Rating: 
Summary: The music was nice but the story was dumb
Review: This is not really a film about Mozart at all. Peter Shaffer the English playwright read some of Mozart's letters which suggested that his sense of humour was rather focused on fart jokes and chamber pots. He wrote a play which was basically about the composer Antonio Saleiri who was older but a contempory of Mozart. Saleiri was a person who was succesfull in material terms and was also a person who had considerable skills and became a court favourite in Vienna. As a musician however he was not that talented and although his music was alright it has not ever been seen as the work of a genious and is played only occasionally as a curiosity. Schaffers play was about Saleiri and his jealously over Mozarts talent. Through the play he is tormented by the fact that whilst Mozart writes music as beautiful as that heard in heaven Saleri's music is at best pedesterian. Further that this is all so undserved as Mozart was so crass. It of course is a further irony that although Saleri hated Mozart he was one of the few who could appreciate the genius of his work. Otherwise Mozart was not that popular and many thought his music overly complex. Now what has happened is that this play has been sort of adapted for film. Instead of Mozart cracking fart jokes at every spare opportunity he is made to appear vulgar. His music in played through the film in short bits and his father is made to appear a tyranical character. The reality of Mozart's life is of course different than this. He very much reflected the time with his sense of humour and the way he expressed himself. The notion of him being a vulgarian is simply a creation of Schaffer's play. The film thus presents a rather unrealistic portrait of his life and it also paints others of the period in the same way. The Emperor Joseph is played as a clown despite the fact that he could sight read music play the piano well and was a person of considerable interlect. If one knows a bit about Mozart the film is thus a bit irritating. It is also unfortunate that a perception has grown up that this is an authentic biography. Still its not the worst film of all time.
Rating: 
Summary: An great film based on the life of Mozart.
Review: When an old age man named Antonio Salieri (F. Murray Abraham in a Oscar Winning Role) tells the story to a Priest (Herman Meckler) about the Jealousy he has with a young musical genius named Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart (Tom Hulce in a great often funny performance, which he was Oscar Nominated) died at the age of Thirty-Five, might been murder from the hands of Selieri, a second rate musican. This film has win Eight Academy Awards in 1984:Including Best Picture, Best Director, Best Adapted Screenplay, Best Score, Best Make-Up, Best Costume Design and Best Art Direction (Set Decoration). Directed by Oscar Winner:Milos Forman (One Flew over the Cuckoo`s Nest, The People vs Larry Flynt & Man in the Moon), This film has fine supporting peformances by Elizabeth Berridge (The Funhouse), Simon Callow (Four Wedding and a Funeral) and Jeffery Jones (Beetlejuice). Christine Ebersole (Dead Again) and Kenny Baker (R2-D2 from Star Wars Films) have small roles in this one. This is a Stunning film filled with Great Music, Comedy, Drama & Wit. It was also Oscar Nominated for Best Cinematogrpahy and Best Film Editing. Panavision. Grade:A.
Rating:
Summary: An Overwhelming Achievement
Review: Movies about the lives of the great composers are very few. On those occasions when they are released they are often so exaggerated that they can not be credible as biographical accounts.
"Amadeus" is a movie about Mozart, and while a great liberty has been taken (about Salieri killing Mozart) it still has enough information to be credible.
If you know the life of Mozart well, you would know Mozart died of some kind of fever, not in the hands of Salieri (although in actuality Constanze, Wolfgang's wife, did support rumors of Salieri's guilt over her husband's death). Mozart had two children (not one), three of Mozart's students and friends: Eybler, Freystadler, and Suessmayr finished the Requiem (not Salieri), And Mozart's sister in-law, two dotors, Herr Suessmayr, several musicians (helping to finish the Requiem Mass), and his wife Constanze were all with Wolfgang on his death bed (not just Salieri, and Constanze was not in the Baden spa due to dysfunctions with her marriage- which also is pure fiction. She actually went to that spa due to a foot ailment months before the death of the composer).
Despite these small liberties Amadeus still has enough biographical items to be praised. (The bad relationship between Leopold and Constanze, the timing of his father's death, Mozart's disagreements with the archbishop, Joseph II's ban on the play Le Marriage de Figaro, etc.)
"Amadeus" is also a beautifully filmed work. The choice of locations and costume seem to accurately reprent Europe in the eighteenth century. The acting is deeply felt (Abraham's Salieri is superbly acted).
The flow of this movie is never tedious, not even for a second. The action is natural and you feel you can watch this movie many times.
The soundtrack is excellent (even if you do not perfer Rococo/Classical/Romantic music) and it is a necessary companion to the purchase of "Amadeus" on VHS or DVD.
Rating:
Summary: "Amadeus" is the greatest
Review: Three years ago when I first saw this, I was absolutely empowered over it. The movie is very moving, touching and inspiring. I've loved classical music for years and being a young music listener, this has all the best Mozart. Tom Hulce is wonderful portraying Mozart. No one else could have done better. I must say Jeffrey Jones, who played Emperor Joseph, sounds like one of those very important businessmen. This is astounding. I feel sorry for you people who say the DVD was bad. You'll feel a lot better watching the VHS. "Amadeus" looks and sounds great on videotape.
