Amadeus: Theatrical Cut (4K UHD Review)

• Reviewed by: Bill Hunt
• Review Date: Feb 26, 2025
• Format: 4K Ultra HD
• 

Director

Miloš Forman

Release Date(s)

1984 (February 25, 2025)

Studio(s)

The Saul Zaentz Company/Orion Pictures (SDS/Warner Bros. Discovery Home Entertainment)

• Film/Program Grade: A
• Video Grade: A
• Audio Grade: A
• Extras Grade: B-

Review

Based on Peter Shaffer’s 1979 stage play of the same name—and loosely inspired by Alexander Pushkin’s older play Mozart and Salieri (1830)—Miloš Forman’s Best Picture-winning Amadeus (1984) is an epic symphony of genius, mirth, and envy. The film’s story follows the lifelong rivalry between the composer Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart (Tom Hulce) and the man who saw himself as Mozart’s rival, Antonio Salieri (F. Murray Abraham). The latter was born with a passion for music but only modest ability so he had to fight for every musical success, an effort that eventually led him to becoming the court composer for the Holy Roman Emperor Joseph II (Jeffrey Jones) in Vienna. To Salieri’s great chagrin, however, he learns that Mozart was gifted by God with not simply a genuine natural talent for music, but the greatest talent that Salieri has ever encountered. Worst of all, the young man doesn’t even seem to appreciate the gift he’s been given, and he’s vulgar and crass into the bargain. So offended is Salieri by all of this, that—in between moments of savoring the pure genius of Mozart’s prolific compositions—he sets out to destroy the young man once and for all.

A number of factors conspire to make Amadeus such an enjoyable cinematic experience, starting with the fact that every single member of the cast is superb. Abraham takes advantage of every opportunity to imbue his Salieri with musical passion and seething rage, as he connives to break his unaware opponent. And Hulce portrays Mozart with seemingly limitless manic energy and naiveté as he delivers work after work of unparalleled excellence, yet struggles to gain social acceptance and financial security. Elizabeth Berridge is both charming and convincing as Constanze, and the supporting players too deliver in a multitude of little moments. Amadeus also offers a marvelous recreation of life in 18th century Europe, which is all the more remarkable for the fact that it was shot almost entirely on location in the then Soviet Bloc city of Prague at the height of the Cold War. The advantage of doing so was that the city and its architecture were essentially unchanged since the period depicted on screen, lending extraordinary authenticity to the film and its settings. Yet the challenge of doing so included the cast and crew being followed constantly, having their phone conversations monitored and every aspect of the production subject to approval by the local authorities, and even members of the Czech secret police serving as crew members. But of course, the real star of Amadeus is the music—the actual unaltered compositions of Mozart (and slightly altered Salieri pieces)—as curated, supervised, and conducted by the great Neville Marriner with the Academy of St. Martin in the Fields orchestra. This music is featured throughout, with each piece recorded specifically for the film, including portions of The Magic Flute, The Marriage of Figaro, Don Giovanni, and the Requiem.

Of course, it must be noted that the rivalry between Mozart and Salieri is largely a fictional creation; historians debate the degree to which the two were actually in competition. Though it’s apparently true that Mozart and his father Leopold spoke in their letters of the “cabals of Italians” who made it difficult for the younger man to establish himself in Vienna, Mozart and Salieri actually collaborated on music on occasion, including jointly composing a cantata for voice and piano entitled Per la ricuperata salute di Ofelia (which, long thought to be lost, was just rediscovered in 2016). And there’s plenty of evidence to suggest that the pair supported each other’s work for many years. Rumors of their so-called rivalry seem to have first appeared decades after Mozart’s death, rooted in the very real later rivalry between the German and Italian schools of music. Ironically, the modern revival of interest in Salieri’s work can be directly attributed to the wide cultural impact of Forman’s film.

Amadeus was shot on 35mm film by cinematographer Miroslav Ondříček (Hair, Ragtime) using Panavision cameras and anamorphic lenses, and it was finished photochemically at the 2.39:1 scope aspect ratio for its theatrical release. Note that Warner Bros. Discovery Home Entertainment’s new 4K release contains the Theatrical Cut of the film only—believed to be Forman’s preferred version—mastered from a new scan and restoration of the original camera negative (which had been reconformed to the Director’s Cut version in 2002) by The Academy Film Archive and The Saul Zaentz Co. with funding provided by Teatro Della Pace Films.

The Theatrical Cut was first released on DVD back in 1997, but was soon followed by a so-called Director’s Cut DVD in 2002 (and a Blu-ray of the same in 2009)—a creation of producer Saul Zaentz and Warner Home Video, though it should be noted that Forman appears to have been fine with its existence. (Indeed, he recorded an audio commentary for it at the time.) The Director’s Cut includes some twenty minutes of additional footage that is certainly interesting and of merit, but that’s also largely redundant. And its inclusion in the film interrupts the flow of what is otherwise sublime editing by Nena Danevic and Michael Chandler.

