Amadeus

Movie / Show Details

Milos Forman directed this 1984 biographical drama about the rivalry between two composers in the court of Austrian Emperor Joseph II. Antonio Salieri, the official royal composer, becomes increasingly jealous of the younger Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, whose musical genius far surpasses his own. Though Salieri recognizes and admires the beauty of Mozart’s compositions, he is tormented by envy and the cruel irony that such sublime music flows from someone he finds crude and insufferable. The film explores Salieri’s descent into obsession as he grapples with his own mediocrity in the shadow of Mozart’s brilliance.

This is a single-disc DVD release from Orion Pictures with a runtime of two hours and forty minutes, rated R. The cast includes F. Murray Abraham as Salieri, along with Jeffrey Jones, Elizabeth Berridge, Christine Ebersole, Charles Kay, and Barbara Bryne. Peter Shaffer adapted his own acclaimed stage play for the screen, and the film features Mozart’s classical compositions throughout. Own this Oscar-winning drama on physical media at a used price.