Giorgio Moroder's Metropolis
By Kit Macdonald
Masterpiece or monstrosity? The debate over this incredibly bold remake of the 1927 silent classic by Fritz Lang by the Italian "father of disco" still rages 41 years after it came out. Rather than a straightforward restoration of one of the totemic works in cinema history, Moroder turned out a hybrid, adding colour tinting, reducing the original's length and intercutting animated effects, and a pumping soundtrack including tracks by Freddie Mercury, Pat Benatar, Bonnie Tyler and Adam Ant.
The result is surreal, high-energy and entirely at odds with Lang's original dystopian feel. Moroder's noble mission was to retool the film to appeal to a 1980s audience and bring Lang's work back to general prominence in the process. Many cinephiles and critics derided it as commercialised nonsense, but we're still talking about it all this time later and the movie did precede an uptick in interest in Lang's oeuvre, so, as always, Giorgio wins.