Amadeus: 7 out of 10: Amadeus is a brilliantly filmed fictional account of the rivalry between Antonio Salieri (Well-deserved Oscar winner F. Murray Abraham) and Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart (Tom Hulce in a daring performance).
The costumes and settings are spot on, as only great Hollywood historical dramas can pull off. This is truly one place independent film does not hold a candle to Hollywood. With the exception of Elizabeth Berridge as Mozart's wife, the supporting cast is excellent; paramount is Jeffery Jones who plays Emperor Joseph the second like Martin Sheen playing a Kennedy.
The plot line of an old Salieri confessing to a priest how he turned his back on God after realizing the almighty gave Mozart, not himself; this divine talent is a wonderful and emotionally satisfying tool to hang the plot. Salieri is a wonderful protagonist as it is easy to identify with the jealousy one feels towards those to whom talent comes so easy and seems almost squandered.
Besides Berridge's performance, there are a few minor quibbles with the film. The music is very opera heavy and not terrible representative of Mozart's work. It is a bit like doing a biopic of Beethoven and leaving out his fifth and ninth symphonies.
The movie is also bit long and drags a bit in the middle. One scene lampshades this; during the performance of The Marriage of Figaro the Emperor yawns and Salieri goes into great detail how the number of yawns affects how long the opera will run. Considering Amadeus runs 2 hours 40 minutes, it saying something that Amadeus only rated one yawn from me.
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