SOURCE: Kauffmann, Stanley. “Stanley Kauffmann on Films: Divertimento.” New Republic 191, no. 173 (22 October 1984): 30-2.

In the following review, Kauffmann argues that although Amadeus is an improvement over the original play, the film is still implausible and poorly acted.

Lucky are those who see the film of Amadeus without having seen the play. Peter Shaffer's original was markedly different in the London and New York productions that I saw, but both of them used theatrical conceits as if they were virtuosity, when in fact they were padding for a thin body—tricks like an address to the audience and a stylized chorus. Shorn of this spurious decor, the film fares somewhat better.

Shaffer's screenplay, which was worked out with the director, Milos Forman, is a more straightforward narrative; it goes on too long and it heaves toward a dreadfully contrived climax, but in the main it's a visually lively piece...