Review of Amadeus

Extraordinary! On the page it looked nothing! The beginning simple, almost comic. Just a pulse. And then, suddenly, high above it, beautiful music. A single note, hanging there, unwavering. Until a clarinet took it over, sweetened it into a phrase of such delight! This was no composition by a performing monkey! This was a music I had never heard. Filled with such longing, such unfulfillable longing. It seemed to me that I was hearing the voice of God. Director Milos Forman's Best Picture winning drama was indeed a masterpiece. Based on Peter Shaffer's extravagant 1980 Broadway play with the same name. The film tells a fictionalized biography of tortured genius and Viennese child prodigy Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart (Tom Hulce). Also, the story was presented in a way that was very unique at the time. It was through the eyes of fellow jealous composer Antonio Salieri (F. Murray Abraham) who finds the deeply crude and childish behavior of Mozart, unworthy of such praise. Driven by his attempt to outshine Mozart, Salieri must find a way to gain the audience of the Austrian Aristocrats, before it's too late. Without spoiling the movie, too much, a lot of people had complain that this movie wasn't historical accuracy. In my opinion, a lot of this criticize wasn't needed. To the film credit, Amadeus never claims to be a true story. It's normal for films like this, to sometimes diverge from historical facts in order to explore more fundamental and universal human issues and to achieve a dramatic effect. Yet, the film had more fact than fiction than most people are willing to taken. It did a lot of homework to get, as accuracy as possible. So, when I hear, some of the main complains that the critics point out about the film. I had to question, their short-temper justice. I felt like they were misinform. Many of the so-call historical inaccuracies were somewhat true. It's true that Antonio Salieri later claims he killed Mozart. Even Mozart toward the end of his life, swears that he's believe that he been poison, but in terms of Salieri doing it; its indeed historical fiction; due to the fact that most historians dismissed his mad ravings with that of a person whom clearly had his sanity deteriorated & the fact that Mozart fell ill while in Prague on Sept 6. 1791 where Salieri was clearly not there. Another claim, these critics spoke of, is how the film, portray a masked man wanting to commissioned a requiem from him in order to steal his work. In truth, it was very likely at the time for people to anonymously commissioned requiems from famous composers and pass them as them, off; but there was no reason why Salieri needed to. After all, his music was a lot more popular at the time, than Mozart. It wasn't, because Mozart was lazy. It was, because he was a fading child star, who had drug problems which both historians and film critics fail to notice that kept him working. I thought that Tom Hulce's immature performance as Mozart was very accuracy as it was very well documented that the composer had those characteristic traits even if it's a little exaggerated. However, the ever-present, idiotic giggle does get a little too annoying at times. About the fact that Salieri and Mozart were fighting for certain imperial jobs, it was true, but the reason why Mozart was never given a position on the emperor's courts, wasn't, because Salieri's envy of Mozart, but the fact, that Mozart's music doesn't sound typical 'Galant' & he wasn't noble. There was no reason why Salieri really needed to steal his work, as he was rich enough, and Mozart's work was a little too controversial at the time for basing works on Austrian's past banned materials and not being tradition. About Mozart's constant embarrassment of Salieri, such as seducing Salieri's lover, Catarina Cavalieri (Christine Ebersole). There is no evidence that Mozart slept with her. In reality, it is very likely that Salieri slept with Catarina, as it was generally known, at the time, that she was his mistress, and if they were still together years after 'The Abduction from the Seraglio'. If anything, Mozart and Salieri were, if not best of friends, at least on peaceable terms with one another, when it comes to sexual and musical conquest. He wasn't a saint at all. He even educated Mozart's younger son Franz Xaver Mozart, after the composer death. While, yes it's true that Mozart's work outlive, Salieri. It wasn't because Mozart work was better than Salieri. It was, because German nationalism began to take shape in Vienna with the birth of Romantic nationalism during the Napoleonic Wars. Italians were often view, as scapegoat of the war since Napoleon was one; thus Italian culture like it's music was somewhat banned from most European cultures during the mid19th century. This short ban, cause hits like Salieri to be nearly forgotten. It wasn't until, the late 20th century that most of Salieri's work was reintroduce into western culture with this film. The film was well-received by both critics and audiences alike with its lavish set and period costume design, music, visuals, and its acting. If the film had any faults, it would be the fact that the movie has pacing problems. It's way too damn long. 2h 40min is too much. It could had been cut down. Ultimately, the 1984 awards were monopolized by Amadeus with eight wins: Best Picture, Best Actor (F. Murray Abraham), Best Director, Best Screenplay Adaptation, Best Art/Set Direction, Best Sound, Best Costume Design, and Best Makeup. It became the 7th film in Oscar history to win eight Oscars. Overall: It's visually interesting, has dramatic intrigue acting from F. Murray Abraham, hilarious comedy, and introduced people to a part of history that was phenomenally fascinating and surprising, mostly true. I highly recommended this film.