Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #2096 in DVD
• Released on: 2002-10-14
• Rating: Parental Guidance
• Aspect ratio: 2.35:1
• Number of discs: 2
• Formats: PAL, Special Edition
• Original language: English, German, Italian
• Subtitled in: English, Arabic
• Number of discs: 1
• Running time: 153 minutes

Amazon.co.uk Review
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 recognise 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 cruellest 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 mid-level 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

Note: this region two DVD is a "flipper" with a break between sides A and B.

Amazon.co.uk Review
A note-perfect cinematic event whose immortality was assured from its opening night, Amadeus is an unlikely candidate for the Director's Cut treatment. Like one of Mozart's operas, the multiple Oscar-winning theatrical version seemed perfectly formed from the outset--ideal casting, costumes, sets, cinematography, lighting, screenplay, music, music, music--so the reinstatement of an extra 20 minutes simply risks adding "too many notes". Yet though this extended cut can hardly be said to improve a picture that needed no improvement, it does at least flesh out a couple of small subplots and shed new light on certain key scenes.

Here we learn why Constanze Mozart bears such ill-will towards Salieri when she discovers him at her husband's deathbed: he has insulted and degraded her after she came to him for help. We also see deeper into the reasons why Mozart has no pupils: not only has Salieri poisoned the Emperor's mind against him, but the only promisingly lucrative teaching job he can find ends disastrously when he realises that the master of the house just wants music to quiet his barking dogs. In a humiliating coda to that episode, a drunk and desperate Wolfgang returns later to beg for money only to be coldly rejected. The structure of the picture is otherwise unaltered.

On the DVD: Amadeus--The Director's Cut finally accords this masterful work the DVD treatment it deserves. The handsome anamorphic widescreen picture is accompanied by a choice of Dolby 5.1 or Dolby stereo sound options, and it's all contained on one side of the disc (the original single-disc DVD release was that crime against the format, a "flipper"). Director Milos Forman and writer Peter Shaffer provide a chatty though sporadic commentary, but they're obviously still too mesmerised by the movie to do much more than offer the odd anecdote. Disc 2 contains an excellent new hour-long "making of" documentary, with contributions from Forman, Shaffer, Sir Neville Marriner and all the main actors, taking in the scriptwriting, choice of music, casting and problems involved in filming in Communist Czechoslovakia with half the crew and extras working for the Secret Police. --Mark Walker

DVD Description
DVD Special Features:

Disc One:
Feature length commentary by Director Milos Foreman and Writer Peter Shaffer
Anamorphic Widescreen 2.35:1
Dolby Digital 5.1

Disc Two:
The Making Of Amadeus Documentary
Cast/Director Career Highlights
Theatrical Trailer

Customer Reviews

Superlative and Very Different
"Amadeus", was a great success on stage prior to becoming a film that garnered 8 Academy Awards, together with dozens of other international honors. This director's cut version of the film not only adds 20 minutes to bring this exceptional film to 3 hours, it also has created a spectacular new digital transfer, and most interestingly a new film.

Many special editions and director's cut offerings are little more than the addition of scenes that were dumped prior to the film's original release, and rarely have any fundamental impact on the story that is told. Fully one third of all the chapters in this film have new footage, and the changes have a very real impact on the film. Most of the new exposition is about Salieri and it makes him a much darker character, this Salieri is much more than a jealous admirer of Mozart. This man makes demands of persons and actively intervenes much more in the professional destruction of Mozart in Vienna.

One of the film's mysteries for me was why Mozart's wife held such hatred for Salieri at the close of the film. This question is answered, and it again makes for a major change in how you will view Constanze. And of course more insight is given to Mozart as well. If you are a devotee of the original film you may have trouble warming to this version, you may even be well advised to avoid it. For once you see this film you will never be able to watch the shorter version and confine your thoughts to what they were prior to seeing the additional 20 minutes of film.

There is a second disc that includes extended interviews with Milos Forman, Peter Shaffer, and many of the main characters. An interesting aspect that is shared is that this entire film was shot behind the Iron Curtain of the USSR when it was still the nemesis of The United States. The difficulties in filming in Prague were countless, and even fascinating, as the director, Milos Forman was returning to his homeland as a self-described traitor who had previously left.

I have always felt, "Amadeus", is one of the finest films ever produced, and at first I did not care for some of the additional expository material. Now that I have seen it and thought about it a bit, this version really is the complete film, and even if I were to watch the original, I believe I would enjoy it as much, or possibly even more.

This film will make you cry !
A totally different film from the original.

Look out for the scene between Constance and Salieri when Mozart's wife is compromised. This relationship is central to the film's end.

The documentary on the bonus disc is probably the best of its kind. When Milos Foreman recalls visiting the Opera House, where the World Premiere of "Don Giovanni" took place, I cried. Peter Shaffer is obviously passionate about Mozart.

This CD is an essential part of World Cinema. Go out and buy it. Do it, don't even think about it.

A Worthwhile Re-release
Its not surprising that this film achieved so many oscars a few years back. Its wonderful. I welcome this new version however, because it does tighten up some "loose ends" which although may not have been noticeable in the original version, does enlighten the viewer on Constanze' attitude to Salieri at the end of the film. Not historically accurate, films like this seldom are, Mozart is portrayed as a musical genius which indeed he was; and a buffoon, which is highly unlikely. Moreover, the final sequence of Salieri completing Mozert's Requiem did not happen, it was in fact completed by Mozart's pupil Franz Sussmeyer who simply reprised the first movement. Still, its an amazing achievement in the history of the cinema and should be seen by all those who enjoy Mozart's music even though from time to time the music sounds as though "it has too many notes!" The extras are very interesting and reveal some of the problems of filming behind the Iron Curtain which of course still existed during the filming in 1985. Picture quality and sound, especially if you have a Home Cinema setup are first class. This can be bought for a brilliant price too. Dont miss it!