The newly restored version, which I saw recently thanks to a torrent, is a much, much better movie (both finer as an art work and more entertaining) than the truncated, barely coherent, version that I remember from being in film school in the 1980s. The restored version displays a richness and fullness of story line that the truncated version, which circulated for decades, only hints at. (Personally, I consider the Moroder version to be a true esthetic atrocity, not worth watching.)

The cumulative result is a version of “Metropolis” whose tone and focus have been changed. “It’s no longer a science-fiction film,” said Martin Koerber, a German film archivist and historian who supervised the latest restoration and the earlier one in 2001. “The balance of the story has been given back. It’s now a film that encompasses many genres, an epic about conflicts that are ages old. The science-fiction disguise is now very, very thin.”

So, it's been rescued from the ghetto? I respect your restoration work, Mr Koerber, but I'm not sure I appreciate the implication.

A music forum I'm on did a complete re-scoring of the original film. Here's my favorite 3 minutes from the project:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lGw6PncahcM

Yup, look forward to seeing the masterwork @ Film Forum, NYC.

I know I was right not to buy the DVD yet... :) I'll watch "docktor Mabuse" tonight to celebrate!

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I had the privilege of watching the Gergio Moroder 1980's cut, and I cannot wait for the full version.

That's great. Let's hope they find the original version of the The Magnificent Ambersons next.

I swear I've read this story 10 times over the past two years. At least two or three times on the New York times.