amadeus movie summary essay

“Amadeus” Film Analysis and Interpretation Essay (Movie Review)

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The AMADEUS (1984) film is the best motion picture regarding the creation and the creator. The film director is Milos Froman and Peter Shaffer, the screenwriter who is significantly involved in crafting the film and Saul Zaentz Company produced the movie focusing on the relationship between Mozart and Salieri.

It begins in Vienna in 1823 as the older man is crying out of having killed Mozart and attempting to commit suicide. The movie majorly involves Mozart and Salieri (dominant characters) in the film and the other characters, such as the father, Vogler. They made the film become a powerful drama and with a commanding score. The film introduces the audience to the actual scene as the producer begins the movie with the music accompanying the visual presentation of the first scenes. Besides, it involves exciting actions that introduce the characters with dramatic scenes through crying and taking some meals while running to a room. The film brings the history of work in the 18th century from how music manifested during the period. It helps the audience to focus back on how things used to look in comparison to present productions. Considering the actions from the film, it depicts the intention of the film writer and producer to the audience from the first eye because it entailed a visual explanation of the relationship between Mozart and Salieri.

The movie has a plot based on the fiction account of the relationship between Mozart and Salieri. The film won the academy awards with the best picture, which involved the best drama. I enjoyed the scene from the beginning, and the writer used relevant music that could attract the audience’s attention. Besides, I was impressed when Salieri first saw Mozart; he chased a woman to a room to flirt with her and then finds himself in the same room with the woman and Mozart. The scene is theatrical and expresses the poor relationship that is depicted between the two dominant characters. Therefore, I can recommend people to watch it riveting and contains moral lessons for the audience.

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Milos Forman’s “Amadeus” is one of the riskiest gambles a filmmaker has taken in a long time — a lavish movie about Mozart that dares to be anarchic and saucy, and yet still earns the importance of tragedy. This movie is nothing like the dreary educational portraits we’re used to seeing about the Great Composers, who come across as cobwebbed profundities weighed down with the burden of genius. This is Mozart as an eighteenth-century Bruce Springsteen , and yet (here is the genius of the movie) there is nothing cheap or unworthy about the approach.

“Amadeus” is not only about as much fun as you’re likely to have with a movie, it also is disturbingly true. The truth enters in the character of Salieri, who tells the story. He is not a great composer, but he is a good enough composer to know greatness when he hears it, and that is why the music of Mozart breaks his heart. He knows how good it is, he sees how easily Mozart seems to compose it, and he knows that his own work looks pale and silly beside it.

The movie begins with the suggestion that Salieri might have murdered Mozart. The movie examines the ways in which this possibility might be true, and by the end of the film we feel a certain kinship with the weak and jealous Salieri — for few of us can identify with divine genius, but many of us probably have had dark moments of urgent self-contempt in the face of those whose effortless existence illustrates our own inadequacies. Salieri, played with burning intensity by F. Murray Abraham, sits hunched in a madhouse confessing to a priest. The movie flashes back to his memories of Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, the child genius who composed melodies of startling originality and who grew up to become a prolific, driven artist.

One of the movie’s wisest decisions is to cast Mozart not as a charismatic demigod, not as a tortured superman, but as a goofy, immature, likable kid with a ridiculous laugh. The character is played by Tom Hulce , and if you saw “ National Lampoon's Animal House ,” you may remember him as the fraternity brother who tried to seduce the mayor’s daughter, while an angel and a devil whispered in his ears. Hulce would seem all wrong for Mozart, but he is absolutely right, as an unaffected young man filled with delight at his own gifts, unaware of how easily he wounds Salieri and others, tortured only by the guilt of having offended his religious and domineering father.

