On 2.25 WHE will release a 4K Bluray of Milos Forman‘s Amadeus (’84).

The Amazon page says the 4K runs 158 minutes, or three minutes shorter than the version that played in theatres 40 years ago.

On 9.24.02 Forman introduced an R-rated version with nearly 20 minutes of restored footage — a so-called Director’s Cut. Since that time or 22 years ago, the Director’s Cut has been the only available version of the film, as the producers modified the original film negative to include the additional footage. The new 4K is the first time that the original theatrical cut has been available on home video. The longer Forman cut will be included in the 4K package.

“The Tom Hulce Factor,” posted on 11.27.23:

“As much as I respect Milos Forman‘s Amadeus (’84), I haven’t had the slightest desire to rewatch it over the last 40 years. This is due to my profound, never-forgotten loathing for Tom Hulce‘s performance as Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart. Not to mention that awful white lion’s-mane wig that he wore.

But if I could somehow re-experience my viewing of the B’way stage version with Ian McKellen and Peter Firth, I would do so repeatedly.

From “Respect for Milos Forman,” posted on 4.4.18: “Sometime in ’81 I saw Peter Shaffer‘s Amadeus at the Broadhurst, and revelled in Ian McKellen and Peter Firth‘s performance as Salieri and Mozart. It was such a huge, radiant high that I had difficulty adjusting to Milos Forman’s film version, which opened in September ’84.

“It was a handsome, well-crafted thing and a Best Picture Oscar champ, of course, and like everyone else I…well, appreciated F. Murray Abraham‘s Salieri. But Forman’s film just didn’t have that same snap and pizazz, and I hated Thomas Hulce‘s giggly-geek performance as Mozart and flat-out despised Elizabeth Berridge‘s bridge-and-tunnel performance as Constanze Mozart (i.e., she called her husband “Wolfie”).

“Amadeus is a good film but the play was much better.”