For the record, the key Director’s Cut differences are as follows (times measured via the 2009 Blu-ray):

• 24:21 — Old Salieri’s conversation with Father Vogler is slightly longer.
• 47:30 — After his landlady passes out, Mozart pours a bucket of water to revive her, then Salieri has a conversation with Katerine that Mozart interrupts.
• 50:00 — Old Salieri’s conversation with Vogler is again slightly longer.
• 50:44 — Young Salieri prays for Mozart to be sent back to Salzburg.
• 55:13 — Mozart and Constanze discuss their financial future, then Mozart gives lessons to a music pupil.
• 62:50 — Constanze asks Salieri to lobby the Emperor for employment for Mozart, and he offers to do it only if she’ll return to sleep with him that night.
• 64:00 — Old Salieri and Vogler speak again, then we see Constanze go to younger Salieri as requested to offer herself but he doesn’t go through with it. Mozart returns home that night to find her crying.
• 69:10 — Salieri has dinner with the Emperor and trashes Mozart’s reputation. Salieri returns home to find Mozart waiting for him and they have a conversation. Mozart asks for a loan. Salieri suggests a man, Schlumberg, who may hire Mozart for music lessons for his daughter. But those lessons do not go well.
• 89:16 — A scene of Leopold and Constanze arguing as Mozart leaves the room to play billiards is slightly different, as Mozart and Lorl separately listen to the argument instead.
• 133:00 — Salieri and Baron van Swieten discuss Mozart’s finances. A drunk Mozart revisits Schlumberg offering to teach his daughter again, but the man refuses.

There are other small changes too, including alternate shots and camera angles, but those are the key differences. The 2009 Director’s Cut Blu-ray is still available, so that release is worth keeping if you have it (or seeking out if you don’t).

The 4K image quality on this disc is terrific, and a significant improvement over previous editions. The Director’s Cut Blu-ray was actually not bad for its day, but certainly has its limits, including obvious edge enhancement, crushed blacks and blown out highlights, as well as detail that lacked refinement. Optically-printed titles and transitions exhibit the usual generation loss in resolution in this 4K presentation, but once you get past those to actual camera negative the detail is exquisite—highly nuanced and refined, with beautiful texturing. Photochemical grain is light-medium and organic. The HDR color palette is rich and nuanced, with a warm hue that derives from the fact that many scenes were filmed—not unlike Stanley Kubrick’s Barry Lyndon (1975)—in real candlelight. Skin tones are natural, gilding on furniture and other ornamentation has a bold shimmer. Inky blacks offer shadows that hold far more detail than was obvious on the Blu-ray, while the brightest areas of the frame too are more lifelike. Warner has also seen fit to encode this presentation for a 100GB disc, with video data rates averaging between 50 and 70 Mbps. The result is a beautiful 4K restoration of a traditional photochemical catalog film from the mid-1980s.

Sonically, this 4K disc is pleasing as well, delivering its English audio in a new lossless 5.1 DTS-HD Master Audio mix that does full justice to the film’s soundtrack. Dialogue is clean and clear, while the various orchestral and operatic compositions are presented with full tones and magnificent fidelity. Low end is modest, but sufficient for the task at hand, while the soundstage is pleasingly wide across the front. The surround channels are used for occasional directional play and environmental ambience, which is welcome indeed in the film’s various ballroom, reception chamber, and theatre settings. Additional audio options include French, German, and Italian 5.1 Dolby Digital, Castilian Spanish in Dolby Digital mono, and Latin Spanish in 2.0 Dolby Digital stereo, with subtitles available in English for the Deaf and Hard of Hearing, French, German for the Hearing Impaired, Italian for the Deaf, Castilian Spanish, Dutch, Chinese, Korean, Latin Spanish, Danish, Finnish, Norwegian, and Swedish.

Warner’s new 4K release contains a single disc only, featuring Theatrical Cut version of the film on Ultra HD with the following special features:

• Amadeus: The Making of a Masterpiece (HD and upsampled SD — 23:27)
• The Making of Amadeus (Upsampled SD — 60:42)

Amadeus: The Making of a Masterpiece is a lovely new retrospective piece that features recent interviews with key participants and film experts, including Abraham and Hulce, actors Christine Ebersole and Simon Callow, production designer Patrizia von Brandenstein, and film music historian Jon Burlingame. The Making of Amadeus has been carried over from the previous DVD and Blu-ray release, and features interviews with Forman, Shaffer, and many other members of the cast and crew, as well as behind-the-scenes footage shot during the production. Both are terrific and well worth your time. (Vincent Schiavelli’s “pineapple” story in the older featurette is particularly entertaining.) You also get a Movies Anywhere Digital Copy code on a paper insert in the packaging.

Unfortunately missing here is the Director’s Cut audio commentary with Forman and Shaffer—which is a delightful listening experience, as the pair exchanges anecdotes and plays off of one another with both affection and feistiness—as well as the film’s theatrical trailer. The 2009 Blu-ray also included a soundtrack CD sampler of music from the film, plus a Digibook of liner notes, which again makes it well worth keeping if you’re a fan.

Amadeus is a genuinely wonderful film, the kind of old-school cinematic experience that’s brimming with craft, that gives its actors the chance to shine and its story the time and space to breathe. While there may be those among its fans who wish the Director’s Cut had been included as well, it’s long past time that Miloš Forman’s original and beloved Theatrical Cut was given its due, and this new 4K restoration is lovely indeed. Very highly recommended!

- Bill Hunt

(You can follow Bill on social media on Twitter, BlueSky, and Facebook, and also here on Patreon)