The film is constructed in wonderfully well-written and acted scenes — scenes so carefully constructed, unfolding with such delight, that they play as perfect compositions of words. Most of them will be unfamiliar to those who have seen Peter Shaffer’s brooding play, on which this film is based; Shaffer and Forman have brought light, life, and laughter to the material, and it plays with grace and ease. It’s more human than the play; the characters are people, not throbbing packages of meaning. It centers on the relationships in Mozart’s life: with his father, his wife, and Salieri. The father never can be pleased, and that creates an undercurrent affecting all of Mozart’s success. The wife, played by delightful, buxom Elizabeth Berridge , contains in one person the qualities of a jolly wench and a loving partner: She likes to loll in bed all day, but also gives Mozart good, sound advice and is a forceful person in her own right. The patrons, especially Joseph II, the Austro-Hungarian emperor, are connoisseurs and dilettantes, slow to take to Mozart’s new music but enchanted by the audacity with which he defends it. And then there is Salieri (F. Murray Abraham), the gaunt court composer whose special torture is to understand better than anybody else how inadequate he is, and how great Mozart is.

The movie was shot on location in Forman’s native Czechoslovakia, and it looks exactly right; it fits its period comfortably, perhaps because Prague still contains so many streets and squares and buildings that could be directly from the Vienna of Mozart’s day.

Perhaps his confidence in his locations gave Forman the freedom to make Mozart slightly out of period. Forman directed the film version of “ Hair ,” and Mozart in this movie seems to share a spirit with some of the characters from “Hair.” Mozart’s wigs do not look like everybody else’s. They have just the slightest suggestion of punk, just the smallest shading of pink. Mozart seems more a child of the 1960s than of any other age, and this interpretation of his personality — he was an irreverent proto-hippie who trusted, if you will, his own vibes — sounds risky, but works.

I have not mentioned the music. There’s probably no need to. The music provides the understructure of the film, strong, confident, above all, clear in a way that Salieri’s simple muddles only serve to illustrate. There are times when Mozart speaks the words of a child, but then the music says the same things in the language of the gods, and all is clear.

“Amadeus” is a magnificent film, full and tender and funny and charming — and, at the end, sad and angry, too, because in the character of Salieri it has given us a way to understand not only greatness, but our own lack of it. This movie’s fundamental question, I think, is whether we can learn to be grateful for the happiness of others, and that, of course, is a test for sainthood. How many movies ask such questions and succeed in being fun, as well?

Roger Ebert

Roger Ebert was the film critic of the Chicago Sun-Times from 1967 until his death in 2013. In 1975, he won the Pulitzer Prize for distinguished criticism.

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The following analysis reveals a comprehensive look at the Storyform for Amadeus . Unlike most of the analysis found here—which simply lists the unique individual story appreciations—this in-depth study details the actual encoding for each structural item. This also means it has been incorporated into the Dramatica Story Expert application itself as an easily referenced contextual example.

SYNOPSIS: "The incredible story of Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, told by his peer and secret rival Antonio Salieri - now confined to an insane asylum."  Synopsis Source: IMDB.com

Story Dynamics

8 of the 12 essential questions

Once he declares his war, his intent to destroy Mozart, he remains steadfast to the end. He had offered to trade a recommendation to the Emperor on Mozart’s behalf if Constanze will have sex with him. After he declares his war, he isn’t interested. He tells us, “I wanted nothing petty…..My quarrel wasn’t with Mozart. It was through him! Through him to God, who loved him so.” As Salieri listens to the “Magic Flute,” he finds that a bit of pity might be entering his heart, but he resolves, “Never!” In the end, Salieri even attempts to take his own life to spite God’s punishment- that is, Salieri’s lack of recognition.

Salieri must Stop Mozart, his music, his fame. He must stop God in His choice of Mozart as His Voice. He must stop his own adherence to his part of the bargain he made with God.

Salieri prefers to deal with his world indirectly, internally. He manipulates his world. He waits years to get the job of First Kappelmeister. He is willing to flatter; to be self-deprecating. Even with Mozart, in his war with God, he prefers to manipulate those around him rather than challenge Mozart directly. When he has the opportunity to sleep with Constanze, he refuses, preferring to adapt to his new sense of his world. This harkens back to his statements that he always wanted to sleep with his pretty students, but because of his bargain with God, he had to be chaste.

