Rating: 
Summary: Great film, So-So DVD
Review: When I purchased my DVD player, Amadeus was at the top of my wish list. Now that I own the film, I am satisfied but not overjoyed. The DVD contains only one special feature (an all-music audio track). Worst of all, the DVD must be flipped over at the mid-way point. These disappointing features only slightly detract from this excellent film which, while not historically accurate, is pleasure to watch. Please release a special edition!!
Rating: 
Summary: Rock Me Amadeus
Review: Anthony Schaeffer re-wrote and re-thought his successful and controversial stage play Amadeus and worked with Milos Foreman to create the film. He softened some of the plays most outrageous moments and added a little more historically accurate details. The central conflict in the film (like the play) between Antonio Salieri and Amadeus Mozart is of course purely an invention of the play write. It may be somewhat believable a highly respected rich, court composer would be envious to the point of jealous murderous hatred of the the more talented ,but crass and boorish, musical genius, Mozart, but it never happened. I find the idea a clever device with which to weave a tale around. The location filming in Prague by Miroslav Ondricek, the billowy costumes, and the music lend a beautiful 18th century feel to the film. The American accents, and some modern slang at times jar us out of the period. It's easy to forgive the exciting moments of Mozart conducting (utterly inacurately) because of how visually exciting the frame looks while he flails his arms about. I wonder however why Hulce didn't watch some Bernstein's concerts to be a little more accurate and nearly as dramatic in his conducting. There are some absolutely poetic moments in the film. One of the best scenes is when Salieri is reading the music Mozart's wife has brought to the palace to beg for her husband's job. Abraham seems to be tasting the finest food he's ever eaten as he 'hears' the music by reading it. He deserved his Oscar on the basis of this scene alone. There are scenes where music is brought vividly to light, from page, to the film's sountrack to the opera house. Whatever flaws the film has, these scenes are so wonderfully realized it would be easy to forgive almost anything in order to have such a highpoint in cinema. Mozart who is blessed with unbelievable amounts of talent, doesn't know how to behave, breaks the rules, isn't punished for his mis-behavior, but in a manner of speaking is squandering his time and talent on frivolous pursuits. Composing music is nearly effortless it seems for Mozart, while for Salieri it is hard difficult work resulting in at best above average operas. He boasts about writing 40 of them, but Mozart can take a piece which has taken Salieri weeks to perfect and re-write it, turning it into a near masterpiece in just a few minutes. Salieri prayed when he was a young boy, to be able to compose music, and in return he would offer his chastity. Fate allowed him to be a composer and Salieri believed he owed God his chastity for his gift. Alas Salieri's musical gifts are common compared to Mozart's genius. We can understand how this very crass and ill-mannered boy-man-genius, who has slept with the woman Salieri secretly loves, drives Salieri into a hateful rage. He has given up his desire as penance for being a composer and now Mozart has made him realize he is only slightly talented at his craft and not a true artist. Mozarts talent is so large, over-whelming, and threatening naturally Salieri must destroy it, crush it, get rid of it. It becomes his passion. Destroy Mozart. It's a narrative that opens up a story of two 18th century composers to a wider audience. And most of the time the film works very well indeed. F.Murray Abraham as Salieri is our narrator for this story. His performance is one of the finest you will ever see in a film. It's an appropriately balanced performance which resists going over the top (but comes deliciously close on a couple of occasion). . Tom Hulce's performance is perhaps a bit too deliberate, and maybe his annoying laugh is an actor being given a bit too much rope to create a memorable performance, yet Hulce amazingly avoids hanging himself. He makes it work for him and for the film. When Salieri complains about the 'creature's laugh' we understand how annoying and boorish the laugh is to him. Jeffrey Jones gives a slyly comic performance as Emperor Joseph the 2nd. Elizabeth Berridge as Mozart's wife also gives a memorable performance. Chris Jarmick Author of The Glass Cocoon with Serena F. Holder - A steamy cyber thriller available January 2001. Please order it today. Thank You
Rating:
Summary: Awesome
Review: im i5 and i saw this in class and i seriously thought it would suck madjorly but much to my suprise, i loved it. I liked seeing how Mozart was totaly unlike the selfish and spoiled people around him. He did what he loved and did it regardless of anyones objections. This movie is funny at times and incredibly gives a accruate portrait of what life was like back then. Dispite Soliare's jeliousness through out the movie, it was great and funny. it's serious at times but it keeps you watching. i'd buy this movie. its really good.
