3. Amadeus
Warner BrothersTo be totally fair, no one's going to sit down to Amadeus's already quite substantial run time of 158 minutes and think, "God, you know what I really wish? That this movie was longer." Regardless, there's a great deal of material to pillage in Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart's short but incredibly prolific life, and his (admittedly one-sided) rivalry with the tremendously dedicated musician Salieri. How painful must it be for a man utterly devoted to music to sit and watch another succeed, almost without effort, where he never could? No matter how much Salieri loves music, he will never possess the mad genius of Mozart, and that eats away at him. The theatrical release does an admirable job of showcasing this dynamic, but it neglects other aspects of the story. The director's cut, which added about twenty minutes of additional footage, puts a stronger focus on Mozart's deteriorating mental state, which included bouts of depression throughout his later life. It also highlights the complicated relationship between Salieri and Mozart's wife Constanze. All of this gives the film a richer palette, and brings in a certain darkness that balances out the histrionics Mozart displays throughout the proceedings.