Classical music becomes FUN!

Rating: 9/10 (24 September 2005)

I've seen Amadeus exactly twice now. Let's see, the first time I saw it was back in 1985 That was back when I was 16. I remember it being sort of boring, not exactly my type of movie. (If I recall, my parents didn't think it was so hot either). Well, 20 years later, I've watched this again, and my god, this is such a great and beautiful movie! The story essentially follows the last years of Mozart's young life, and his on again / off again feud with a rival composer, Salieri. Through the composition of several operas, including Figaro and the Death March, Mozart realizes that ambition can sometimes overwhelm the soul.
F. Murray Abraham as Salieri and Tom Hulce as Mozart! Both are brilliant here, both deserved the academy award, but only Abraham got it. I DO like Hulce better. He's just simply amazing here. He really hasn't done anything since that closely resembles his performance here. The rest of the cast is great, including a real scene-stealer role from Jeffery Jones. He was known for his silly comedies, and this role was great to exposing audiences to another side of himself. (Oh, I could say something else here, but that would be too obvious).
The costuming, decor and time period staging is done just so, but what really gets me, that this is one of the very few movies I've seen taking place in this time period that has a sense of humor about itself. I mean everyone doesn't seem to walking with a ruler down their backside, and it totally looks that living in this time period would have been, you know, fun!