Amadeus

What a huge disappointment. The audio and HD transfer on this Blu-ray is great, but the Director’s Cut of this film is just AWFUL. The 20 minutes of scenes that were cut from this movie were cut for a reason. The deleted scenes are nothing more than pointless detours and fillers—they add nothing to the story or the development of the characters. There’s a long scene showing Mozart being frustrated for having to teach a pupil…which is totally satisfied in the original by Mozart simply stating to his father that he doesn’t want to teach pupils. There’s a scene where Mozart is asking someone for money because he’s broke…which is totally satisfied in the original by Mozart’s wife saying on multiple occasions that they’re broke. I could go on. This film is already long and there was literally no point (other than marketing the Blu-ray) to make it longer. The original version was flawless. This version is extremely flawed. The theatrical cut flowed beautifully and it never felt like a three-hour film. You feel every minute of this version. Although you’ll be sacrificing the sound and picture quality by purchasing the original DVD, it’s absolutely worth it if you care anything about this film. Again, what a huge disappointment.

I absolutely LOVE the theatrical release of Amadeus but I HATE, HATE, HATE the fact that Amazon only offers the director's cut on digital. The many Oscars, Golden Globes, and the myriads of other international awards were not based off of the director's cut but the theatrical version. Director's cuts are nothing more than pathetic attempts by Motion Picture Companies and forgotten directors to squeeze a few more bucks from old fans by drumming up new interest by repacking old crap, some of which was so bad it wasn't even used in the original. There are legitimate reasons some scenes do not make it to the final version and it is hypocritical for a director to rest on his laurels by bastardizing the very work that achieved those laurels.The worst part about this version is that the additional scenes do not add any depth to the characters but, in fact, changes the characters and the storyline. As a result, you are stuck with the unpleasant feeling that you no longer recognize the movie you loved watching growing up. Save your money and buy the theatrical release on DVD!!!!!

Don't get the Directer's Cut, get the original theatrical version. There is an additional scene/story line that is totally ridiculous and has one purpose, to show some boobs. I shouldn't see Mozart's wife's boobs. I don't want to see Mozart's wife's boobs. Cover those puppies up. There is enough cleavage to satiate your perverse desires for the boobs of famous composer's wife. Just like Salieri, I was shocked, shocked to my foundation to see Constanze's boobs.

If you read the longish review by DVW, it will succinctly tell you what the Directors Cut does to the Theatrical Release, why it is good and why it is bad. I whole-heartedly agree with DVW's assessment. I also love AMADEUS so much, especially the Directors Cut, that for all I care they could have taken another 20 minutes of Milos' cutting room floor material and reinstated it as an Uncut Directors Cut! AMADEUS is one of those "perfect" movies. Like Casablanca or Gone With The Wind, Citizen Kane, 2001 A Space Odyssey, Schindler's List, a handful of others, AMADEUS has its own formidable life. The direction, the cinematography, the music sequences especially, the acting, the plot and subplots, everything adheres together in a gel of perfect balance. This is one of the movies you can watch over and over and each time spot something or hear something wondrously new and exciting that you didn't know before. I purchased this in 2007, ten years ago and just now getting around to reviewing it for Amazon because I normally do not review movies, mainly music. But this movie crosses the line, is special, and is a musical experience as well as a visual one.The score is simply one of the best ever produced, engineered, recorded, for a feature film. On the DVD alone (I am sure it is even better on Bluray) the sonic space and surround are stupendous, enveloping and warm as needed, vibrant and dangerous as the movie progresses on. Naturally the whole score is Mozart, but it is one of the best conducted and arranged Mozarts I have ever heard and I have about a dozen Mozart CDs in my collection by all manner of European and American ensembles. Sir Neville Marriner and the Academy of St Martin in the Fields fill this movie with a heart-pounding soundtrack which carries you from opening title to end credits like a white water rafting trip on the Colorado. Incidentally, the soundtrack album/CD for the movie is arguably the best selling classical music album of all time (in terms of units sold).The play upon which Amadeus is based on, and movie script itself, is written by Peter Shaffer who also left his heavy mark upon us with Equus a decade before Amadeus (and then again for the film script in '77). In both cases, Shaffer received an Academy Award and rightfully so, especially with Amadeus where he shows a lot of muscle and dexterity in his manipulation of two rival (from the viewpoint of Salieri) composers who are diametrically opposites of one another.If you have been hiding under a rock for decades and have not watched AMADEUS, if you have cought a few minutes of it on a channel and didn't stay because you missed the beginning, do yourself a favor and spend some time with this movie, one of the preeminent works of art in the film industry. It is beautiful, it is funny, it is sad, it is mysterious, it is thunderous, it is heartbreaking, it is deceitful, and it is addictive. Mozart's Requiem during the run up to the end is perhaps one of the greatest cinematic and musical fusions ever brought to the screen (the opening sequence of TITUS comes close). For that alone, the film is worth every penny you pay for it.Thank you DVW, hope I did not insult you with the description of "longish", my music reviews are often twice as long as your review was, I like detailed analysis.

