Amadeus

Well, there it is. The perfect movie in my opinion. Paul Shaffer created a script that contains a bit of everything--drama, humor, suspense, romance. He used the absolutely perfect framing device to tell the story, a third person recollection from a colleague, a rival, a vanquished and bitter contemporary in the person of Antonio Salieri. The acting performances are superlative career performances for several of the actors involved. Thier pinnacle of acting achievement. Most notability is the shining career moment for Tom Hulce as Mozart who played the young, brilliant composer with a perfect blend of exuberance and arrogance. F. Murray Abraham played the spiritually challenged and bitter Salieri with great nuance. There were many other outstanding supporting roles that managed to steal scenes in the midst of great acting performances: Jeffrey Jones as Emperor Joseph II and Elizabeth Berridge as Constanze Mozart stand out---but there are many. The direction, cinematography, staging, sets---all just SO beautiful. There are SO many scenes that jump of the screen. So much artistry on display in nearly every frame. It is a magnum opus. Some might say that One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest is director, Milos Forman's greatest work, but I say it is this film. And the music? Salieri himself said it best in the film "This is no composition by a performing monkey! This was a music I'd never heard. Filled with such longing, such unfulfillable longing, it had me trembling. It seemed to me that I was hearing the voice of God." My one very slight criticism (and it is not really a criticism) would be this. The script and film take several liberties with the actual history of Mozart. But this is film and does not claim to be a factual biography. (If you would like to watch a much more historically accurate biography, try this one: In Search of Mozart Winner of 8 Oscars (and nominated for 11), this movie has received recognition as one of the greatest ever---but not enough. IMDB has it as the 87th best of all time and it is rarely discussed as a Timeless great. It should be. See it. It might change your life.