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AMADEUS
Originally Released: 1984
Starring: Tom
Hulce
Actors: F.
Murray Abraham Elizabeth
Berridge Jeffrey
Jones
Director: Milos
Forman
Rated: PG (MPAA)
Run Length: 158 min
Reviewed by Peter Veugelaers © 2001
- Words escape me ... ecstasy
This is superbly acted, technically
outstanding and a densely literate and challenging exploration of the dark side of the human
soul, and the soul’s demise, although is not so much about the life of Mozart and his
contemporaries. This is where historical and artistic license is evident. Mozart was never
so brazen (he was a man of intellectual and political standing); Salieri, his court composer
and compeer, never so jealous.
One Flew over the
Cuckoo’s Nest
director Milos
Forman’s portrayal of Mozart is therefore more than a bio pic: it goes deeper into the condition of
the human soul. Based on Peter Shaffer’s play, Amadeus, although historically suspect, is a
character-driven literate drama of jealousy, deception and murder.
Salieri, as an old
man, confined to an asylum, confesses to a priest about his tormented life before God, his
contemporaries and his relationship with himself. After attempting suicide, he is perplexed with
remorse and guilt over being party to the death of Mozart. “For the first time I began to think
really violent thoughts”, Salieri conveys to the listening priest. The real question in Salieri’s
mind is how God could bless such an uncouth adulterer and drunk with the talent for producing
“divine” music. Salieri wants the glory, but Mozart (“that thing” and “trained monkey” as Salieri
calls him) receives the accolades.
Amadeus
absorbingly and
movingly portrays the destruction of Salieri through jealously and hatred
towards God, although at the same time Mozart self-destructs through alcohol, sex, sickness and
parties. The character studies are deftly handled: complex and subtle nuances about the
contradictions of their personalities add strength to the lavishly mounted costume drama.
Although set
in history, and bogus history at that, the human drama depicted is universal in that of the
human condition - the feelings, emotions and dilemmas associated with it. This is one of the
finer attempts at exposing those human aberrations; it is packed with a strong recurrent
underlying tragedy of the human emotion of jealously adding potency when set around a
religious parameter (Salieri’s faith in God is tested when he can’t compete with Mozart’s
music ability).
Laden with
beautiful music but dark and morose in dramatic tone, the conclusion of the film is profound,
moving, and chilling for we have seen the film mainly through sympathising with Salieri.
Notes:
 Shot
on location in Prague, Czechoslovakia.
AMADEUS is number 53 on the American Film Institute's list of America's 100
Greatest Movies.
The opera sets were designed by Josef Svoboda.
The staging of DON GIOVANNI in the film was shot at the Tyl Theater, the actual
site where Mozart conducted the opera's premiere some 200 years earlier.
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