Amadeus 1984
I am not sure if I saw Amadeus in the theaters when it came out, but it is a favorite of mine. I even had a soundtrack album ("Volume 2” released after the first soundtrack album became the best selling classical music album of all time; Mozart has enough material, even the movie has enough material, for a very good second volume). I bought the movie on DVD early on and it was so long that the disk had A and B sides and you had to flip the DVD in the middle of the movie. Last year I was getting into Blu-ray movies and found Amadeus in a “digi-book” format, where the case is like a book with 20 or so pages of pictures and text. It is an interesting idea, but maybe not as durable as the usual plastic case. Target still releases most big movies (especially Disney titles) in an exclusive digi-book version and fans of the format snap them up quickly.
Anyway, after almost a year I finally sat down to watch my HD copy of the movie, the Director’s Cut, which adds 20 minutes to make the movie fully three hours long. It looks great, much more resolution than the highly letterboxed DVD. And sounds great over my home theater system. After many years of trying to get into classical music, plus listening to the soundtrack when I was younger, the music is more familiar, which makes it better. The acting is top notch, the locations are great (palaces, real Opera houses of the period, Prague, and Vienna), and the costumes are great. There is no wonder this movie cleaned up at the Oscars. And the story, greatly fictionalized, is fantastic as the bitter Salieri plots the downfall of the greatest composer of all time.
Written: 06 Aug 2018
Owned on: Blu-ray, DVD, Digital