Amadeus

Rating:
Summary: A Masterpiece Just Like Mozart's Works
Review: Amadeus is rather the story of the man who killed Mozart rather than the man himself. The man who became one of the most gifted composers of all time. The story portrays Mozart as a oddball, who wouldn't be consider a genius by the way acted. F. Murray Abraham plays a man who is filled of anger against him and hates him beyond all recogntion. This is one of the best films of all time, and a true masterpiece. It is slow moving and has one of the most terrible DVDs ever made. It is a disc you have to flip over to play the other side and the director's cut is comming out later this year. Wait for it, unless you really want to say it.

Rating:
Summary: A Movie About The Greatest Composer Ever To Live
Review: This movie ''Amadeus'' is the greatest movie I have ever seen in my entire life! I watch it all the time! I can memorize practically the entire movie! This is a beautiful portrayal of the life and works of Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart. Even though some is fictitious, it still entertains in an educational way. It plays some of Mozart's greatest works like Symphony 25 in G Minor, The Abduction from the Seraglio, The Marriage Of Figaro, Don Giovanni and my personal favorite the Requiem Mass. I would never have discovered the beauty of Mozart's music and never would have learned of his genius if it wasn't for this film. So if you want to discover real music or just want to watch the greatest movie of all time, I advise ''Amadeus'' to anyone. May Mozart's spirit and music be with us all forever! God Bless You!

Rating:
Summary: So that's what a pauper's grave looks like...
Review: This film was meant to be a subjective piece on the relationship between Mozart and Salieri based on Peter Shaffer's play. Casting was intentionally done to bring unknowns onboard. F. Murray Abraham (who plays Salieri) and Tom Hulce (who plays Mozart) have never played on a piano before, let alone conduct an orchestra. For their parts, though, they did train and eventually learn to play the piano and look the part of a composer. After watching F. Murray Abraham's performance I utterly reviled Salieri. I pitied Mozart. Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, the child prodigy who died in a pauper's grave. It is such a tragedy. How could one man have so much hatred for another that his goal in life is to ruin his enemy, and claim that this is god's fault? Well, it is possible after you watch this film.

This DVD is split onto 2 sides of one disc. There's a Side 1 and Side 2. It also contains a Special Features section which is entirely full of text (available from the Menu on either side). I was disappointed by the lack of truly special features such as extra footage or director commentaries. It's a long (160 minutes) film and to cap off this DVD with a lot of narrative text is anti-climactic.

I would be interested in seeing another edition of this DVD come out which further draws the audience into this film. But for now, this will have to do. I highly recommend the story, though the medium needs improvement.

LEAP rating (each out of 5):

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L (Language) - 4.5 (engaging dialogue)
E (Erotica) - 0 (sadly, none)
A (Action) - 0 (n/a)
P (Plot) - 4 (a well-conceived opinionated retelling of a slice of history)

Rating:
Summary: As good as Mozart's best work!
Review: How can you loathe someone you adore the most? How can you conspire against the very person that you grew to admire? How can you strangle the same talent you consider divine?

Salieri says it very well, "And now the madness began in me. The madness of a man splitting in half. Through my influence, I saw to it "Don Giovani" was played only five times in Vienna. But in secret, I went to every one of those five! Worshipping sound I alone seemed to hear!"

This is not a documentary about Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart's life, neither a tribute to his great music. This is a masterpiece about the dilemma of hating what you love! It is a story about how extreme admiration can turn into horrid hatred!

An elderly Salieri (F. Murray Abraham) tells this story about him and Mozart like stories were never told! Salieri summarizes his rise in the music world until he reached the top, and then the story kicks in right when Mozart started bumping him on the road to immortality! Salieri had acheived the position of the Court Composer in Vienna. He had the wealth, the looks, the charms, and respect. He had it all but the superior talent! He was okay, but not remarkable! He thought that he had all that he ever wanted, until he met Mozart! He realized that all the materials he is surrounded with don't give him the talent that he craves for! His feeling of weakness is immense when he realizes that what he antagonize over composing doesn't come up half as good as what Mozart composes in the matter of seconds! Salieri, driven by envy, decides to fight. But he's not fighting Mozart... He's fighting god! He's fighting god because he didn't give him the talent, but he gave him the ability to see it! Like a hungry man staring at food behind bars! He saw in his clash with Mozart the chance to take revenge from god!

