Whither Amadeus?

There have been rumors of a 4k Ultra HD release of Amadeus for several years now.  It's been said to be coming from Warner Bros and Criterion at different times.  I even fell for one of those shady Twitter accounts that announced it as if they had real insider information, before I found they were just posting best guesses are scoops for clicks.  I still feel a little bad for perpetuating it by posting the artwork they created on a forum and sharing a link to the fake news.  I guess you could say that this post is my penance for that.  What can I say?  I was naive!  But that naughty account has since vanished, and we're just left with the false hope.  As far as I know, there's no further reason to expect an Amadeus 4k outside of the "it's always possible" realm.  I mean, it is a high-profile Academy Award winning "Best Picture," and there have been rumors of a restoration possibly being "in the works."  But nothing's been legitimately announced.

Update and Error Correction 7/3/23: First of all, a huge thanks to Kevin and Chris in the comments for helping me set this screw-up straight.  Your instincts were completely correct!  To be clear, the 2009 DVD is the theatrical cut, not the director's cut (which is a good thing, because it means fans can still access the TC without tracking out the long OOP disc from the 90s).  If you're wondering how I got it wrong with all the discs sitting right here at my desk... I don't want to say, it's too embarrassing, so we'll just leave it at that.

Ha ha, no - I must be transparent!  So when I was getting screenshots from all the discs, apparently I put the first 2004 disc in the wrong case and then compared that one to itself.  I found the discs were mixed up when I pulled all the copies to re-investigate.  But the good news for everyone is that I got my hands on a 1997 DVD when I thought the issue might be more complicated than it turned out to be, so we've wound up with more thorough coverage as a bonus.
You might expect a three-hour drama about an 18th century composer to be a pretty dry, homework-like affair.  But oh no, 1984's Amadeus is a vibrant, exciting picture.  The conflict between F. Murray Abraham and Tom Hulce runs deep.  Think There Will Be Blood, but resonating on an even more profound level.  Milos Forman adapts the original stage play with a lavish production, clearly expenses were not spared.  Hulce gives a wild performance, but surrounded by first class players like Jeffrey Jones, Abraham and The Funhouse's Elizabeth Berridge, it all works magically.  In either cut.
Yes, I have to confess, I feel a little ambivalent on the director's cut issue.  I don't feel the longer cut hurts the pacing any - what's an extra twenty minutes when you're already pushing three hours?  You either have the attention span or you don't.  And some of the added material is pretty good, like the bit with the dogs.  It's all well done.  But I can't really disagree with critics who say it demonizes Salieri too much, with the nude scene and all making him too lecherous, which is kind of off-message with Mozart's genius meant to be his downfall.  And one or two scenes/ edits play a little better in the theatrical cut.  But really, the movie's strengths are still at play in either version.  Idealistically, I always think studios should err on the side of providing all the options, though, so any future release really ought to include both cuts, satisfying the filmmakers and their adherents and purists looking for the original theatrical experience.
But instead it's always been a binary issue.  Warner Bros' original 1997 DVD, now long out of print and very hard to find, was an anamorphic, widescreen but barebones presentation of the theatrical cut as a 2-sided flipper disc (you have to take the disc out and turn it over to watch the second half of the film).  That was followed by the Two-Disc Special Edition in 2002, where they switched to the director's cut.  The two-disc version is a dual-layered disc, so the whole (longer) film plays without flipping or switching discs.  It's also a special edition, with an hour-long documentary on the second disc.  In 2003, there was a limited edition 3-disc set, but it's basically just the same 2-disc set in special packaging.  That third disc is a soundtrack CD.  Then, in 2009, they re-released the old flipper disc in an amary case - meaning back to the theatrical cut and no extras.  Also in 2009, however, WB released their blu-ray edition, which brought back the extras for their HD presentation.  There was a standard edition and a mediabook which also included that soundtrack CD.  But both are the director's cut only; there is no HD release of the theatrical cut available to date.
1) 1997 WB DVD; 2) 2002 WB DVD; 3) 2009 WB DVD; 4) 2009 WB BD.
1) 2002 WB DVD; 2) 2009 WB BD.
(This shot doesn't appear on the '97 and '09 TC DVDs.)
The 2002 and 2009 DVDs are effectively identical.  Oh!  Now we see why I thought that.  😜  Let's start fresh.

The original (and 2009 reissue, which is the same disc), is framed at 2.29:1, which is tweaked to 2.30:1 on the 2002 disc.  But if you look at what's actually in frame, the difference is far greater than a mere .01 in geometry.  It's zoomed in, effectively cutting off parts of the image along the sides and bottom.  Then the BD widens out it out further to 2.41:1.  It doesn't reveal more; the DVDs are just slightly vertically stretched, which the BD corrects.  The flipper DVDs are also, you won't help but notice, considerably more overcast with a warm hue, giving them a much yellower look in the shots above.  The 2002 DVD and BD are clearly using the same root master, with the same corrected colors, but the boost to HD on the blu makes a nice difference, giving a clearer cleaner image with distinctly sharper detail.  With less compression, the colors manage to appear more nuanced and naturalistic, too (look at the flesh tones in the second set of pics, for instance).  That said, even on the BD, grain is light and hinted at more than finely captured, so there's definitely room for this master to be improved with a 4k scan, should one happen.

