Any article about must address the elephant in the opera house: the two versions.

Salieri, a devout and disciplined musician, enjoys the favor of Emperor Joseph II. He is successful, respected, and rational. Then, Mozart arrives in Vienna. Played by Tom Hulce with a feral, giggling energy, this Mozart is not a polished genius. He is a crass, impulsive, scatological child-man who composes breathtaking operas in his head while playing billiards and making crude jokes with his wife, Constanze.

Purists argue the Director’s Cut slows the rhythm. Fans of the original 1984 release claim the theatrical cut is the perfect film. Regardless of which version you watch, the emotional crescendo remains the same: Mozart, penniless and poisoned (traditionally believed by the film to be via mercury by Salieri), dictating his final masterpiece to his rival.

To Salieri’s horror, Mozart is not a dignified artist. He is a crude, loud, childish, and irreverent young man who giggles uncontrollably, crawls on the floor with his fiancée Constanze, and uses scatological humor. Salieri is disgusted but also intrigued.

Salieri hears of a musical prodigy, Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart (Tom Hulce), who is touring Europe with his domineering father, Leopold. Salieri is eager to meet this divine genius. At a royal reception, he encounters Mozart for the first time.

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The film opens in a decaying Vienna asylum in 1823. An elderly Antonio Salieri (F. Murray Abraham) slits his own throat while chanting a "Requiem." Rescued but broken, he confesses his sins to a young priest. "I was the patron saint of mediocrity," Salieri whispers.

Mozart, delirious, dictates the last sections of the Requiem to Salieri. As he finishes the "Lacrimosa" (the tearful day of judgment), he stops. He speaks of the death of his father, of his own impending death, and then falls unconscious. The next day, Mozart dies. He is buried in a commoner’s pauper’s grave, unmarked, as Salieri looks on.