I can find no words to explain how great this movie is. I'm not a fan of opera, but I do enjoy classical music, only the really good ones though. And even though this movie had so many clips of operas, yet you hardly find them boring or dull because they integrate with the story telling very well. The utilization of Mozart's music in the movie is astonishing! Mozart's talent is very well demonstrated throughout the movie.

Salieri explains Mozart's music very well in the movie when he says, "On the page it looked nothing! The beginning simple... almost comic! Just a pulse... bassoons, basset horns... like a rusty squeezebox. And then, suddenly high above it, an oboe... A single note, hanging there, unwavering... Until a clarinet took it over, sweetened it into a phrase of such delight. This was no composition by a performing monkey. This was a music I had never heard! Filled with such longing, such unfulfillable longing. It seemed to me that I was hearing the voice of god!"

Abraham's performance is unmatchable! This is the first movie I watch over and over just to enjoy the performance of an actor!

It is also a lengthy movie, but by the end you find yourself wishing that this movie doesn't end!

If you want to watch a movie that'll haunt you for days and phrases from it would keep ringing in your ear, then watch Amadeus. You won't regret it.

Rating:
Summary: Five star movie, four star DVD...
Review: The standard Amadeus DVD (a special extended edition with all the extras is on the way) is somewhat annoying given that this is a truly great movie. It is double-sided, and you have to flip it over about two-thirds of the way through, at a moment when you are totally engrossed in the story. The extras are also not up to par.
The quality of the video and the sound however are superb.

As far as the movie itself, this is a timeless story of jealousy and genius with a truly memorable, career-making performance by F. Murray Abraham as Salieri. Through his eyes and ears, even a musical novice can truly appreciate Mozart's talent. Even the casual listener can sense the brilliance of Mozart's music versus the plodding ponderousness of the "Salieri" pieces.

The Mozart character himself, played by Tom Hulce, is annoying, particularly his laugh, but that only serves to reinforce our understanding of Salieri's suffering, to have his works overshadowed by a goofball genius.

The movie does have its slow parts, and I can't imagine wading through the 3 hr, 20 minute extended version which is due out soon, but I expect I will.

Enjoy!

Rating:
Summary: A movie as genius as the man it portrays
Review: I've heard it a million times. This film is not supposed to be taken as a biography, so what? It's wonderful entertainment. We connect so with all the cast you feel their pain and joy throughout this amazing drama. On one hand we have the person we all are, Antonio Salieri. Mediocre, but surviving, wishing he had great talent. He obeys his bosses and puts up with their faults. He also feels emotions of love for a woman but never expresses it. Then he meets Hulce's Mozart and a great jealousy takes over him, infuriating him to the point of madness. We've all been this way.

Then there's the person we wish we could be. Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart. Not only is he brilliant, but he's unafraid to do anything. Where Salieri obeyed and respected authority, Wolfie chastises and contradicts it. We've all wanted to do this at some point I'm sure. Wolfie is in love with life, and he embraces it in it's fullest. Having affairs with well-endowed opera stars, getting rip roarin' drunk, and attending party after party even when he can't afford it. In addition, he is delighted, amused, but to a certain degree also tortured by the beauty he creates. Truly, Mozart is a man we can see ourselves in easily.

Then we have the mediator in form of Constanze. In the beginning she starts out much like Wolfgang, happy and carefree. But as things go on, after they have a family and she's ready to settle down she becomes much more strict and money-wise. She acts to Wolfgang like his father, and it seems towards the end money becomes her ultimate goal instead of happiness. We also, can see ourselves in this position.

Several other characters strike a chord with us. Even as old Salieri proclaims that God is not to be trusted, we can hear our own doubts in that line. Overall, this is an amazing film filled with every human emotion. It can and does create a greater understanding and appreciation of the incredible Wolfgang Amadeus.

