Amadeus (1984)

	Director: Milos Forman	COUNTRY USA GENRE Biography/Drama NORWEGIAN TITLE Amadeus RUNNING TIME 161/181 minutes
	Producer: Saul Zaentz
	Screenwriter (based on his play): Peter Shaffer

Cast includes:
CHARACTER	ACTOR/ACTRESS	RATING
Antonio Salieri	F. Murray Abraham
Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart	Tom Hulce	½
Constanze Mozart	Elizabeth Berridge
Leopold Mozart	Roy Dotrice
Emperor Joseph II	Jeffrey Jones
Count Orsini-Rosenberg	Charles Kay
Emanuel Schikaneder	Simon Callow
Baron van Swieten	Jonathan Moore
Count von Strack	Roderick Cook
Kapellmeister Guiseppe Bonno	Patrick Hines
Father Vogler	Richard Frank
Katerina Cavalieri	Christine Ebersole
Lorl, Mozart's maid	Cynthia Nixon	½
Salieri's valet	Vincent Schiavelli

Review (English)

When Amadeus was released in 1984, it garnered 11 Academy Awards (winning 8) as well as several other international awards. And despite the fact that it was a 2.5 hour film about classical music, it also became a big box-office hit. The stroke of genius was that Peter Shaffer, who wrote the screenplay based upon his own successful 1979 stage play, made the most out of a possible animosity between Mozart and Emperor Joseph II's court composer Antonio Salieri. According to Shaffer, Salieri was equal portions green with envy of Mozart's talent, appalled by his lack of class, and in awe of his music. And it is through Salieri's bitter, snake-like persona we get to know the story of Mozart's rise and fall in Vienna, leading to his position as perhaps the greatest classical composer of all time.

Armed with Shaffer's cleverly concocted plot (which may be at least partly true), master-director Milos Forman had the perfect basis for making perhaps the best of his many biopics (which also include latter classics such as The People vs. Larry Flynt and Man on the Moon). Mozart's carefree, almost rock-star-ish presence is largely juxtaposed against his ingenious talent – to our amusement and Salieri's despair. Tom Hulce, who plays Mozart almost like a giddy queer, manages to find the balance between the fun Mozart and the serious Mozart, when put to the test in the more dramatically potent parts. And his interplay with F. Murray Abraham as Salieri, although limited to just a few scenes, has a smouldering quality: The young, sly Salieri always seems to be up to something, which may or may not go completely over Mozart's head, but we cannot know for certain whether most of it are just fantasies of the old Salieri. Historically accurate or not – as realized by Abraham, Salieri is a brilliantly conducted and played character with all the traits of a full-blown, but still very much human movie-villain.

As in Forman's other great biopics, the director finds a perfect balance between honouring, almost idolizing the title-character on the one side, and showing us his unquestionable weaknesses on the other. This is no idealized image of Mozart – at least not on a human level. He is wasteful, extravagant, cocky and – not least – self-destructive. But of course, this is also part of the appeal; what makes him human. His musical works, on the other hand, are never questioned. And there are some splendid moments when his musical genius becomes apparent to us viewers, without the help of Salieri's verification. That being said, I would personally have preferred a small shift in focus from Mozart's many operas and to a few more of his piano concertos. Although that is a matter of taste.

The original theatrical cut of Amadeus runs 161 minutes, 20 minutes less than a now available "director's cut", which the studio at the time of release didn't think commercial enough. The director's cut does give more background to some of the character-relations, but it is a less tight and more lagging version which I recommend only for fans. The original version has got all the nerve and tension needed for first-time viewers. And it manages, even at two and a half hours, to make the life of the world's most famous classical composer into a fascinating study of humanity and music, that even youngsters will enjoy to this day.

Click here for original Norwegian review