Review of Amadeus (1984) by Victor T — 10 Aug 2014

Nine years after his critical acclaimed 1975 film "One Flew over the Cuckoo´s Nest" and having only directed one film in-between, Milo Forman gave audiences a period film based on a fictionalized play of the same name and written by the same person about the greatest composer of all time: "Amadeus". The film managed to win lots of awards including eight Academy Awards including Best Film, Best Director, Best Actor and Best Adapted Screenplay.

"Amadeus" tells a fictionalized story about Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart and Antonio Salieri. The film starts with an elder Salieri attempting suicide while screaming for forgiveness for killing Mozart years prior causing him to be placed in an asylum where he is visited by a young priest wanting to confess him. The priest manages to convince Salieri to tell the story of his rivalry with Mozart and why he claims to be responsible about Mozart´s death.

Period films are always a tricky genre, while the majority is boring or just forgettable, every now and then we get an exception that's engaging and memorable, like" Braveheart", "Gladiator" or "Barry Lyndon" to name some examples, and fortunately "Amadeus" manages to be part of that list of great period films. Having already proved to be much more than an effective director with "One Flew over the Cuckoo´s Nest", Czech director Milo Forman managed to create a beautiful film that despite the fact is three hours long, is close to perfection with his stylish directing focus on the little details that enhances the experience "Amadeus" offers. The acting here is just mesmerizing with the best being F. Murray Abraham and Tom Hulce giving phenomenal performances that both deserved the Academy Award for Best Actor, beautiful cinematography, a excellently made eighteen century atmosphere, convincing and beautiful costume design, perfect art direction, ambitious themes that are greatly executed, being a film about the greatest composer of all time I expected that Forman would use actual Mozart´s work and thankfully he did and it works so perfectly and while the story is far from being historically accurate, it still is a well told, fascinating and entertaining drama with a little of actually funny comedy at the beginning of the film.

"Amadeus" is a powerful and beautiful masterpiece that's close to perfection despite its long runtime; it deserved its 1985 nominations for the Academy Awards. This is one of the three movies that made me a lover of the seventh art, in my preteen years. If you enjoy dramas, this is a must see film.