Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #1188 in DVD
• Released on: 1997-12-17
• Rating: PG (Parental Guidance Suggested)
• Aspect ratio: 2.35:1
• Formats: Anamorphic, Closed-captioned, Color, Dolby, DVD-Video, Widescreen, NTSC
• Original language: English
• Subtitled in: English, French
• Number of discs: 1
• Running time: 160 minutes

Amazon.com
The satirical sensibilities of writer Peter Shaffer and director Milos Forman (One Flew over the Cuckoo's Nest) were ideally matched in this Oscar-winning movie adaptation of Shaffer's hit play about the rivalry between two composers in the court of Austrian Emperor Joseph II--official royal composer Antonio Salieri (F. Murray Abraham), and the younger but superior prodigy Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart (Tom Hulce). The conceit is absolutely delicious: Salieri secretly loathes Mozart's crude and bratty personality, but is astounded by the beauty of his music. That's the heart of Salieri's torment--although he's in a unique position to recognize and cultivate both Mozart's talent and career, he's also consumed with envy and insecurity in the face of such genius. That such magnificent music should come from such a vulgar little creature strikes Salieri as one of God's cruelest jokes, and it drives him insane. Amadeus creates peculiar and delightful contrasts between the impeccably re-created details of its lavish period setting and the jarring (but humorously refreshing and unstuffy) modern tone of its dialogue and performances--all of which serve to remind us that these were people before they became enshrined in historical and artistic legend. Jeffrey Jones, best-known as Ferris Bueller's principal, is particularly wonderful as the bumbling emperor (with the voice of a modern midlevel businessman). The film's eight Oscars include statuettes for Best Director Forman, Best Actor Abraham (Hulce was also nominated), Best Screenplay, and Best Picture. --Jim Emerson

Customer Reviews

what a terible waste
The "director's cut of AMADEUS is abosolutely terrible IMHO.

How someone could transform an exciting, exhilariting movie like the original AMADEUS into a depressing, sad, bio is beyond my ability to understand.

Remember how Apocalypse Now was transformed into Acolpayplese Redux? And how good the redux version was?

The Director's cut of AMADEUS is like the original cut of Apocalypse Now. Terrible, dark, depressing, hopeless. Milos Forman has some serious issues. I'm not kidding you. Serious issues.

I expected joy from THE DIRECTOR'S CUT of AMADEUS but received an honest rendition of absolute sadness. What can I say? It was just very sad.

It makes you understand the worth of film edting.

I'm sorry to have to write this, but that's the way it is. Only buy this cut if you're on prozac.

Life IS good. We don't need excessive sadness. HOW ON EARTH DID THIS VERSION OF AMADEUS EVER FIND IT'S WAY ONTO A DVD?

Blows me away. It's terrible.

RD

Stick with Theatrical Version
This version of "Amadeus" was fabulously disappointing. The writing in the extra scenes are atrociously bad. They don't flow at all and they are so badly written they make what was left in the theatrical version look bad. It's amazing to see how they made a Best Picture out of this movie.

The extra scenes are also dull, obviously written to flesh out a plot that didn't need fleshing out- you can infer everything these scenes add, or, make your own interpretation of Salieri's motivations and character. In this way, the scenes insult the intelligence of the viewer. And they're boring too! They slow the pace of the movie down, and it's far less exciting. That's something the theatrical version did well - it was very exciting.

For people who know the original well, you're not missing anything with the Director's Cut.

For people who have never seen Amadeus, at least see the theatrical version first.

Amadeus
This DVD is super, what more is there to say. May not be historically accurate throughout, but it's a great way to introduce classical music to young people. Love it, recommend it.