Audio-wise, they all give us a 5.1 mix with optional English subtitles, in TrueHD on the blu.  The 2002 DVD also had the original stereo mix, though, which the blu-ray again drops.  As far as foreign language options, the DVDs also had a French 5.1 dub and French and Spanish subs.  The blu has a French, Spanish, German and Italian dub (all 5.1) and subtitles in fifteen additional languages.
Now, the 2-disc DVD and the BD have the same extras, while the 1997 and 2009 DVDs have nothing but the trailer, plus a music-only track that actually isn't on the other discs.  The 2002 DVD and the BD have the trailer, but more importantly they have an audio commentary by Forman and writer Peter Shaffer.  It's a good discussion that answers a lot of questions and does a good job filling the entire running time.  Then there's an hour-long 'making of' documentary that talks to Forman, Shaffer, the producer, Hulce, Abraham, Berridge, Jones, Vincent Schiavelli, the music director, the AD, the production designer and choreographer.  It covers some identical ground as the commentary, but otherwise it's excellent and absolutely enough.  I'm not saying I wouldn't appreciate more good extras on another release, but honestly, this is all we really need.
So, WB's blu is a decent placeholder for now.  It looks and sounds fine, and has some great extras.  Don't wait to replace that flipper disc if you're still clinging to that.  But it's an old master, so a 4k restoration would certainly be welcome.  And of course, the chance to get the theatrical cut and the original stereo track in lossless quality would be a real boon.  Hopefully, the 100th Anniversary of Warner Bros will push them to get this and more of their classic titles out in 4k.  But whether they make that deadline or not, Amadeus is a masterpiece, so they really ought to get around to it sooner or later.

16 comments:

  1. Always has been a favorite since I saw it on VHS(!) in music appreciation in college. A 4K would be nice with the two cuts but the Blu upconverts really nicely on a 4k player and TV. Thanks for your review of this classic. One of the times the Academy actually got it right.

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  2. In all honesty, when the title of this article said "Whiter" instead of "Whither," I honestly thought that meant the white balance had been cranked up for the Blu-ray.

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    1. Haha! Well, actually, if you look at the walls in the background of the second set of shots, you can see the better color separation of the blu-ray makes that technically true. The whites are a shade whiter. :P

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  3. Berridge was very attractive as Wolfy's wife. Even she doesn't get the notice of the famous players in this it's a nice performance.

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  4. If the 2009 DVD is a flipper with a music-only track, wouldn't that mean it's a reprint of the 1997 DVD? The cover neglects to mention a "Director's Cut" or additional footage, also.
    I've known WB to quietly reissue their old "theatrical cut" flippers in keepcases before (Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves, The Road Warrior, etc.)

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    1. Good theory! But unfortunately (because it would be nice to have a more accessible release of the theatrical cut) no, it's the director's cut. In fact, that second set of comparison shots is from a scene only in the DC.

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    2. Warners makes my head spin with how arbitrary their reissues are. That makes less sense and more work than repackaging *either* previous DVD

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    3. I have the 2009 DVD. It is a flipper disc, it has an isolated score, it is anamorphic, and most importantly it is the theatrical cut. Not a great image by any means but watchable and the sound is good. It is a reprint of the snapper DVD in a keep case. Runtime on back is 160 minutes not 180.

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    4. Oh wow, it does say that! Still, I'm confident it's the DC when you watch the discs. Also, on the back of the 2009 case it also says Rated R for Brief Nudity, which is only in the DC. The theatrical cut is PG. A way to do a quick check: at 1:14:15 on side A, you'll see that shot from the second set of screenshots that's only in the DC. And it's not just that shot; the whole thing is still the DC. But it sure makes Kevin's point, that WB's treatment of the film at the point doesn't make much sense!

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    5. I'll have to check it out again. All very bizzare I suppose.

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    6. Also, I meant to say the production notes are on the disc too like the isolated score which were on the original disc. Maybe they'll eventually fix all of this in a remastered 4K/Blu ray.

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    7. So it turns you guys were right on the money! I've done some more digging and updated/ corrected the post above. It kept buzzin' me that something had to be off based on how we left this discussion. I really appreciate you guys taking the time to contribute and help get to the bottom of it. It's important to me to keep this site completely Misinformation Free.

      Now let's hope WB releases a UHD and renders all these old discs obsolete anyway! =)

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    8. Certainly, it just seemed to me that the WB *I* know wouldn't go through the trouble of authoring a new DVD in the Blu-ray era (Nowadays, Blu-rays with a new 4Krestoration/encode are more of a coin toss). More credit to Chris for the detective work than my hunch.

      Fingers crossed for a two cut UHD indeed!

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    9. Thanks. Really enjoy the site so glad to help in some way. As an 'Amadeus' fan perhaps one day there will be an ultimate edition like there should be on 'Pat Garrett and Billy the Kid' from Warners too.

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  5. Checked my 2009 flipper disc again. Side A is 1 hour 43 minutes Side B is 57 minutes. Somehow or another it is the theatrical cut at 2 hours 40 minutes and as ancient master it is I find it quite watchable. Thanks for your post on this wonderful movie.

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