Movie DVD Store (UK) - Amadeus [1985]
![Amadeus [1985]](http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/51SDKC5R5ML._SL160_.jpg)
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List Price: £12.99
Our Price: £3.98
Availability: Usually dispatched within 11 to 13 days
Manufacturer: Warner Home Video
Starring: F. Murray Abraham, Tom Hulce, Elizabeth Berridge, Roy Dotrice, Simon Callow
Directed By: Milos Forman
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Average Customer Rating:  
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Aspect Ratio: 2.35:1
Audience Rating: Parental Guidance
Binding: DVD
EAN: 5024165772942
Format: PAL
Label: Warner Home Video
Manufacturer: Warner Home Video
Number Of Discs: 1
Number Of Items: 1
Publisher: Warner Home Video
Region Code: 2
Release Date: 1998-12-01
Running Time: 153
Studio: Warner Home Video
Theatrical Release Date: 1984-09-19
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Editorial Reviews:
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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 recognise 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 cruellest 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 mid-level 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 Note: this region two DVD is a "flipper" with a break between sides A and B.
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Spotlight customer reviews:
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Customer Rating: 
Summary: A fictional account of Mozart's last years with nice tunes and lovely costumes
Comment: Sumptuously filmed in beautiful colours, and with a Dolby sound track that will have your upstairs neighbours hammering in rage on your ceiling with their walking sticks, this film presents a largely fictional account of Mozart's last years, and quite libellously portrays Antonio Salieri as Mozart's murderer. It's all about envy, God and getting your just deserts, according to one Amazon reviewer, and I suppose that according to this school of thought, the fact that it's a seriously inaccurate reconstruction of the past is besides the point. Mozart emerges as a highly precocious and slightly nauseating American kid with an irritating high-pitched laugh, brilliant at wowing the Viennese public, upper and working class alike, with colourful theatricals. His juvenile wifelet, also unmistakeably American, wears gorgeous costumes, has a hypnotically pneumatic chest which at one point she displays in all its glory to Salieri, and spends much time either smirking or whining. The cadaverous Salieri looks as though he's in urgent need of a good dose of liver salts. Wonderful costumes, some genuinely dramatic moments, great music, but the ultimate stumbling block is that the whole thing rests on a whopping lie about the Mozart-Salieri relationship. If this matters to you (and it does to me, I must admit) then avoid the film. If you don't give a hoot about historical accuracy, and if you want simply to be entertained by nice photography and dazzling costumes and with some snatches of the more popular Mozart tunes thrown in, then you may well find Amadeus very much to your liking.
Customer Rating:
Summary: Incredible story, great acting and wonderful music make for a work of genius
Comment: Perhaps the only thing I need to say is that this movie won 8 Oscars, including Best Picture, when it was released in 1984. Amadeus offers much to be enjoyed visually through stunning scenery and costumes, aurally through some of the greatest music ever written, and theatrically through superb writing and acting performances. It's a film that makes just about every critic's top 10 and certainly mine. In fact, if I was allowed to take just three video discs with me to a desert island, this would have to be one of them.
I saw this movie in the cinema when it first came out and adored it. I bought when it was released on video and liked it even more despite the passage of time. And then bought it again when it came out on DVD. Every time I watch it, it has a magic that never fails to captivate and enthrall me. This is genuinely a timeless classic.
Obviously, one of the most powerful aspects of the movie is Mozart's music. If you are discovering classical composers for the first time, there can be few better introductions. While the quality of the film score alone makes it a masterpiece, no less amazing is the acting of the lead roles, especially F. Murray Abraham as Mozart's unrecognized rival, Salieri, and Tom Hulce as Mozart. Told through Salieri's eyes, Amadeus charts Salieri's bitter jealousy of Mozart's genius and success. In doing so, the film is a wonderful exploration of what makes a genius a genius and how such people impact those around them. It is also a graphic visual and historically accurate representation of the Court of Emperor Franz Josef II of Austria.
Film making doesn't get much better than this. It is a feast for the senses and a piece of entertainment that I warmly, wholeheartedly and unreservedly recommend. If I could give it 10 stars I most surely would.
Customer Rating:
Summary: Superb Film - shame about DVD
Comment: This is unquestionably a great film - a masterpiece, as other reviewers have already commented on at length. I would however draw people's attention to the fact that the Region 2 (Europe) version of this DVD is one of those incredibly irritating 'flipper' DVDs that you have to turn over towards the end (and climax!). Very frustrating - hence the deduction of two stars. If you have a multi-region DVD player you can buy the Region 1 (North America) version.
Customer Rating:
Summary: Another one of my favourites
Comment: The great thing about this film is that it is a true celebration of Mozart's life and music. How many films can truly convince you that classical music is something worth listening too? It is also a more accessible way of understanding the history and context behind some of Mozart's most famous works. A more unique film in that the music takes centre stage and not so much the storyline or the action. As a musician I truly envy Mozart. I can understand why Salieri was so jealous. It would have truly been a great gift to hear and experience and indulge in heavenly music everyday of your life.
Customer Rating:
Summary: More fiction than fact
Comment: I thought this fim was in poor taste because it seemed to me to mould and transplant the fimmakers ideas on an interesting enough life already. Why couldnt they have told Mozarts life which was extraordinary enough without making up this fictional rivalry and boring envy plot? This film told me more about the authors and their hangups. It did not do its proper job of illustrating Mozarts life and that is why it felt fake and sad to drag the life of an remarkable person into a false story of someone elses making.
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