A travesty
Added 11/15/2009
A beautiful transfer of video and sound ruined by gratuitous extra footage. The original cut won all the Oscars for a reason. It should have been left alone. Why cannot they offer both versions on the same or 2 discs! Sacrilege.
2 out of 2 people found this helpful.
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Classic Film With 20-Minutes Of Restored Footage & Lots Of Great Extras!!
Added 11/12/2009
I'm going to assume that most everybody has seen this now classic film,
so I'll spare you a blow by blow of what happens because you already know
for the most part that it was based on the life of Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart.
This movie recieved 8 Oscars in 1984 (including Best Picture), and the
principal actors Tom Hulce (Mozart) and F. Murray Abraham (Salieri)
both turned in brilliant performances.
This new director's cut replaces 20-minutes of extra footage which was cut
from the original theatrical edit, but to be honest, I can't tell you that it
really made a difference in the overall story...it was already excellent.
But at any rate, there are plenty of great special features on the second disc
for fans who like to get really in depth with the behind the scenes of film-making.
This product shows just great on my 40" HD 1080p Surround TV and the sound is crisp,
as if an orchestra had set up in my den and was playing the musical pieces in real time!
I would recommend this as an addition to your DVD collection of great films.
1 out of 1 people found this helpful.
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Excellent Film, Excellent Product
Added 11/8/2009
Blu-ray book review:
The Film- The image quality is a little soft, but a vast improvement to the DVD version. The sound quality is excellent.
The hd presentation of "Amadeus" is very good considering its age, and if that isn't enough to buy this DVD the wealth of supplimentals makes this a no brainer!
The disc comes in a digibook with about forty pages of production notes and cast and crew info (unfortunately the hardback cover of my copy was slightly dented in transit). There is a digital copy compatible with Windows Media Player. I really don't see myself watching a 3 hour film on my zune, but you might. Also included is an hour long documentary on the making of the film, which is quite good. The extras that I have enjoyed the most are the audio commentary and CD. For $13 this package is a steal!
1 out of 2 people found this helpful.
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Great All Around
Added 10/26/2009
I won't recap the movie itself, there is already plenty of that around. If you don't know the story yet definitely check it out, if you do know the story and have seen it then that's not what you're reading this for.
This blu-ray set is outstanding in every way. The short book/blu-ray combo is a great way to combine a dvd and a great tangible extra as well as eliminate that unnecessary plastic DVD/BR case waste. The quality of, and material in the booklet is great. And the remastering of both the sound and of the video in this blu-ray is absolutely outstanding, you really get to see the quality and benefits of blu-ray with this disk.
2 out of 3 people found this helpful.
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BAIT AND SWITCH!!! THE FALCO SONG ISN'T IN THIS MOVIE!!
Added 9/26/2009
This is the most blatant example of false advertising I've ever seen. This video calls itself "Amadeus" and guess what?? The song "Amadeus" isn't in the movie. Not even over the end credits. Instead it's about this guy from Victorian Egypt who makes classical music and some other classical music guy who hates him. They all run around in these limp-wristed puffy shirts. DUMB! DUMB! DUMB! AND BORING TOO!! I can see why they called it "Amadeus". No one would see it unless they made people think the Falco song was in it. WHICH IT"S NOT!!! I'm going to sue Warner Home Video (or Ripoff Home Video) over this.
5 out of 34 people found this helpful.
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I played this over the course of several days for my batch of urban CA 6th graders. At first, I was concerned that these hiphoppers wouldn't even give it a chance, with its high-fallutin language and costumes, but they were intrigued with the Solieri character (we stopped often to discuss what was happening and why we should care), loved Wolfy's goofy laugh, irreverent attitude, and beautiful wife, and the music. That part they REALLY got, and pointed out if themes were repeated. It was a great experience that worked well with our unit is music.
0 out of 0 people found this helpful.
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Beautiful
Added 6/25/2005
I have seen very few operas, but this still remains one my very favorite films. It's wonderfully done in every way. From sets, to costumes, to characters, to the story, to the perfomances, everything about this film is high, high quality.
I really like how the narration is done from the antagonist's point of view, and speaking of the antagonist, I've never seen anyone do a better acting job. It was as if you could see exactly what he was thinking the whole time. Let's see Paris Hilton do that.
The focus of this film isn't really on Mozart. It's on a contemporary of his that no one knows about. It's really a great story. A must-see.
1 out of 1 people found this helpful.
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Flawless!
Added 6/12/2004
From reading my other reviews you wouldn't think this would
be my kind of movie but it turned out to be JUST my kind of movie!And yes I can believe Mozart was the bratty genius (we still have so many ammong us now) who provides the movie's
memorable comic moments,especially when he irreverantly dismisses Itallian opera as 'screeching tenors and fat couples
rolling there eyes' to Emperor Joseph himself.Salieri comes across as a decent but rather pious composer who (somewhat rightfully) proclaims himself the 'patron saint of mediocrity'
to a minister as he explains his story,blaming himself for
Mozarts early demise.Honestly I believe that death was baught
on largly by the composers heavy drinking and compulsive work
habits.In the end Milos Forman creates a film that is both highly artful AND enormously entertaining and even comical at
times.Tom Hulce's distinctive laugh certainly give his character
a colorful arrogance that is very appealing in it's own way.
And F.Murray Abraham as Salieri turns in a frighteningly adept
portrayal of Mozart's jeleous rival.Not to be missed is the
almost deadpan Jeffry Jones as the musically talentless emperor
gamely 'figuring out' an inanely simple melody designed to greet
Mozart at the early end of the movie.Dramatic,comic,simple and
epic all at once-for fans of excellent movie making that will
keep your attention this deserves to be in your collection without hesitation!
0 out of 0 people found this helpful.
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