Tommy Collison

AMADEUS

F. Murray Abraham, Tom Hulce, Elizabeth Berridge

Directed by Milos Forman

Wow. What an epic film. I know I’ve been harping on about it for the last while – but it is an awesome film. Tom Hulce plays an awesome Mozart and Sallieri is indeed to be congratulated. The music is the true brilliance of the film (as one’d expect) and is the best collection of Mozart’s music that’s out there. It’s also the best selling classical music album ever released.

I’m not one who usually will go for Opera, but when I popped this one in and watched it I was truly amazed. This was one of, if not the best film ever made. As I become less of a Bond fan and more “into” other types of movies, I find myself attracted to styles of music and film I never even considered before

A good way of describing it is like this. Say you ate red hot chili very regularly for 20 years. You’d notice the taste of other foods less and less each day. Now, I’m comin’ off the chili and opening my eyes to other “foods”

This isn’t to say that I like all opera music. I wouldn’t buy/download one, but this album is truly special. I’ve often searched for popular classical music. You know, the type of stuff they put in Tom & Jerry cartoons. This album fulfills some of those requirements.

One thing I was surprised at – Mozart has a pool table in his apartment. I wouldn’t have said they’d have been around at that time. According to wikipedia though, they were invented in the early 1800s. There’s your “something I didn’t know yesterday” tidbit. Well, it was for me.

One bit of underrated acting I found was that of Roy Doltrice as Leopold Mozart, Amadeus’s father. His acting specifically in the scene when he, his son and Constanze (Amadeus’ wife) go out (with the “penalties”) and his distain is just wonderful to watch

A simply fantastic film to watch and listen to. 8/10

Marks taken off for sheer length. 160 minutes. Hellofa long film. Second mark taken off for the ending being slow. Starts with “Soprano Stew” and Mozart showing his stuff at the local theatre, and slows down from there. Turns a masterpiece into something only quite good.