Amadeus
From AwardAnnals
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| Director(s) | Milos Forman |
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| Distributor | Warner Home Video |
| Honors | |
| The satirical sensibilities of writer Peter Shaffer and director Milos Forman (One Flew over the Cuckoo’s Nest) were ideally matched in this Oscar-winning movie adaptation of Shaffer’s hit play about the rivalry between two composers in the court of Austrian Emperor Joseph II—official royal composer Antonio Salieri (F. Murray Abraham), and the younger but superior prodigy Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart (Tom Hulce). The conceit is absolutely delicious: Salieri secretly loathes Mozart’s crude and bratty personality, but is astounded by the beauty of his music.… | |
Honors
Reviews
Amazon.com
The satirical sensibilities of writer Peter Shaffer and director Milos Forman (One Flew over the Cuckoo’s Nest) were ideally matched in this Oscar-winning movie adaptation of Shaffer’s hit play about the rivalry between two composers in the court of Austrian Emperor Joseph II—official royal composer Antonio Salieri (F. Murray Abraham), and the younger but superior prodigy Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart (Tom Hulce). The conceit is absolutely delicious: Salieri secretly loathes Mozart’s crude and bratty personality, but is astounded by the beauty of his music. That’s the heart of Salieri’s torment—although he’s in a unique position to recognize and cultivate both Mozart’s talent and career, he’s also consumed with envy and insecurity in the face of such genius. That such magnificent music should come from such a vulgar little creature strikes Salieri as one of God’s cruelest jokes, and it drives him insane. Amadeus creates peculiar and delightful contrasts between the impeccably re-created details of its lavish period setting and the jarring (but humorously refreshing and unstuffy) modern tone of its dialogue and performances—all of which serve to remind us that these were people before they became enshrined in historical and artistic legend. Jeffrey Jones, best-known as Ferris Bueller’s principal, is particularly wonderful as the bumbling emperor (with the voice of a modern midlevel businessman). The film’s eight Oscars include statuettes for Best Director Forman, Best Actor Abraham (Hulce was also nominated), Best Screenplay, and Best Picture. —Jim Emerson
Barnes and Noble
The most searing exploration of artistic jealousy ever put on screen, this magnificent adaptation of Peter Shaffer’s award-winning play dramatizes the tempestuous relationship between Viennese court composer Antonio Salieri (F. Murray Abraham in his Oscar-winning characterization) and brilliant upstart Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart (Tom Hulce). The starchily formal Salieri, an adroit court politician but a mediocre composer bitterly resents the irrepressible young Mozart—not only because he’s a vulgar hedonist and a buffoon but because he’s a musical genius with whom the older musician is incapable of competing. The idea that God could bestow such a gift upon so inferior a being drives Salieri literally to madness. Hulce’s Mozart has a primal drive and flair for showmanship—an 18th century rock star—and together, he and Abraham generate fireworks that more than justify the critical acclaim that helped the picture snag eight Academy Awards, including Best Picture. A visually sumptuous production shot in Prague and expensively mounted with meticulous attention to period detail, Amadeus is a real treat for the eyes, and, of course, the music is celestial. Best of all, though, is the way director Milos Forman (Ragtime) turns Shaffer’s literate, incisive script into a film bursting with raucous energy. Classical music was never less stodgy. Ed Hulse
