Amadeus Blogathon: A Brief Introduction

So, a couple of months ago a few friends and I got into a discussion about Milos Forman’s Amadeus. It seemed to us to be one of the great “Oscar” movies – a grand, award-winning entertainment that was also a genuine work of art. But it was clear that not everyone felt this way. Indeed, Amadeus often pops up on some folks’ lists of the less-deserving Best Picture winners, and it had many detractors at the time of its release as well, particularly among highbrow critics. (We’ll be getting into this a bit with a couple of our pieces.)

So, why not do an Amadeus blogathon, we asked ourselves? To discuss the film in its many aspects – some obvious (say, F. Murray Abraham’s Oscar-winning performance, which, sorry, only a profound cynic could fail to admire) and some not so obvious (you’ll see). That’s when this mildly cracked idea was born.

Now, because blogathons are usually reserved not for individual films but for broader subjects (say, a film genre, or a director’s overall body of work), this is by necessity a smaller endeavor. Over the next several days, we will publish these pieces – on our own sites and blogs for those of us that have them, and on others’ for those that don’t. I’ll keep track of everything here, in a post that will be refreshed regularly at the top of the page.

I didn’t much publicize this blogathon ahead of time -- this is my first time organizing something like this -- but anyone who feels the desire to participate should feel free to, obviously, and if they send me a quick note I’ll be happy to include them among my links.