Salieri solves his problems using cause and effect techniques. Once he has perceived Mozart as the problem, he methodically begins his years long campaign of destruction. And he is sure that it will result in resolving the problem.

From the outset, as the play is a memory, we see that Salieri made a decision to oppose Mozart. All the action follows, including Salieri’s decision to tell us the story as “Ghosts of the Future!” He also decides to attempt suicide. In the objective story, the Emperor decides to change his habit and visit a rehearsal of “Figaro.” This results in the Emperor restoring a dance which the Director of Opera to the court had removed. The Director, Rosenberg, becomes Mozart’s enemy. Also, Mozart decides to go against his father and marry Constanze, resulting in his father refusing further financial assistance.

Salieri has run out of options to further Mozart’s ruin, so he contrives to impersonate the ghost of Mozart’s father to frighten Mozart to death. At the end of the story, he attempts suicide to outwit God.

Salieri is ultimately able to contribute to Mozart’s death. However, it does not resolve his problem. Mozart’s music continues past his death. Salieri is praised for work which he knows is “mediocre.” He ultimately attempts suicide to resolve the problem, and he fails at that.

Salieri’s defeat is total, and he is both forgotten as a composer, and thought by the public to be insane. He never resolves his conflict of faith. It is his destruction.

Overall Story Throughline

"War Against God"

The play is a memory play. It is fixed in Salieri’s mind. This is his recollection, his argument, his justification. However, within the objective story, the characters are fixed in their attitudes. The Court is fixed in its ways, the Emperor is fixed in his ways. Salieri is fixed in his desire for fame. Mozart is fixed in his personality and his thinking. Even Constanze is fixed in her regard for Mozart, and her desire to help him.

Mozart is constantly comparing his life in the play to his life as a child. The Emperor tells stories of Mozart from his memory. He even asks before telling an oft-told story to the court if he has told the story before. His courtiers always respond that it is the first time they have heard it. The members of the court defend their status quo by comparing “current” life to the past. Music is compared to what has gone before.

Salieri lived his entire life believing he was secure in his bargain with God. He is distressed to find that the true voice of God seems to emanate from “an obscene child.” He struggles with his perception of God’s falsehood. He therefore creates as much falsehood about Mozart as possible. He seeks to take any truth and point out a falsehood about it. He is the single character in the play who knows the truth of Mozart’s music, and yet he focuses on creating a false picture of the music. Clearly, Salieri could choose at any time to show the world the truth about Mozart’s music, but he chooses to stay in falsehood.

Salieri is driven to destroy Mozart because of the nature of his agreement with God. He asked to be a composer, with just enough fame to enjoy it. This he has. But the advent of Mozart upsets the balance. Salieri feels betrayed by the very balance he finds himself in. Further, in the rest of the objective story, the Court is suffocating under a balance that the principles seek to maintain. It is Mozart who sees this and attempts to change the status quo. Ironically, Mozart has already upset Salieri’s status quo.

If Salieri were able to accept the inequity of talent between Mozart and himself, the objective story problems would be resolved.

Salieri looks to the future to see the impact of Mozart’s music. He draws the conclusion that his course of action will destroy Mozart, ensure his own fame, and defeat God. Mozart complains of where his life is headed without money; without his father’s help. Even the Court ministers focus on what they are sure will be the result of giving into Mozart’s demands.

From the outset, the objective characters speculate on Mozart, his music, his effect on the Court. The author has even included two characters called Venticelli, whose purpose is to spread gossip and speculation. Salieri comments to the audience how important it is to keep up with the current rumors. Salieri falsely uses speculation with Mozart to assure him that the Masons will like “The Magic Flute.” Mozart speculates on the significance of the appearance of The Ghost. He and his wife are continually at odds as to what the future holds.

