MovieChat Forums > Amadeus (1984) Discussion > Why is Amadeus Rated so Low

Why is Amadeus Rated so Low

posted 9 years ago by marhefka
31 replies | jump to latest

Amadeus is ranked 90th on the Top 250 list. I don't expect everyone to agree with my no. 1 ranking but 90 seems way too low. Let's compare Amadeus to The Shawshank Redemption:

Plot: The strong point of TSR is probably the plot. Yet, the Amadeus plot is ingenious. The Protagonist is Salieri and the Antagonist is GOD. Yet, the story focuses on Mozart.

Awards: Amadeus won more Oscars than TSR. Most people agree that F. Murray Abraham's performance was one of the all-time best.
.
Music: Maybe this is unfair to list Music as a category. How could any movie compare with Amadeus in that category. Most people rate Mozart as the greatest musical genius of all-time.

My opinion is that many people are objecting to the liberties taken with the facts in Amadeus. In reality Salieri and Mozart were good friends. TSR does not have this problem and thus the 9.3 rating.

[–] Degree7 8 years ago

Should be in the top 50.

Especially with the amount of crap that's ranked higher! But Amadeus is lucky to be in the list at all, considering films about music and costume dramas ever ally don't rate that highly amongst young people.

~ I'm a 21st century man and I don't wanna be here.

[–] marlarkey 8 years ago

Ratings are ratings... they are not a measure of quality.

[–] CathBridgers 8 years ago

Interesting thoughts. I just watched the director's cut after having seen it in the top 250 and Roger Ebert's Great Movies list and frankly I feel a little underwhelmed. I can see why people think it's great but I didn't feel very impacted by it. I certainly have no quarrel with the historical inaccuracies.

Sometimes I think films that were a little bit before my time have a lesser effect on me. I think also it was strange watching a period drama set in Germany with a cast who largely had American accents, which also happens in Marie Antoinette, a movie I very much enjoyed.

90 is by no means low though.

[–] schwester_straw 8 years ago

Amadeus is set in Austria, mostly in its capital Vienna. That is a completely different country and to mistake Austria for Germany is the biggest insult you can give to an austrian. ;)

[–] rj-27 8 years ago

Because there is no accounting for taste.

Democracy is the pathetic belief in the collective wisdom of individual ignorance. H.L. Mencken

[–] daddysarm 8 years ago

Spending so much time on his operas was a huge mistake. I know why they did it. A film is a visual experience & so is an opera, whereas Eine Kleine or a symphony is not.
But. That decision makes Amadeus the film that always makes me think:

Lord. That could have been genius, just like Wolfie was.

[–] KhurramAtta 8 years ago

because people are filthy plebs these days. They want to watch superhero crap. The want to watch *beep* feminist remakes. They don't know what quality is. When The Rock is the highest paid actor in the world, you know there's something wrong with cinema.

Amadeus is one of the greatest movies of all time. If it would've been released today, it would've flopped. Thank God for this movie and Milos Forman.

Top 250 Foreign Movies
http://www.imdb.com/list/ls076565151/

[–] 8 years ago

[deleted]

[–] bishop-69757 8 years ago

A piece of trash like The dark knight being in the top 5 proves ratings are a joke on here controlled mostly by teens that I haven't watched many movies made before 2000.