Rating:
Summary: The intact emotion
Review: In my opinion, this film is one of the '80 decade film (maybe, with Brazil in a different style). OK, it's a fiction, but a great film. Th film itself is an Opera, with the Mozart music. It recall to us what is a great fim : the intact emotion. Mavelous
Rating: 
Summary: Movie great, DVD ok.
Review: This is indeed such a literate and enjoyable movie that on re-watching it I kept thinking, why can't Hollywood do this sort of thing more often? Regarding the DVD, the sound is great (Dolby 5.1) but the picture quality is grainy and distractingly non-DVD-like.
Rating:
Summary: the 2nd best movie sorry but edward scissorhands rules
Review: i loved it. it could not have been better. justin kirby
Rating:
Summary: Amadeus is not a Mozart's biography
Review: I like this film a lot. Of course it is not the biography of one's of the best composers in the world! I think Tom Hulce is genial in his role and Abraham,too. This Mozart is more outlandish than the real Mozart who died in 1791. Anyway, Amadeus is the best film I has ever seen and I really recomend it because of his music, actors and director (Milos Forman).
Rating:
Summary: I Love This Movie
Review: One of my favorite movies ever. Who cares how much of Mozart's life was embellished or just plain fictionalized in "Amadeus"? It introduced Mozart to thousands of people (the two soundtrack albums sold as if they were #1 pop hits). Certainly, it helped fuel a Mozart revival and increase the number of his compositions in orchestra repertoires. Bravo! I will never forget how the entire audience, when I first saw "Amadeus," sat quietly all the way through the final credits at the end of the movie. And this was an audience in Dallas, full of teen-agers on a Saturday night. No one moved until the last note sounded of the gorgeous "Romanza" movement from the D minor piano concerto. What a tribute to Mozart's music.
Rating: 
Summary: You've got to be kidding me!
Review: As I look throught the reviews on this page, I come across phrases like "brilliant" and "great on every level", and it just makes me sad. The premise of this movie is not grounded in any historical evidence. Salieri had very little to do with Mozart's life. He just happened to be Kappelmeister at the court which employed Wolfie. Also, when Mozart died (of rhumatic fever, not poison), he was surrounded by his wife, his sister, and the top doctors in Vienna. Salieri was not present. And the "Requiem Mass in D Minor" (which, by the way, was not commissioned by Salieri) was completed by Sussmeyer from detailed instructions by Mozart. "Great on every level"? Hardly. Besides all that, the concept of this film took absolutely no imagination. A composer jealous of Mozart? Please! He was only the most advanced and complex brain the world has ever known! None of the characters are believable and none of them display any sort of depth. This movie is just pure sensationalism and, thanks to its admittedly glorious art direction, a shamlelessly flag-waving Oscar bid. So if you're looking for a smart and intelligent film, look elsewhere, like France, or Russia, or Sweden, or pretty much anywhere outside of Hollywood. And if you're looking for an entertaining, accurate and informative account of Mozart's life, check out Maynard Solomon's wonderful biography "Mozart: A Life".
Rating:
Summary: A great Movie
Review: I just wanted to add my comments agreeing with the other reviewers that this is a fine movie:a winner of 8 Academy Awards including Best Picture! The life of Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart makes for an interesting motion picture and his music is here for everyone to enjoy even if you are not a Classical music fan...you will be a Mozart fan after you see this DVD.
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