Rusalka's twenty-fourth film review: A bawdy genius

Rating: Null/10 (23 June 2003)

Of course, when Amadeus came out in the theaters, it was hailed as a triumph on just about every level. It followed the prototype of big, splashy epic-like films of the early to mid-1980's (Gandhi, Out of Africa, Chariots of Fire) but this one was a bit different from all the others. Not only was it a film about a real person, the back-bone of the film itself was its music. And what glorious music it is!
Amadeus was based on the stage play of the same name by British playwright Peter Shaffer. It opened in New York in 1980 and starred Tim Curry as Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart. It won the 1980 Tony Award for Best Play and so it would only be a matter of time before Hollywood would come to call. Everything about the life story of Mozart cries out to be told in a grand epic-like film style and structure. From the origins of Mozart's travails as he attempts to be Court Composer to Emperor Joseph the II of Austria to the writing of what some consider his finest work, the Requiem mass, it's all here. Of course, as we all (should) know by now, much of Amadeus as both play and film is highly fictionalized. Shaffer does a grand thing by having us want to believe the fact that Antonio Salieri actually kills Mozart, but in the end it is up to our imaginations to wonder if we are seeing the truth or not.
Recently, the Director's Cut was released with an additional twenty minutes of footage cut from the original (1984) release. If anything, the newly recovered footage draws out the story, but it also puts a bit more meat onto the bones of the life of whom many people think is the world's greatest composer of classical music. We leave the theater (or the couch) feeling sated in our quest but always wondering could it have been true...or is this merely a great fiction just sculpted to look as if it was meant to be true.
Amadeus was nominated for eleven Academy Awards, winning eight including Best Picture, Best Actor, Best Direction, Best Adapted Screenplay, Best Set and Costume Design, Best Sound and Best Makeup. It was also nominated for Best Cinematography and Best Film Editing.
My rating: 3 and a half stars