Cynthia Nixon Movie:

		List Price: $35.99		Label: Warner Home Video Salesrank: 1464 Released: February 10, 2009
		Our Price: $13.98
		Used Price: $12.84
		MPAA Rating: R (Restricted) Media: Blu-ray

Editorial Review:
Gripping human drama. Sumptuous period epic. Glorious celebration of the music of Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart. This marvelous winner of eight Academy Awards(R) portrays the rivalry between the genius Mozart (Tom Hulce) and the jealous court composer (Best Actor Oscar(R) Winner F.Murray Abraham) who may have ruined Mozart's career and shortened his life.

Description of Amadeus (Blu-ray Book) [Blu-ray]:
The satirical sensibilities of writer Peter Shaffer and director Milos Forman (One Flew over the Cuckoo's Nest) were ideally matched in this Oscar-winning movie adaptation of Shaffer's hit play about the rivalry between two composers in the court of Austrian Emperor Joseph II--official royal composer Antonio Salieri (F. Murray Abraham), and the younger but superior prodigy Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart (Tom Hulce). The conceit is absolutely delicious: Salieri secretly loathes Mozart's crude and bratty personality, but is astounded by the beauty of his music. That's the heart of Salieri's torment--although he's in a unique position to recognize and cultivate both Mozart's talent and career, he's also consumed with envy and insecurity in the face of such genius. That such magnificent music should come from such a vulgar little creature strikes Salieri as one of God's cruelest jokes, and it drives him insane. Amadeus creates peculiar and delightful contrasts between the impeccably re-created details of its lavish period setting and the jarring (but humorously refreshing and unstuffy) modern tone of its dialogue and performances--all of which serve to remind us that these were people before they became enshrined in historical and artistic legend. Jeffrey Jones, best-known as Ferris Bueller's principal, is particularly wonderful as the bumbling emperor (with the voice of a modern midlevel businessman). The film's eight Oscars include statuettes for Best Director Forman, Best Actor Abraham (Hulce was also nominated), Best Screenplay, and Best Picture. --Jim Emerson

Amadeus (Blu-ray Book) [Blu-ray] Reviews:
Good Thing Directors Don't Get Their Cut
2009-11-29 - Amadeus featured amazing performances by the actors, great costumes and wonderful writing, not to mention beautifully integrated music supporting and enlarging the action of the film... but the director was clearly in love with the complexities he went through in recreating Mozart's operatic performances. This "director's cut" version included a disproportionate amount of opera performance, which in my view did little to enlarge or enhance the viewer's understanding of Mozart's musical genius.

You're better off with the movie cut as it originally appeared in theatres. Much tighter, more concentrated, and a proper balance of music and story line.



Great movie but...
2009-11-24 - Awesome movie, awesome director's cut. But I give it 4 stars because the "digital copy" is only for Windows Media player, and was not very clear on the cover that it was for Windows operating system only. So now I bought this copy + a copy off of iTunes......

A travesty
2009-11-15 - A beautiful transfer of video and sound ruined by gratuitous extra footage. The original cut won all the Oscars for a reason. It should have been left alone. Why cannot they offer both versions on the same or 2 discs! Sacrilege.

Classic Film With 20-Minutes Of Restored Footage & Lots Of Great Extras!!
2009-11-12 - I'm going to assume that most everybody has seen this now classic film,
so I'll spare you a blow by blow of what happens because you already know
for the most part that it was based on the life of Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart.
This movie recieved 8 Oscars in 1984 (including Best Picture), and the
principal actors Tom Hulce (Mozart) and F. Murray Abraham (Salieri)
both turned in brilliant performances.
This new director's cut replaces 20-minutes of extra footage which was cut
from the original theatrical edit, but to be honest, I can't tell you that it
really made a difference in the overall story...it was already excellent.
But at any rate, there are plenty of great special features on the second disc
for fans who like to get really in depth with the behind the scenes of film-making.
This product shows just great on my 40" HD 1080p Surround TV and the sound is crisp,
as if an orchestra had set up in my den and was playing the musical pieces in real time!
I would recommend this as an addition to your DVD collection of great films.

Excellent Film, Excellent Product
2009-11-08 - Blu-ray book review:
The Film- The image quality is a little soft, but a vast improvement to the DVD version. The sound quality is excellent.
The hd presentation of "Amadeus" is very good considering its age, and if that isn't enough to buy this DVD the wealth of supplimentals makes this a no brainer!
The disc comes in a digibook with about forty pages of production notes and cast and crew info (unfortunately the hardback cover of my copy was slightly dented in transit). There is a digital copy compatible with Windows Media Player. I really don't see myself watching a 3 hour film on my zune, but you might. Also included is an hour long documentary on the making of the film, which is quite good. The extras that I have enjoyed the most are the audio commentary and CD. For $13 this package is a steal!