Salieri’s realization of the truth about Mozart’s music starts the story toward its conclusion. When Salieri reads the manuscripts, he sees how perfect Mozart’s music is. When the Masons learn the truth about “The Magic Flute,” they shun Mozart. At the end of his life Salieri realizes the truth about God’s vengeance. It moves him to attempt suicide.

Salieri is tied to the Court of Joseph II. He must work within the boundaries of that court. He knows the Emperor likes Mozart, so he must work within the situation to achieve his ends. All the members of the Court have to maintain their position, their situation, above all else.

We watch the changes in Salieri as he gives in to his desires. We see Mozart fall further into his fears. The Emperor’s court is manipulated into their own justifications for turning their backs on Mozart.

Additional Overall Story Information →

Antonio Salieri describes his memory of the events leading up to the death of Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart. When Salieri discovers that Mozart, not he, has been chosen to be God’s voice through music, Salieri declares war on God, and uses Mozart as the battlefield. He succeeds in destroying Mozart, but fails to stop Mozart’s music which torments him until the end of his life.

Main Character Throughline

Antonio Salieri — Composer to Court of Emperor Joseph

The play is the story of Antonio Salieri’s manipulation of Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart and the Court of Emperor Joseph of Austria. The play shows us not only the depths of his manipulation, but also the evolution of the attitudes of the people in the Court. Salieri successfully manipulates Mozart’s death. But he fails to contain the music or Mozart’s fame.

Salieri continually tries to find ways to thwart Mozart, and win his war with God. As conditions change, he must change his tack and come up with new ideas.

The action of the play is driven by the contrast of the man Salieri thought himself to be with the man he is willing to become. He behaved in a rigidly moral way as a part of his bargain with God until he realized he was not able to write Divine music like Mozart.

Salieri is “the only man alive in this time who shall clearly recognize Your (God’s) Incarnation.” This is the source of his problem. Mozart has superior ability in music and the ability to be the “Voice of God” in his music, which renders Salieri jealous beyond imagining.

Salieri gives in to his worldly desires to win the war with God. His desire to be God’s voice is stripped from him and he gives into the desire to defeat God.

Salieri continually projects what will happen next. When he made his childhood bargain with God he decided what his future would be. When Mozart arrives, he begins to see what the changes will be. When he hears the music, he becomes focused on stopping the music. He knows that the music will always remind him of his own mediocrity, so it must be stopped. He projects the result of every action he takes, hoping that he can stop Mozart.

Salieri speculates that if he can stop Mozart, he can stop the music. This is a mistake, but he stays pointed in this direction.

It is Salieri’s coming into the flourishing of his true self that allows him to achieve his goal of destroying Mozart. Ironically, it is his unique ability to hear the voice of God in the music that is at the heart of Salieri. It is not enough to hear it, he must be the one to create it, or he must destroy the one who can.

Salieri sees that he is flourishing in his life once he goes to war with God. He is even successful at killing Mozart. However, the evidence he sees does not show him that Mozart’s music will live on and become beloved, nor can he see that he will become obscure.

Salieri sees that the more depraved he is, the more ruthless he is, the better his life is. He becomes the opposite of what he thought God wanted him to be, and he sees that there is a corresponding deterioration in Mozart.

Additional Main Character Information →

Witty, sophisticated, selfish, controlling, manipulative, malevolent when crossed.

The Main Character Throughline is the focus of the play. We watch the darkly human frailties of one man’s sense of who he is cause the destruction of another. Salieri’s throughline is the story of his manipulation of the Court of Emperor Joseph to turn against Mozart. Believing himself to be in a war with God, because God has betrayed him, Salieri will stop at nothing. The playwright allows us to see into the mind and imagination of Salieri as he schemes and plots Mozart’s demise. Salieri will change his fundamental character to achieve his goals. We as the audience get to see that Salieri is only coming into his true nature.

