Amadeus: Theatrical Cut (HD Reconstruction)

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Faneditor Name:
Original Movie Title:
Fanedit Type:
Original Release Date:
1984
Original Running Time:
180
Fanedit Release Date:
Fanedit Running Time:
160
Time Cut:
27
Time Added:
7
Available in HD?
Brief Synopsis:
The original 160-minute 'Theatrical Cut' of 'Amadeus' that won multiple Oscars and BAFTAs in 1984 only exists on an old poor quality 1998 PAL "flipper" DVD (and Laserdisc and VHS). Every release since then (including all blu-rays) has been the 180-minute 'Director's Cut'. I simply wanted to cut the DC blu-ray to match the TC DVD, so I have both cuts as an option.
Intention:
Cut the blu-ray down to time with the DVD, down to the exact frame. Restore any missing footage with DVD material as seamlessly as possible. Cut the blu-ray commentary down to fit the DVD runtime, for another optional audio track.
Other Sources:
Amadeus - Director's Cut 2009 blu-ray
Amadeus - Theatrical Cut 1998 PAL (Flipper) DVD
The Terminator - 2012 blu-ray
Release Information:
  • Blu-Ray
  • Digital
Special Features
- 22GB 1080p blu-ray (Chapter/Audio Selection and animated Menus)
- 4GB 720p MP4 (1280x534)

Selectable audio tracks:
1. 5.1 Theatrical Soundmix (From DVD)
2. Milos Forman and Peter Shaffer Commentary (From DC blu-ray. Edited to fit)
3. Isolated Score (From DVD)
Editing Details:
- Conformed DC blu-ray frame-by-frame to the old PAL "flipper" TC DVD (which was converted back to film-speed).
- Whenever a cut was made for the DC there tended to be one or two frames spliced. To replace these missing frames I created new ones combining elements from both the DC and TC, then graded and adjusted to match.
- Upscaled TC DVD footage using 'Super-Resolution' in VirtualDub plus various filters in Vegas. It's still way below the clarity of the blu-ray footage but as it only makes up 0.9% of the runtime it's not very distracting. Also graded to remove heavy red-shift and to match blu-ray.
- Edited DC blu-ray commentary track to fit TC runtime. To do this sometimes it meant shifting the audio out of sync with the picture and filling in silences. I felt this was preferable to cutting out parts of the interesting chat.

Cuts and Additions:
00.00.00 - Replaced modern 'Warner Bros' titlecard with original 'Orion Pictures' titlecard from 'The Terminator' blu-ray (Matted from widescreen down to scope).
00.02.57 - Erased additional "Director's Cut" title using the same area from the shot on the TC DVD.
00.03.34 - Erased additional "Kenneth McMillan" credit using the same area from the shot on the TC DVD.
00.13.48 - Added two "new" frames and removed 26-seconds of DC footage.
00.13.49 - Added 2-second shot from TC DVD.
00.13.51 - Added "new" frame.
00.18.46 - Added "new" frame.
00.18.51 - Added "new" frame.
00.21.24 - Added "new" frame.
00.23.48 - Added 4-seconds of TC DVD footage, blended into the DC footage to extend two shots.
00.23.50 - Removed 18-seconds of DC footage.
00.28.59 - Added two "new" frames and removed 4-seconds of DC footage.
00.37.55 - Added two "new" frames.
00.40.55 - Added two "new" frames.
00.46.40 - Added "new" frame and added 2-second shot from TC DVD.
00.46.42 - Added "new" frame and removed 2-minutes of DC footage.
00.46.58 - Added "new" frame and added 2-second shot from TC DVD.
00.47.00 - Added "new" frame and removed 30-seconds of DC footage.
00.47.17 - Added 2 "new" frames and removed 27-seconds of DC footage.
00.51.18 - Added 7-seconds of TC DVD footage, blended into the DC footage to extend two shots.
00.51.24 - Removed 1.5 minutes of DC footage.
00.53.07 - Added two "new" frames.
00.57.28 - Added "new" frame and added 6-seconds of TC DVD footage.
00.57.34 - Added "new" frame and removed 1-minute of DC footage.
00.57.45 - Added "new" frame and removed 5-minutes of DC footage.
00.57.46 - Added 2-seconds of TC DVD footage, blended into the DC footage to extend a shot.
00.57.49 - Added 2-seconds of TC DVD footage, blended into the DC footage to extend a shot.
00.57.51 - Trimmed DC shot by 1-second to match almost identical TC shot
00.58.07 - Added "new" frame.
00.58.25 - Trimmed DC shot by 1-second and added 10-second shot from TC DVD.
00.58.35 - Added "new" frame.
00.59.18 - Reordered all the footage of Mozart welcoming his father back to the way it was and blended in shots/frames from the TC DVD to fill in the gaps. Removed 14-seconds of DC footage.
00.59.56 - Shortened two sots by 6-frames total
01.01.58 - Added two "new" frames.
01.07.52 - Added two "new" frames and removed 4-seconds of DC footage.
01.11.24 - Added "new" frame, removed 40-seconds of DC footage and added 32-seconds of TC DVD footage.
01.11.59 - Added two "new" frames.
01.20.03 - Added two "new" frames.
01.22.11 - Removed 1-second of DC footage and added "new" frame.
01.37.22 - Added "new" frame.
01.42.55 - Removed 7-seconds of blank TC DVD footage (at the DVD flip point) and added two "new" frames.
01.55.01 - Added "new" frame and removed 2.5-minutes of DC footage.
01.55.46 - Removed 6-frames of DC footage.
02.01.09 - Added "new" frame, removed 4-seconds of DC footage and added 3-seconds of TC DVD footage.
02.01.12 - Added "new" frame.
02.16.10 - Added "new" frame.
02.19.36 - Added two "new" frames.
02.34.22 - Replaced 5.5-minutes of DC credits, with 5.5-minutes of TC DVD credits.

