Quartile rating: 8.5/10 · 1 rating
On Quartile, Amadeus scores 8.5/10 across five categories — strongest on Plot (Well Above Average), weakest on Cinematography (Above Average).
Ranked among Quartile’s Top Plot, Top Acting.
Disciplined Italian composer Antonio Salieri becomes consumed by jealousy and resentment towards the hedonistic and remarkably talented young Salzburger composer Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart.
Amadeus is a towering dramatic achievement. The plot — Salieri's tortured mediation on divine injustice, talent, and envy — is genuinely riveting and psychologically rich, earning a 4. The acting is exceptional: F. Murray Abraham's Salieri is one of cinema's great performances, and Tom Hulce's Mozart is electric and unpredictable, solidly a 4. Cinematography is lush and period-appropriate but not particularly groundbreaking — a competent, handsome 3. Novelty is very high: this is a singular film in conception, framing genius through the eyes of mediocrity, blending historical drama with dark psychological comedy and magnificent music in a wholly distinctive voice — a 4. The ending, while emotionally resonant and thematically fitting with Salieri's bitter legacy monologue, is slightly drawn out and somewhat predictable in its tragic arc — a solid 3.