Influence Character Throughline

Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart — Composer

Mozart is a flurry of activity. He is even describes as being unable to sit still. He writes music at a furious rate, plays at a furious rate, and speaks at a furious rate.

Mozart is continually placed in the position of understanding the Court, what they want, how to get along with them, how to make a living. The world is a mystery to him, and he is now married, has children, and tries to understand how to support them.

Mozart was conditioned by his father to think that he could behave the way he does. He was spoiled, and it always gets him in trouble. This is at odds with his instinct that his music is remarkable. He struggles to be agreeable with people who cannot hear what he hears.

To the Court musicians and composers, there is an order and balance to the status quo. The traditional standards of music imposed by the Court constrain Mozart’s creativity. Upon hearing Mozart’s first piece written for the Court, the Emperor says, “Too many notes.” Mozart strains at the formal manners of the Court and manages to offend nearly everyone. He complains bitterly that his life is unfair.

Mozart creates music that upsets the status quo of the Court, and the sensibilities of his patrons. His most extraordinary work, comes out of the chaos of his life.

When Salieri sees Mozart’s musical scores with no corrections, he realizes that the music is perfect. Any change would make the music less. It is the perfect arrangement of Mozart’s music that finally drives Salieri to declare war with God.

Even though Mozart’s life has been one of chaotic, rude, self-centered living, he is the chosen voice of God.

Mozart’s music IS his instinct. It keeps rising to the top and raising Mozart with it. Also, he has an instinctive timing in many points of the story, like getting the Emperor to come to a rehearsal. This leads to the Emperor thwarting a plan of Salieri’s and the others at the court.

Mozart is blindly sure that his music will save him. He believes everyone will love “Figaro,” but they do not. He is sure the Masons will love “The Magic Flute.” They are so outraged that he is completely cut off by them.

As Mozart tries to understand how to make a living, he is constantly seeing that he is only getting in worse condition. He cannot keep pupils, sell music, or even hold onto his friends. He can’t even achieve notoriety with his work.

More Influence Character Information →

Mozart is silly, giggly, profane, loud and nervous. He speaks in a high voice and laughs like a hyena. He is disagreeable and unlikeable. He makes enemies of almost everyone.

Mozart provides the outer manifestation of the God’s betrayal of Salieri. No matter what Mozart suffers, no matter how many enemies he creates, his music is always pure and true. It is this fact that continues to inflame Salieri. Symbolically, Mozart is the Music, and therefore the Voice of God.

Relationship Story Throughline

"The Destruction of Mozart"

The relationship between Mozart and Salieri is played out in the situation. Salieri’s effect on Mozart is directly in Mozart’s “situation.” Salieri keeps Mozart from having the position of tutor to Princess Elizabeth. He undermines Mozart’s situation with the Masons, who have been giving him money. Salieri’s “situation” both allows him to discredit and destroy Mozart. And Salieri’s anger comes from the realization that his “place” with God is not as high as he thought. It is Mozart’s position of being the voice of God that causes Salieri to make the choices he makes.

Salieri’s recollections of the past events are the focus of the play. Further, he bases his understanding of the way things should have been during the time he dealt with Mozart on his earlier (past) bargain with God. It is Salieri’s past bargain with God that he feels has been betrayed.

By staking out Mozart as the battlefield between himself and God, Salieri seeks to define his own destiny, despite the fate that may await him. Further, as he is the only one who can see that Mozart is the voice of God, he is determined to alter Mozart’s destiny and become the architect of his fate.

Mozart’s presence has upset the balance of Salieri’s life, as well as the Court’s. Salieri had a bargain with God that he was peacefully living up to. He never touched the students he lusted after, because he had a bargain with God. He wrote music only to glorify God. Mozart’s arrival, and Salieri’s awareness of what he really is, destroys the balance and the reasons for the balance.

By creating as much imbalance as possible, Salieri can destroy Mozart from a distance. Once Salieri begins his mission to upset Mozart’s life, every event in Mozart’s life compounds the issue. When Mozart’s father dies, the man is already in dire straits. So the new event furthers the imbalance and takes Salieri closer to his goal.