In closing, I'd like to add that Mozart had basically three parts to himself that are shown wonderfully in this picture. Wolfie the child, the one Salieri sees and hates, Amadeus the lover, the one Constanze falls for, and Mozart the composer, the one the world as fallen in love with. Hopefully Wolfie Amadeus Mozart will now be known for who he truly was, a man to genius for his time, and too immature for his place.

Rating:
Summary: Beautiful and rich movie
Review: If you love Mozart's music, you will love this movie. This is a beautiful and rich story of WA Mozart's life although some of the story is based on what many believe to be a fictitious rivalry. Regardless, just the music is enough to make this a tremendously enjoyable movie to watch.

Rating:
Summary: The best movie ever made
Review: A lot of people will disagree with me when I say something like that, and they may very well be right, but for my purposes, Amadeus is the greatest movie ever made, if one has the patience to sit through. Indeed, Amadeus is a movie that likely would not succeed today because it is as methodical as Salieri's mind, and the movie only really begins to pick up pace after the Don Giovanni sequence, after all the plot elements are in place.

There is a new director's cut coming out soon, and there is an added scene in which Constanze takes off her top for a favor for Salieri. For me, I think the movie was better without this scene because throughout the movie it is clear that Salieri is not interested in romance or Constanze. Yet, when she comes into Mozart's bedroom at the end of the movie their disgust for each other is more understandable.

Many will say that this is a great movie because it is a wonderful story of jealousy, but to me this seems to be too simple--there is more to it than mere jealousy. While Salieri is obsessed with Mozart and says that there wasn't a moment in his life he didn't know his name, it is not towards Mozart that he is truly bitter, but towards God, who places within him, so he says, the passion for music but not the talent to create it.

More importantly, God does place the talent of music in a person who is not religious and does not believe. How can this be, Salieri wonders. The only logical explanation he comes to realize is that Mozart is truly the voice of God. It is God who becomes Salieri's immortal enemy, not Mozart, and the only way Salieri knows to get back at him is to have God Himself write the music to a requiem mass, without knowing that is intended to be for His creation's own requiem mass.

Some people have speculated that Salieri intended to steal the ownership rights to the requiem mass after he is through with Mozart, but I don't see this from the movie. All Salieri cares about is the music itself, and rather than killing Mozart and finally destroying God's creation, he keeps him alive to write the music. This is the only way he knows to get back at God.

And what does God do? He kills Mozart; rather than using him for Salieri's purposes, he lets his creation wither and die. And as further punishment he keeps Salieri alive, to see that his once beloved music slips into mediocrity, while the music of Mozart is resurrected, so the speak.

This kind of story is the mark of a truly great movie, and above the level of a petty movie about jealousy. For me, it is the best movie ever made, but I'm sure many people will have other things to say about that.

Rating:
Summary: A QUAGMIRE
Review: Amadeus is one of my favorite films. When I saw that it was having a limited release with its Director's Cut version I immediately bought a ticket. I was told it is now about 3 hours and 20 minutes long. I am somewhat at a loss to describe my experience.

The most impressive part of this version is the added scenes throughout the film. It is for these scenes alone that you should see this cut. It is now apparent so much was edited out during its initial theatrical release that scenes were not properly connected and the characters' motives not fully explained. They are now. I won't go into specifics but one of the additions explains the relationship between Salieri and Mozart's wife and why she disliked him so much.

The quality of the print is fine with no signs of aging.

Here comes my dilemma. The sound quality is horrible. Being a film of Mozart there is music and lots of it. In fact, the soundtrack plays a crucial and intricate role. So what happened to this version? One way to descibe it is early digital- harsh, flat as a pancake, and 'nails on the blackboard' irritating. By the end of the movie I developed a headache and had an urge to leave the room as soon as possible- no staying for the credits as I normally do. What a shame!

My recommendation would be to see this film but be forewarned. Bring some aspirin with you.

Rating:
Summary: Understanding of the Music
Review: This movie showed my how a person, such as Mozart, can truly have so much passion in what he loves.As an artist, I really thought that this movie brought out what an artist's life is about.It's the music-that lingers one's heart, till death, do part.