I had never seen the play or the theatrical version of the movie, so my opinion is just about the Director's cut, which I watched. This was one of the greatest movies I've ever seen, seriously. I'm a casual music fan but I don't know much about the history of classical music or different composers, probably couldn't name more than one or two Mozart pieces, and then only because I've performed them. I do know the Requiem, though, and I'm very picky about how it is used (or over-used) in movies. This film does a wonderful job of overlaying Mozart's music on top of the fictional telling of his life, in a way that is very moving and touches on the core themes of humanity. I would recommend watching this movie to anyone with even the slightest interest in music, and even those who do not care for music at all. It's just a good story.

Words cannot describe how I feel about this film.Impeccably directed, performed & with wonderful staging & art direction it is a truly astonishing masterpiece that must be seen in this glorious three-hour director's cut.Speaking to a Priest from an insane asylum, the aging royal court composer Antonio Salieri (F. Murray Abraham) recalls the events of years earlier, when the young Mozart (Tom Hulce) first gained favour in the court of Austrian emperor Joseph II (Jeffrey Jones).He speaks how Mozart had been his childhood idol and that when years later, he witnessed Mozart in all of his vulgar, clownish behaviour behaving badly at a concert it led him to be incensed as to how God could bless someone so vulgar and obnoxious with such other worldly genius.How could it be that he, Salieri, so disciplined, so pious and so devoted to his art be un-touched by God?Time goes by, and finding himself unable to match Mozart's talent, Salieri starts to use his influence in court to sabotage Mozart's career which eventually culminates in him visiting Mozart in disguise as a benefactor to commission the opera " Requiem. "Full of the most glorious music, dialogue and cinematography this is in my Top 5 films of all time.I can watch it again and again.I dismiss any quibbles regarding whether it is " historically accurate " and just allow myself to get swept along by the sheer majesty of it all.I hope you will too.

This is one of my favourite films. It may be long but once the film starts the brilliance of acting, period and music is irresistable. However once again a film shows why drectors should be discouraged from re-editing their own films. The new scenes in which Salieri humiliates Mozart's wife and in which Mozart is humiliated as a teacher add nothing to the film. The first is unpleasant and one doubts is in character for either Salieri or Constanza to behave as they do. The second is un-amusing and flabby. The presence of both detract from the film's original taut narrative and should have been left as deleted scenes. So get the original film and enjoy it.