Mozart’s ability as the voice of God is where Salieri puts his attention. Salieri’s ability as the only person alive who can hear it creates the greatest tension for him. The first time he hears it, he must run out into the street to get away from it.

Antonio Salieri is the only person alive who can hear Mozart’s music for what it truly is. Further, he wants more than anything to be the voice of God himself. Mozart, despite his shortcomings, is the only focus of that divine music.

Salieri is fated to hear in Mozart’s music his own shortcomings. Mozart’s nature will continually create problems for him - he makes enemies everywhere. The death of his father moves him closer to his own destruction. The choices he makes in his music push him farther away from those who could help him. Salieri has only to stand by and take advantage of the fate that befalls Mozart.

The very impact, the very effect of Mozart’s music consumes Salieri. When he hears The Magic Flute, he comes close to compassion for the man. Even though Mozart irritates everyone, his music keeps him afloat. By the end of the play, it is the Mozart’s music that has endured, driving Salieri to attempt suicide.

It is Salieri’s desire for fame that ultimately drives him. He is constantly looking to the future to see how that is unfolding. Mozart looks to his own future when he writes his Requiem. He and Constanze worry about the future if he has no money. Even the Venticelli gossip about the future of Mozart’s children. This all shows Salieri that his plan is unfolding the way he wants.

Additional Relationship Story Information →

The Subjective Story is the continuing situation of Salieri’s attempt to undermine Mozart. Mozart is Salieri’s unwitting pawn in his war with God. Salieri grows to hate Mozart intensely and seeks every chance to harm him. It is the driving force of Salieri’s life. He goes so far as to pretend to be Mozart’s only friend in order to find ways to defeat him. Even at the end of the play, Salieri attempts suicide in a vain attempt to become famous as the man who killed Mozart.

Additional Story Points

Key Structural Appreciations

We are exploring Salieri’s memory of the events that took place. He sets the stage for our experience: “The age is still that of the Enlightenment: that clear time before the guillotine fell in France and cut all our lives in half.” Because this is a memory play, all the characters are behaving in accord with Salieri’s memory. It is Salieri’s specific goal to be remembered for his music. This goal is not achieved, and what is worse for Salieri, is that his nemesis, Mozart, will never be forgotten for his music.

Salieri is stuck with his past bargain with God. As he relates his story to us from a “future” time, we see that he could not escape the bargain. His past literally catches up with him.

Salieri must come to an understanding of who he really is. He understands what he believes is the true nature of God, not the falsehood he had lived with. This undermines his world. His understanding is shown to be flawed. He cannot defeat God.

Salieri finally figures out how to have the fame he craved. During his “bargain” days, he was relatively obscure. But once he launches his war, he sees how to have the good life, how to destroy Mozart, how to manipulate the Emperor to get what he wants. Mozart learns how to accomplish his goals, but is undermined by himself and Salieri.

Salieri is forced to see his life in light of his shortcomings. His intense anger at being betrayed by God, causes him to go to the depths of his true nature. The music itself moves him to the core. He must appeal to the other objective characters at the level of the subconscious so they can come to a negative opinion on their own. He appeals to the Emperor’s basic stinginess to keep him from giving Mozart money. He convinces Mozart to use the practices of the Masons in “The Magic Flute, which will offend the Masons at a subconscious level. And he ultimately must hit Mozart in the subconscious in the guise of the ghost of Mozart’s father.

Salieri must control Mozart’s future. He thwarts any effort to make Mozart’s future look bright. When he is attempting to get the Emperor to slight Mozart, he must attend to the Emperor’s future. The Emperor worries that in the future he will be seen badly: “I won’t have him say I drove him away. You know what a tongue he has.” Even at the end, Salieri chooses to attempt suicide to ensure his piece of the future.

