Review of Amadeus (1984) by Ben L — 18 Sep 2016

I absolutely love the visuals in this film, and the way that the music is used to accentuate the story. There's so much emotion expressed through the music, and any time there were lyrics they spoke directly to what was happening in the film.

It was brilliant planning and it made Amadeus a joy to watch. I also adored the framing device, because Salieri perfectly explains his entire motivation in only a few minutes with the priest. There were a few acting performances that I struggled with, in fact some people seemed totally anachronistic in their speech patterns.

Sadly, the worst of these was Tom Hulce as the titular character. While he softens and becomes tolerable late in the movie, I find his characterization painful to watch. It has been explained to me, in the time since I watched the film, that this was intentional, because we're supposed to be seeing Mozart through Salieri's eyes.

I just felt a better actor could have played the character as annoying without making me cringe involuntarily. Luckily F. Murray Abraham was there totally classing up the film. He was remarkable. I loved every acting choice he made, and noticed a lot of subtlety in his performance.

With just a slight tweak in casting I would anxiously seek out the opportunity to watch this movie again. Amadeus is definitely a quality movie, and one I'm glad I finally marked off my list of shame.