Several of the choices for Best Picture in 1984 were unexpectedly good ones. A Passage to India, while far from David Lean's best work is a reminder of the great filmmaker who had disappeared during the 1970s. (I've written about why that might have happened in an article on pauline Kael.) The Killing Fields is a superb film that I still can't get out of my mind after twenty years. And I've always loved A Soldier's Story another example of the great filmmaking Norman Jewison was possible.
With all that said the Oscars decision to honor Amadeus was indeed the case of the right decision. Milos Forman rarely gets considered among the greatest directors of all time despite having won thre Oscar twice for two films that are unequivocably masterpeices, being part of the Czech wave of movie makers and making some truly great films well into his eighties. Maybe its because unlike the other directors of the 1970s (I'm thinking of Altman and Coppola in particular) he never embraced the label of auteur. There's no real similarities between Cuckoo's Nest and Amadeus save their incredible quality as masterpieces. (Both of these films along with Forman's early work The Fireman's Ball made into Ebert's second book of Great Films, a credit to his skill.)
As a classical music fan I know all too well that this movie is purely fiction better than the average viewer of the film. What is is the story of a man who was preceived as a genius in his lifetime who knows that he is a fool compared to a true one and that the rest of the world doesn't recognize it.
I actually think the description of Mozart as a stunted adult by Hulce is actually the right one. Mozart was so gifted as a child that his father thought it was his obligation to make him perform for the world. And there's an argument that it screwed him up for a life. It might be a bit of a reach to see Miley Cyrus or Britney Spears as Mozart but the entire history of hollywood and pop music is littered with performers who were successful as juveniles and it destroyed their ability to function as an adult. Schaffer wouldn't have known today's culture but maybe his Mozart is modeled as much on the members of the 27 club - Morrison or Hendrix, staggering through performances, barely able to work in polite society, not sober most of the time. And we all know how much their stars shown brighter for dying young.
Abraham's career has, if anything, harder then Hulce's. The Oscar did nothing to make him a leading man and he never quite even moved among a character actor. I'm grateful that in the last decade that, like many other actors, he's found more work in television - his recurring role on Homeland throughout its run was fascinating and was a constant highlight of the show even when it flagged. He also seems to have gottena second wind in the films of Wes Anderson who is an actors director - Abraham can play the voice of rason well now.
Like the man who is ostensibly the subject of it Amadeus will be rememebered as one of the masterpieces in cinema for years.