Movie #164: Amadeus

Movie #: 164
Movie Title: Amadeus
Year Released: 1984

Director: Milos Forman
Notable Cast: F. Murray Abraham, Tom Hulce, Elizabeth Berridge, Roy Dotrice, Jeffrey Jones, Simon Callow, Charles Kay, Christine Ebersole

Short Description: The incredible story of Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, told by his peer and secret rival Antonio Salieri - now confined to an insane asylum. (IMDB.com)


Rank on the Top 100 Lists (as of 1/7/2013)

AFI.com: N/A
IMDB.com: #89
Ranker.com: #71
Lifed.com: N/A
Empire.com: N/A
FilmCrave.com: N/A
FlickChart.com: N/A



Date Watched: 2/25/2016

Grade: 4 out of 5 (Excellent)

Rationale: Other than Tom Hulce’s laugh, which is earsplitting and annoying, Amadeus in general is excellent. Two parts, though, stand out as among the greatest performances I’ve seen so far in the top 251 movies I’ve watched and maybe of any movie I’ve seen. As an old man F. Murray Abraham’ character Antonio Salieri recounts his and Mozart’s story in a way that’s both beautiful and beautifully sadistic, leaving the priest he’s speaking to visibly disturbed. Abraham’s performance as Salieri is so emotional that the spite and disdain for Hulce’s Mozart was almost palpable. As good as that was, the scene near the end of the movie in which a gravely ill Mozart unknowingly assists in composing his own requiem, or death song, as Salieri writes it down is better. I literally paused the movie at the end of that scene and said “wow” out loud. Abraham and Hulce both ended up receiving Oscar nominations for Best Actor with Abraham very deservedly winning in my opinion.