Music: "Cage of Freedom", 1984
Producer Giorgio Moroder released his unique version of the classic German silent film "Metropolis" in 1984, restored and bearing new, never-before-soon footage along with new intertitles, subtitles, select colorization and, of course, a contemporary soundtrack heavy on synthesizers that included performs such as Pat Benatar, Adam Ant and Freddie Mercury.
It was this version of Fritz Lang's 1927 film I first saw, a worn VHS tape on the shelf of a nearby Blockbuster when I was in junior high. "Metropolis" is a remarkable film, arguably the first of the science fiction genre, the product of a truly unique vision that combined the darkness of the German now with the strangeness of a future 100 years forward.
"Cage of Freedom" is a recognizable tune from the "Metropolis" soundtrack for its thematic content but also because composer Jon Anderson similarly created a recognizable tune from another genre mainstay of the '80s, Ridley Scott's gorgeous fantasy film "Legend" called "Loved by the Sun".
The entire Moroder soundtrack for "Metropolis" is absurd, but the juxtaposition is rather funny and, frankly, contributed greatly to my love of overly-romanticized nostalgia for the '80s, helped along greatly by "Drive".