Rating:
Summary: Amadeus is amazing.
Review: For 5 years this video sat on my mother's video shelf, while I watched every movie around it and excluded this one it gathered dust. Finally one day when I was 14 I grabbed it off the shelf in order to save myself from boredom. I unwrapped the cellephane (it had never been opened before) and popped it into the vcr and sat down waiting to be dissapointed. I remember looking at the cover and thinking it was some comic book movie. After 30 minutes of the movie I couldn't stop watching for anything. I was mesmorized by the beauty of the music and amazed at Salieri's hatred for Mozart. I'll never forget the scene where he burns his crucifix. That scene is probably one of the most memorable for me because while he's burning it I could feel his pain. All he wanted was to be heard and respected. He wanted to fill the world with the most beautiful music but to his horror that is not God's plan for him.
I have watched this movie at least 40 times and have memorized entire scenes and say them along with the movie. This is by far my favorite movie ever. Followed by Erin Brockovich and Ever After.
If you have only heard of the songs written by Mozart that Salieri plays on the piano in the asylum then you need to not only watch this movie but go to a music store and pick up a couple cds. I can not however pick a favorite tune as Danielle says in Ever After "I could no sooner pick a favorite star in the heavens." Amadeus is a haunting dramatic true telling of two lives that were both changed forever by fate. Tom Hulce is surprisingly good in the role as 'Wolfie'. Forget whatever you saw before in movies like Parenthood. He is an incredible actor and I recommend this movie to everyone. It's amazing, plain and simple.
Rating:
Summary: What A Movie!
Review: This is one I can never get sick of! The music sounds magical (especially on DVD) as one would expect. Yet the best thing to me about this is F. Murray Abrahams performance as Saliri...just plain brilliant! This movie weaves history, comedy, drama into an unforgettable masterpiece! Check it out!
Rating: 
Summary: Great movie, passable DVD...wait for the deluxe version
Review: This is a beautifully photographed and recorded film, and the performances are top notch. However, I own the laser disc collectors edition of this disc and not only is the video transfer better but the laser disc also has a ton of supplemental material (director commentary and some excellent extra scenes that were edited from the film). For [the price] it's not a bad DVD, but I'd recommend waiting for a DVD version of the laser disc package.
Rating:
Summary: Magnificent--a feast for the eyes and ears
Review: This is perhaps one of the best movies ever made, and also one of my personal favorites. My parents gave me an extensive cultural education beginning in Utero--to give you an example, I could recognize Eine Kneine Nacht Music by sound by the time I was four. "Amadeus" came out around the time of my birth, and it would be impossible to tally up how many times I saw it in my early childhood. I became interested in it once again around my thirteenth birthday, and soon became captivated by it once again.
Rating:
Summary: The right number of notes
Review: Occasionally there are Oscar winning films that actually deserve all the honors bestowed upon them. Amadeus is one such movie. It's based on a play - same name - by Peter Shafer who adapted a famous short story by Alexander Pushkin called Mozart and Salieri. Accordingly, the movie follows the short story's premise that Salieri was implicated in Mozart's untimely death. There were real specualtions to this effect but there was never any evidence and, if we are to believe Beethoven who was his student, Salieri was a very kind man. Therefore the movie's story is fictional. Nonetheless, many feautures of the story are based on fact. W.A. Mozart's relationaship with his father had been difficult as were his dealings with the powerful people who commissioned his work. Moreover, Mozart's music was appreciated after his death. Beethoven was really the firts great musical star or artist in the modern sense. Salieri's music was popular during his lifetime but the movie does a good job of showing how unpopular it would become later when compared to Mozart. The movie is also excellent at using the music, which is not merely background but is featured as a star.
Salieri's reminiscing of performance s and the cuts into the music are the movie's strongest technical feature. But, visually the film also offers beautiful scenes from orgiastic parties with foods that made my mouth water to idyllic palace scenes - Schunbrunn Palce as Mozart performs his concerto no. 15 - to the utter pathos of the requiem composition and burial.
I have seen this film over 10 times and still can't get enough of it.
Rating:
Summary: Overly fictionalized but great nonetheless
Review: This movie has 80's gusto and irreverence written all over it.From the obnoxious star as spectacle that defined the 80's rock and roll icon to the revisionism and modern audience pandering,this may be too dated and factually liberal to go down as a masterpiece.It is a fun movie,however.From the scatological humor of Mozart(the one characteristic of Mozart the movie got right)to Salieri's flashbacks as told to a priest in an insane asylum, there is plenty here to hold interest.The operatic sequences were slow moving but necessary for coherence and texturing.The circa 1790-91 scenery and set designs,clothes and hair stylings are very impressive and quite amusing in and of themselves.But the glorious music is what makes the movie.From the excerpts of the Requiem,the Serenades,the clarinet concerto and the Romance of the piano concerto that closes the movie,it is enough to make you go out and find recordings of Mozart's music.I never paid any mind to Mozart or the classical composers before I saw this film.But it opened up a great new world and I have since listened to the greater part of Mozart's catalogue(along with Bach and many others).Even if you know all about Wolfgang Amadeus you cannot go wrong with this movie.It may not be a masterwork,but it is well worth knowing.
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