Amadeus ist einer meiner absoluten Lieblingsfilme, seit ich ihn in den 80ern das erste Mal (in der usrprünglichen Synchronisation) sah. Die Rollen sind hervorragend besetzt und Tom Hulce und F.M. Abraham spielen sich gegenseitig an die Wand und treiben einander zu absoluten Höchstleistungen an; alleine die letzte (natürlich fiktive und historisch völlig unkorrekte) Szene, als Mozart Salieri das Confutatis an seinem Totenbett diktiert, läßt einen atemlos mitfiebern und gehört für mich zu den absoluten, unvergesslichen Highlights der Kinogeschichte. Es spielt dabei für mich auch keine Rolle, dass der Film nicht dokumentarisch korrekt ist - basierend auf Peter Shaffers Theaterstück ist dies meines Erachtens auch nicht die Hauptaufgabe des Films, sondern es wird einem die Musik Mozarts auf wunderbare Weise nähergebracht.Es ist für mich auch ein Geniestreich, dass der fiktive Mozart mit dieser albernen Lache ausgestattet worden ist. Dieser krasse Widerspruch zwischen der vom Zuseher aufgrund der "Göttlichkeit" seiner Musik erwarteten "persönlichen Erhabenheit" Mozarts und der im Film dargestellten "Realität" des naiven, irritierenden und arroganten Gecken, der überall wie ein Elefant im Porzellanladen ins Fettnäpfchen tritt und sich unwissentlich Feinde macht, verhilft dem Zuseher, sich mehr mit Salieri als "Vertreter der Mittelmäßigen" zu "identifizieren" und seine Denkweise und Qualen nachzuvollziehen und mitzuempfinden zu können, obgleich man auf der anderen Seite gleichzeitig absolut von Salieris Zerstörungskomplott schockiert und angewidert ist. Durch diese Grauzonen und dieses Spannungsverhältnis sind die beiden Hauptfiguren phantastisch herausgearbeitet und lebt der gesamte Film.Ich habe mir nunmehr den Directors Cut besorgt, um den Film nach unzähligen Malen auf Englisch (meine bevorzugte Version) auch einmal wieder auf Deutsch sehen zu können, und ich war zudem neugierig auf die "neuen" Szenen.Meines Erachtens tragen die neuen Szenen jedoch leider nichts Wesentliches zur Geschichte bei, irgendwie wird dadurch die Geschichte eher entwertet und unnötig in die Länge gezogen und vielmehr der Erzählfluss und das Gesamtbild der Geschichte gestört. Meines Erachtens waren die Andeutungen zu den Hintergründen der handelnden Figuren in der Originalfassung durchaus ausreichend. Die zusätzliche Szene mit Constanze erklärt zwar eindeutig den Grund ihrer grossen Abneigung, welche sie Salieri in der Schlussszene entgegenbringt, aber nichts desto trotz firmiert sie für mich so wie auch insbesondere die "Hundeszene" unter unnötiges Beiwerk.Was mir jedoch die größte Enttäuschung bereitet hat, ist die "neue" Synchronisation. Die Schauspieler sprechen seltsam platt und freudlos, Mozart (vor allem in der letzten Schlüsselszene) ungewohnt "sanft" und Salieri wirkt meist apathisch. Das trübt meines Erachtens den Filmgenuss in der deutschen Fassung sehr und ist fast unerträglich verglichen mit dem Enthuasiasmus der englischen Fassung oder der "alten" deutschen Synchronisation, in welcher vor allem die Getriebenheit Salieris und seine Obsession glaubhaft stimmlich vermittelt werden.Mein Fazit: Die Originalversion ist unerreicht, sowohl hinsichtlich Bildsequenzen, als auch hinsichtlich Synchronisation, wenn man schon nicht die absolut phantastische englische Version ansehen mag. Der Directors Cut ist ein nettes Sammlerstück für Liebhaber, aber kommt an das Original nie und nimmer heran.Zum Film selbst (in der Originalversion) kann ich aber nur eine Kaufempfehlung abgeben, er "gehört" in jede Sammlung.

I absolutely hate duel sided discs there is not need for it apart from saving costs …. my one I received would one play side A no matter how many times I tried it just would not play but would play side B [ the second half of the movie ] I enjoyed what I seen but only half a movie … I returned but haven't reordered due to the duel sided disc there really is no need for it just put the movie on 2 discs that generally works much better ….. I have a couple of other movies in my cpllection which also are duel play discs and they arnt very good either they cause problems

I was anticipating with joy the 20 minutes added to this wonderful film but was disappointed. The scenes that were cut for the regular release actually diminish the continuity of the story. I shall stick with the edited version for repeat viewings.