Salieri must ultimately obtain Mozart’s death. He must obtain knowledge of Mozart’s weaknesses to defeat him. He must obtain fancy furniture to live the life of a popular composer. He obtains Mozart’s trust in order destroy him. He must obtain a young mistress he avoided before his “war.” He must obtain the help of all the objective characters to starve Mozart to death.

Salieri reaches a point where he might give in to pity for Mozart after being deeply moved by “The Magic Flute.” He feels the possible transformation and fights it. Further, he watches Mozart’s continued growth as the Voice of God in his music. The experience drives him toward his goal.

Plot Progression

Dynamic Act Appreciations

Overall Story

Act 1 establishes that the play is a Memory Play. Salieri tells us that he is recounting history. Further, he sets the scene by recounting events further back than the time of Mozart in Vienna by telling us his past and Mozart’s past. We learn from various characters what HAS gone on before Mozart arrives in Vienna. Most importantly, we learn the nature of Salieri’s childhood bargain with God. In the beginning of the play, the scene is set with characters remembering events in the past. When we meet Salieri in the first moments of the play, he tells us that he is recounting the past.

Mozart’s behavior is unthinking, selfish, instinctive and thoroughly irritating to those around him. He cannot help himself, and those around him have just as immediate reflexive responses to him. They can’t stand him. He is vulgar, conceited, rude, and insulting.

At the same time, his music is just as instinctive. As Salieri describes it, “It seemed to me I had heard a voice of God…” Mozart’s music is something mystical that comes from beyond himself. And Salieri is the only one who can hear it for what it is. And it is Salieri’s instinctive response, his instinctive understanding that Mozart’s music is so rare that drives Salieri to the edge of despair.

We see Salieri’s basic motivations rise to the surface. He will now destroy Mozart to defeat God. He wills himself to become the opposite outwardly of what he was. He plays on the subconscious drives of those around him to ruin Mozart. And yet he comments that he is still driven to pray to God, hoping to have some relief. Salieri attends the disastrous premiere of “The Marriage of Figaro,” where he is the only one to be moved by the music. But Mozart’s arrogance quickly brings Salieri back to his driving passion to defeat God. Mozart falls into decline, fearing starvation, fearing the loss of his family. The Court is retrenching in the values it has always had and is shutting Mozart out, all with the intervention of Salieri.

With the premiere of “The Magic Flute,” and its presentation of Masonic rituals, Mozart is almost finished. Salieri has conspired to bring Mozart’s last benefactors to the premiere and they are permanently outraged. The reality of Mozart’s condition has driven his family away, he is literal starving to death as Salieri wanted. To complete his plan, Salieri goes to Mozart’s house dressed as “the Messenger of God.” All the motion of the play is brought to this climax that leads to Mozart’s death. It is a thoroughly considered move by Salieri. He knows precisely the consequences and he proceeds.

And this leads to the Author’s Proof. The last scenes of the play show Salieri’s failed attempt at suicide - his bid for immortality. This is followed by Salieri living for two more years in torment. Thus the author brings us from the Conscious of the “past” to the Conscious of the “present.”

Main Character

Physically, in the beginning of the play, we literally see Salieri as an old man who adopts the physical being of a young man to tell his story. Then we learn that Salieri will BE whatever is necessary to achieve his end of being a great composer. He pretends to be Mozart’s friend to get close to him. He pretends to agree with the emperor when necessary. And it is his suspicion that his pretense at morality was for nothing that begins to turn him against God.

Act 2 shows us Salieri’s drift toward his war with God. He tries to become a seducer of Mozart’s wife, but he merely looks ridiculous. He becomes the avowed enemy of God.

Salieri continues to plot against Mozart in every way. He sees potential in every situation. He conceives of a plan to deny Mozart money from the Emperor, while managing to keep Mozart as a friend. He convinces Mozart to use the secret rituals of the Masons in “The Magic Flute.” He knows it will infuriate the Masons and they will abandon Mozart.

