Amadeus (Matt)

I watched the following trailer before I saw this movie.

http://www.imdb.com/video/screenplay/vi498467097/

After seeing it I ended up having no idea what to expect from it. I thought it was a biopic about Mozart until I watched the trailer, and afterward I was lost. I tell you this so you can know that I went into this movie with a blank slate, at least for the most part. Several of my friends like this movie quite a bit, so there was a little bit of bias in that aspect, but that seems to be the case with any movie that we watch here that anyone I know has seen beforehand.

Lets start off with the acting, because it was great. Tom Hulce, who played Amadeus, won the Oscar for best actor for this film, and it was very well deserved. I do feel, however, that F. Murray Abraham, who was also nominated for best actor, deserved it more. His acting was amazing. We get to watch the court composer, Salieri, succumb to his own jealousy. The transformation is fascinating to watch. I have zero experience as an actor, and my knowledge of the art is limited to the movies and plays and such that I have watched. That said, it seems that playing an eccentric character would be easier than playing a normal one. The audience is more forgiving with inconsistencies with eccentric characters. They don't have to be believable. A normal character seems to me much hard to play convincingly. This is one of the main reason that I feel Abraham got stiffed.

I want to mention the costuming. Wow. The costumes are amazing throughout the film but I want to mention in particular the masquerade ball around the middle of the film. What an amazing scene that was. Elaborate costumes and masks are swirling around and dancing, lots of laughter and music filling the ears, and the glum black costume of Amadeus' father looming amongst it all. It's quite a scene, and it was easily my favorite part of the film. This movie won an Ocsar for costuming as well, and once again, it's easy to see why.

I should also mention the music. Most of the music in the film was taken directly from Mozart's actual work, so it wasn't anything new. What made it mentionable though, is the way they used it. In scenes where music is being played it completely dominates the scene. All other sounds are blocked out, and all you here is the loud, booming productions that the composers create. It's quite an experience. The music was also used in another way however, that I also thought was amazing. This was portrayed when the composers were reading sheet music. As Salieri reads through the scores created by Mozart, we hear what he reads. He knew music well enough that he can hear the entire piece simply by reading the notes, and the way the movie showed me this was awesome.

Really there isn't much I can say that's bad about the movie. Take a look at the list of Oscars that the movie won:

Best Actor In A Leading Role
Best Art-Direction-Set Direction
Best Costume Role
Best Director
Best Makeup
Best Picture
Best Sound
Best Writing, Screenplay Based on Material from Another Medium

Now we aren't done yet, these are the nominations that the movie recieved but didn't win:

Best Actor In A Leading Role
Best Cinematography
Best Film Editing

Seriously! This movie was nominated eleven times, and it won 8 of those nominations. This would have been nine but two of the nominations were in the same category.

My only complaint is that the movie got a bit slow at times. I did find myself a bit bored at moments, wishing for something to happen to move the story forward. I'll give this one 8 annoying laughs out of 10.