Amadeus (1984/Warner Blu-ray)
Picture:
B Sound: B Extras: B+ Film:
B
Milos
Forman’s Academy Award-winning film Amadeus
is a unique film in many respects. If
you are expecting a film that chronicles with historical detail and accuracy
the life of Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, than this is not the film for you. Instead we get a film that is part period
piece adapted from the stage play by Peter Shaffer, which at the core is story
between rival musicians Antonio Salieri and Mozart. So historical accuracy is
thrown slightly to the wind here, but that doesn’t negate the quality of the
work done here, Forman constructs an intriguing film told in flashback
sequences from the viewpoint of Salieri, who had a unique involvement in
Mozart’s life and ultimately his death, Salieri believes that he is the man who
has killed Mozart, he confesses this to a priest from a mental institution and
our story unfolds from there.
What
makes the film memorable though is the fantastic performances by all involved,
in particular Tom Hulce as the crude boyish Mozart, but he also captures the
genius of the character as well. F.
Murray Abraham convincingly portrays his archrival Salieri, but yet Salieri
admires the work of the man, his inward battle between rivalry and admiration
teeter throughout the film. He cannot
help but appreciate the masterpieces that Mozart accomplishes, but is also
disappointed with his own inadequacies and wonders why God would curse him for
his dedicated and bestow such marvelous talent in an immature fool.
Amadeus
arrives to us on Blu-ray in what can now be considered the best version to date
for home video; the presentation is framed at 2.40 X 1 and now available in
High Definition 1080p glory. Prior to
this release the film was available on various VHS copies and even Laserdisc,
it also was released early on in the DVD format in what some may remember as a
‘flipper’ disc, then it was given the 2-disc special treatment by Warner a few
years later, which would combine supplements with a better transfer and
improved sound. Even still the film
suffered from a muddy transfer that never gave the incredibly production design
of this film the attention that is deserved.
Blacks were undefined, colors were either muted or near-bleeding, and
overall detail was lost in many of the scenes.
The audio was another issue with a Dolby Digital 5.1 mix that seemed far
too compressed to give the soundtrack the quality that it deserved, especially
for a film where music is just as much an integral component of the film than
anything else.
For
Blu-ray all those issues are fairly resolved, although the transfer is
certainly improved in overall resolution and colors are properly rendered here,
there are still minor issues that plague the transfer from the reference
quality of other pristine Blu-ray releases.
There is a bit more grain than most might expect or like on the
transfer, which at times causes the image to appear more soft or less defined,
especially with some digital noise reduction, which has also caused certain
scenes to appear blurry with some of the motion captures. These are fairly minor quips for some,
especially when most will be happy to see improvements in the other areas like
color, depth, contrast, and overall resolution, which are certainly levels
beyond what standard definition could ever accomplish.
The
soundtrack has been upgraded as well here with a Dolby Digital TrueHD 5.1 mix
that runs laps around any of the previous versions for home video as well, we
finally get a worthy soundtrack that delivers the beauty of the score along
with dialogue and other production sounds.
It would have been easy to just fill the entire film with the work of
Mozart throughout, but again Forman and company opted to make the film with a
level of integrity to the music and utilize the soundtrack in very stunning
ways. The musical cues in the film play
an important part as well adding texture and movement to the marvelous
cinematography and beautiful set designs.
The Dolby TrueHD mix offers a level of crispness that could never be
reached before, although at times the mix still feels more dated in it’s
fidelity, despite being over 20 years old, there are still instances when this
should not really be the case. I’ve listened
to older recordings that have been offered on the Super Audio format that rival
or even surpass this and wonder what this soundtrack would be like if available
in DTS-HD or PCM 5.1. I tend to prefer
the PCM options on Blu-ray releases that are music-heavy.
This is a
3-disc 50GB Blu-ray release that delivers a special compilation CD including
8-tracks featuring Sir Neville Mariner and the Academy of St.
Martin-in-the-Fields, plus a 35-page essay booklet, along with the digital copy
of the film, and the extras that were included previously on the 2-disc special
edition DVD from Warner. Those extras
included Forman’s commentary track along with writer Peter Shaffer, the
60-minute making-of feature, and the trailers.
Some might also remember that old ‘flipper’ copy on DVD that included an
isolated music track for the film, which could be accessed from the menus, that
track is not available here, nor was it on the 2-disc special edition. I would have opted for that extra here as
this is a 50GB disc certainly capable of getting a high resolution version of
the isolated score; instead we get an 8-track CD to appease us.
For now,
this is certainly the version of the film to own, even with minor picture and
sound issues, these are fairly minor overall since there are more things right
with this release than anything else.
Enjoy!
Also
check out our reviews for:
Immortal Beloved Blu-ray here.
The Essential Mozart DVD set here.
The Magic Flute Blu-ray here.
- Nate Goss
