Amadeus - Director's Cut (Two-Disc Special Edition)
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Director: Milos Forman Actors: F. Murray Abraham, Tom Hulce, Elizabeth Berridge, Simon Callow, Roy Dotrice Rated: R (Restricted) Retail Price (not our price): $26.99 Release Date: 2002-09-24 Studio: Warner Home Video Run Time: 180 minutes Aspect Ratio: 2.35:1 Discs: 2 |
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Editorial Reviews (supplied by Amazon.com):
1) Product Description
Tom Hulce, F. Murray Abraham. A spectacular and unique interpretation of Mozart's life and times adapted from Peter Shaffer's hit play. Winner of eight Academy Awards, including Best Actor for Abraham, Best Director for Milos Forman, Best Adapted Screenplay for Shaffer, Best Picture and more. 2 DVDs. 1984/color/158 min/PG/widescreen.2) Amazon.com
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, and we see deeper into the reasons why Mozart has no students. The structure of the picture is otherwise unaltered. The director's cut of Amadeus 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. Director Milos Forman and writer Peter Shaffer provide a chatty though sporadic commentary, but they're obviously still too mesmerized by the movie to do much more than offer the odd anecdote. The second disc 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
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