprint of the "Famous Monsters" articles of several decades ago that dealth with the film's special effects. Another article of interest would've been a discussion of the restortation efforts on this film, especially with another restoration to come out this year and, I believe, to be released by Kino Video on DVD next year.

But, no, this was an excellent opportunity wasted by a shoddy presentation.