Not Changed:
00.02.41 - Not replaced opening titles. They are re-composited very slightly differently for the DC but it's the same text (apart from two places that I fixed), the same font and the same timing as the TC. IMO Leaving in the clean HD versions is infinity preferable to replacing then with frame-accurate but obviously super low-res versions.
00.57.51 - Left in alternate 16-second take of crucifix, as the difference is almost imperceptible IMO (you have to closely compare frames to be sure it's a different take). Trimmed 14 frames.
Blu-Ray Cover art by TM2YC (DOWNLOAD HERE)
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DVD Cover art by theryaney (DOWNLOAD HERE)
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Reconstruction Demo

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9.9(11)
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9.9(11)
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10.0
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10.0
I've been looking for this forever. The Director's Cut stalls the film completely whenever these extra scenes appear, plus change Salieri's motivations as well as ruin the twist/revelation delivered about 2/3 through the film! Since I have no skills in video editing, I'm forever thankful that someone with a similar love for this movie the way it was released has taken the trouble to deliver what is the ONLY way this masterpiece should be watched; by removing 20 min of awfulness to provide us viewers with something Milos Foreman refuses to do. Bravo!

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(Updated: March 26, 2023)
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10.0
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10.0
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10.0
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10.0
This just blew me away. And I'm not easily blown away, given that this is a movie I've seen at least 20 times. So why did this version make such an impact on me? Because the last ten or so times I've seen the film it's been in the "director's cut" format. I've always suspected that the DC was a massive dis-improvement on the theatrical cut (which I saw on its release in 1984 and many times before that version was withdrawn in 2002). The extra scenes in the DC seemed to add nothing, and often seemed actually to do damage. At best, the extra 20 minutes made a film that in its original form was long but didn't seem it (its 2hrs 40 flew by) suddenly feel every minute of its 3hrs. So I was already suspicious of the DC. But it's only now that I see the original again that I realise not just how much better it is than the DC, but what a masterpiece it is in its own right. I had begun to think of the film as merely "very good". It's not "very good". It is sublime. It really is a contender for the title of best movie ever made. Everything about it - the plot, the dialogue, the astonishing visuals and, of course, the music - is just off the scale. But it's only in this version that you can really appreciate that.

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A flawless reconstruction. While watching I couldn't tell what was cut or added, or where. It's a testament the talent of TM2YC that, considering this was first released in 2017, the upscaling was unnoticeable. As a prior reviewer wrote the pace is a little faster, but it gives it a musical, buoyant rhythm. Highly recommended.

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The Czech Black Wave's great gift to cinema was art-house trappings and themes mixed with baudy and dark humour, and Milos Forman, the movement's most famous member, has always been a crowd-pleaser who is willing to push boundaries. So when I finally got Amadeus on Blu-ray years ago, I was disappointed at what a slog it was, from the director of so many favourites of mine, including the brisk yet crushing "One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest." So I'm really pleased to finally experience the original, Oscar-winning cut of the movie that feels much more like a Forman movie, and speeds by at a raucous, bawdy and hilariously dark pace suitable for its subject. Unsurprisingly, TM2YC has handled the material beautifully and this edit deserves a place on any film lover's shelf, next to your Jiri Menzel or Dusan Makavejev collection.

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One would have hoped that such a project was unnecessary but it's nonetheless a superb piece of work: conforming of the source material to the shorter version is seamless with no distractions that would drag somebody out of the narrative, it's a long film but doesn't feel it at all.

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