Giorgio Moroder Presents Metropolis Blu Ray - Nov. 15 street date

Interesting bit of an 80's time capsule. IIRC, Moroder took the Fritz Lang the silent sci-fi classic and recreated a soundtrack featuring songs by Freddy Mercury, Pat Benatar, Aam Ant, Jon Anderson, Billy Squire, Loverboy and Bonnie Tyler etc. He also re-edited the film and added some color tinting here and there. This Blu Ray release is of interest more for the newly remixed 5.1 DTS HD MA track than for the movie. In effect, because the movie is silent, you have a pulsing, electronic BD Audio disc featuring some of the big pop artists from the 80's. I haven't heard it yet but from what I've read the 5.1 remix is quite good - could be a sleeper.

Thanks for the tip. I saw this movie back then and enjoyed the music. I remember especially liking the Jon Anderson song. But the movie in this version was pretty good too.

Can't wait for this one - all I have is a Super High-Band Beta-Is Hi-Fi copy of the LaserDisc. This film was presented in digital sound in a very limited engagement, using, I believe, a U-Matic VTR and Sony's 2-channel consumer true 16-bit PCM adapter (with the 2-channel digital sound Dolby MP Matrix encoded) synced to the film via tach-pulse. I think, like the digital Fantasia in the 80's, it was a John Allen of HPS-4000 thing.

GREAT, I remember playing the LP when I was a DJ in WRPC-FM in PR in 84!!!!
As a side note, you guys know that they discovered some extra footage in of al places..Argentina??? ..about 20 minutes too!
This movie started being a CLASSIC (I got the super duper extra ketchup, onions, mustard 2 DVD version with a documentary on how it was made; stop motion animation that doesn't look that way!!!)
but now it's TOO scary because it's edging a bit too close to true life....
One of my all time favorites!

guess I gotta get a BD player in the end....

Anyone got this yet?:

I'm wondering if I should "pull the trigger" on this one....

I cannot recommend this as a great surround experience - however, it probably sounds much better than it ever has. If you're a fan of the movie as a whole then I would recommend this wholeheartedly but if you're just looking for some 80's pop mixed into surround you will be very disappointed - alot of reverb and ambience in the rears - the sub gets a good workout though.

elmer said:

I cannot recommend this as a great surround experience - however, it probably sounds much better than it ever has. If you're a fan of the movie as a whole then I would recommend this wholeheartedly but if you're just looking for some 80's pop mixed into surround you will be very disappointed - alot of reverb and ambience in the rears - the sub gets a good workout though.

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I wonder if that's how the original theatrical HPS-4000 digital sound showings of Metropolis sounded? Did the original mix just rely on Dolby Stereo's matrix to create "magic surround" for the music as many films used to do or was the film music mixed discretely specifically for encoding into matrix surround? Or have they ruined the soundtrack by sending the mix through a 'one size fits all' Q-Sound type re-encoder like Universal has done on the Special Edition DVD's of "Flash Gordon", "Xanadu", "Jesus Christ Superstar" and the re-issued "The Wiz", all which destroyed the original 4-channel Dolby Stereo discrete master mixes - and in the case of "...Superstar" really messed with the mix since it was meant to be heard discretely in 35mm mag with panned vocals and minimal surrounds except in certain "explosive" moments like at the beginning of 'Superstar' when Judas is coming down into hell. Only the first DVD issues of those discs kept the original discrete tracks.