Instead of Great Expectations (1946), I focus on Amadeus (1984), a great movie that was released in my birth year. I meant to post it on Wednesday (since it’s my big day) but the time was strict. So here it is…

“I heard the music of true forgiveness filling the theater, conferring on all who sat there, perfect absolution. God was singing through this little man to all the world, unstoppable, making my defeat more bitter with every passing bar.”

Adapted from a staged play, Amadeus (1984) opens its story from elderly mentally ill Antonio Salieri (F. Murray Abraham) who attempts to kill himself in an asylum, claiming that he have killed Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart. After a priest comes to him to offer him forgiveness from God if he confesses, Salieri who first act half-heartedly towards the idea, starts telling his life story since child.

Salieri adores Mozart who have shown musical talent since child and thinks he must have been an incredible person. Unlike Mozart who received full support from his father, Salieri’s father dislikes Salieri’s dream to be a great music composer. When his father died from his ‘request’, he was free to begin his dreams from smaller jobs into a court composer for Holy Roman Emperor. Salieri is pretty excited when the opportunity to meet Mozart comes, as Mozart was invited to play in Vienna. But evidently, as Salieri studies him, Mozart (Tom Hulce) appears to be un-discipline and lewd. Salieri wonders why God created a musical genius that turned out to be a horrible man.

Envy grows in Salieri as Mozart continues to show his genius talent and passion, flirts with his love interest, and laughs at his musical mediocrity. Salieri experience emotional struggle when his envy grows strongly but he believes in God. He questions what God intend to do with him about Mozart’s existence in his life. But his negative mind starts to win when he creates bad rumours to Mozart so he wouldn’t get any job offers. Salieri’s bad influence to him is supported by Mozart’s bad lifestyle as he marry Constanze (Elizabeth Berridge) without his father’s approval, unpractical with his money spending and parties a lot. Salieri continues to purposely do harmful things for Mozart while Mozart thinks of him as a great partner, until Salieri have the biggest evil plan that ultimately could vanish the poor Mozart.

Amadeus was nothing like I imagined, it was presented to be partly funny which made it digestable to the heavy Emperor background and dramatic music background. It was very interesting to see Salieri’s mind struggle. He was faithful to his God, but his faith was shaken with Mozart’s existence. It was perfectly portrayed by F. Murray Abraham, who won Academy Awards for this role. The very interesting part is his relationship with Mozart; he hates him for being a genius but unable to control his life, but at the same time he was the only person who understands him musically. Not to mention, he adores him too. It was a mind poison that I think everyone must’ve experienced in life at least once. It was a rather brave gesture to made Mozart portrayed to be a comical and childish man, but thankfully they didn’t leave out his excellent musical talent and passion.

The other genius part of this movie was, we could see how genius Mozart was from Salieri’s enviness towards him. Although Mozart was described to have a bad management to his own life and family, we could see his passion to his music and vision. I thought, that’s why actors and musicians have their own management. Talent is nothing without good management. Many geniuses was tortured by their own creative mind, and it was presented in Amadeus. But parts of the story was fictional and was created for the movie’s dramatic story.

Because Mozart created opera musicals, there were many opera music and plays but it wasn’t presented to be monotonous. Instead, many music notes Mozart brilliantly made pointed in the dialogues and Salieri’s narration. The only minor thing I felt (but it was covered by the brilliance of this movie) was it felt rather American than Europe for several actors, like Tom Hulce as Mozart and Elizabeth Berridge as Mozart’s wife.

As for the moral of the story, like I said before, in this modern time where we compete in many things, it’s a movie we could all relate. Some people could be very competitive it screws up their mind, like Salieri did. Winning or have a peaceful mind, it’s just all comes back to the person.

Overall, Amadeus is a great music biography, not at all heavy like I thought. Although the Director’s cut version that I watched have 180 minutes running time, it didn’t felt long. It gets interesting as the story goes. Directed by Miloš Forman, it has won 8 Oscars and it is one of the movie in the top 250 IMDB.

Movie Score :

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