Amedeus : Directors Cut Completes The Story

Rating: 10/10 (16 April 2011)

I have seen the original version of "Amedeus" 6 times and no doubt, it is and always will be a deservedly crowned masterpiece and Best Picture. While I agree with that 100% , I've always had this feeling that there could or should have been more to it. Not because the original was cut by 20 minutes but because it seemed to have more focus on the absurdity of W. Amedues Mozart himself.
Yes,he's the title character,but the point of view of the story is told by Salieri and it seems,aside from his aged version and the times we see his young self on screen,in the original his story of his disillusionment with God seems too quick.
In this director's version,we find out more than we had before about this. Scenes of him quietly praying but at the same time crying out to God to help him have as great a gift as Mozart.
Every failure and snub he receives in his life,from the arrival of the young genius culminates in his declaring God his enemy and burning the Holy Cross in the fireplace. The new scenes help build it to a better climax on that note.
Along with this the expanded story of when Mozrt's wife secretly visits Salieri to show her husband's work to him,to gain a paid teaching post. This leads to the deleted section of Salieri telling her to "come back in the evening" , for illicit purposes.
Once she later arrives and removes her top garment exposing herself,for whatever reason,he decides to instead have her shown out the door. I'm assuming out of his own sense of decency,he decided not to go through with it. It's Mozart he wants to punish ,not her. Even though he has.
Lastly,there's also the funny scenes with Mozart trying to instruct a nervous young girl while her family and dogs make constant noise. It's something that causes him to storm out and feel indignant at having to put up with something like this. It adds only a little to the overall story.
With the film expanded to 3 hours,again,I feel I saw a much more complete storyline,with both Salieri & Mozrt represented equally on screen. ....but whether in it's original form or this version,there's no way I'd ever rate "Amedeus" less than 10 stars.
That'd be like telling Mozart his music has "too many notes",so...well,there it is. {END}