Brilliant!!

Rating: 10/10 (7 December 2002)

POSSIBLE SPOILERS
This is one of my favorite movies of all time. It defies criticism from a film-making perspective -- the costumes are wonderfully done, the acting is very good, and the script is great. The shining element of this movie, though, is the music. Not just Mozart's music (although you can't go wrong with that) but the use of it in the film -- the intertwining of it around the story, the way it seems to tell the story for itself at times. The ending scenes with Salieri transcribing notes for Mozart is a perfect example of this.
The leads in Amadeus are extremely well-done. F. Murray Abraham, as Salieri, earned every ounce of his Oscar in this role where he played both a 30-something composer, and the same tormented man 30-odd years later. He *breathes* venom, dementia, and pain so naturally that one forgets that F. Murray Abraham was ever anyone *but* Salieri. Tom Hulce and the supporting cast are good as well, but they can't touch Abraham in my opinion.
This is a wonderful, wonderful movie. Don't go in picking apart historical inaccuracies, if they exist; see it for the music, see it for the story, see it for the way it's all put together, and prepare to be overwhelmed.