Salieri Conceptualizes his final blow on Mozart. He appears as the Messenger of God to Mozart to push him over the edge. Mozart dies.

Influence Character

The history of Mozart is dedicated to his accomplishments. Upon his arrival he tries to impress everyone. He insists on re-writing Salieri’s march.

Mozart begins to learn that for the first time in his life, people don’t like him. He learns what marriage means. He tries to learn how to get along at Court.

Mozart tries desperately to get money, work, food, respect, friendship. And he tries to understand what is going wrong.

Mozart comes to misunderstand the nature of what is happening to him. He believes he has angered God and thus he will die. Then he comes to truly understand that it was always Salieri trying to kill him.

Relationship Story

Salieri has made a bargain with God that he feel’s entitles him to be God’s voice with his music. He has lived an immaculately moral life as his part of the bargain. When Salieri sees the despicable kind of person Mozart is - “an obscene child” - he feels betrayed by God. Salieri begins to question the value of his moral life.

Salieri watches Mozart’s progress and begins to think of ways to undermine him. Mozart’s fame irritates Salieri. Mozart’s personality works against him. Events put Salieri in a position to help or hinder Mozart. He tries to blackmail Mozart’s wife into a sexual liaison. He fails, but has the opportunity to see Mozart’s manuscripts. To Salieri the work is Divine. This leads to the climactic moment when Salieri challenges God to a war.

Salieri’s life flourishes, even though he has resolved to defeat God by destroying Mozart. He grows in fame, while Mozart is becoming destitute. Salieri does everything possible to harm Mozart. But he is able to make Mozart believe they are friends. The “war” is going well for Salieri.

The final destruction of Mozart has Salieri begging Mozart to “die and leave me alone.” As the climax moves to the author’s proof, we learn that Salieri’s future was a two edged sword. He achieved great fame, but lived to see himself drift into total obscurity. He even tries to kill himself to become famous. He fails.

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• AFI Catalog - Amadeus
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• Internet Archive - Amadeus. 1984
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Amadeus , American dramatic film , released in 1984, that was a largely fictionalized account of the relationship between Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart and his less talented but popular contemporary Antonio Salieri . The lushly detailed movie won eight Academy Awards , among them that for best picture , and four Golden Globe Awards , including that for best drama.

The movie begins in Vienna in 1823 as an old man, Antonio Salieri (played by F. Murray Abraham), cries out that he has killed Mozart and then attempts suicide. He is taken to an asylum, where Father Vogler (Richard Frank) comes to see him, and Salieri tells him his story. As a young man, Salieri wished to be a composer, like the much younger and already famous Mozart, but his father is opposed. Salieri prays to God, promising to remain celibate and devoted if God will make him a famous composer. Shortly after that, his father dies, freeing him to follow his dream. He is educated in Vienna and becomes the court composer for Emperor Joseph II (Jeffrey Jones). One day in 1781, Mozart comes to Vienna to perform at the request of his employer, Archbishop Colloredo (Nicholas Kepros). Salieri attends the performance, which takes place in the Archbishop’s home, and stumbles upon a young man and young woman playing with each other in a childish and lewd fashion. Salieri is horrified to discover that this unworthy man is Mozart ( Tom Hulce). Later, when Mozart is introduced at court, Salieri presents him with a musical piece, and Mozart points out its flaws and improvises improvements. Salieri feels that God has blessed an inferior man with exceptional skills and has failed to reward his own devotion.

After the Emperor commissions an opera from Mozart, Salieri discovers that Mozart has had an affair with its lead actress, Katerina Cavalieri (Christine Ebersole), although he is also involved with Costanze Weber (Elizabeth Berridge). Despite Salieri’s entreaties to God, Mozart remains in Vienna and marries Costanze. The Emperor wishes to hire Mozart to teach music to his niece (which would bring in much-needed money), but Salieri dissuades the Emperor. Costanze, unaware of Salieri’s enmity toward Mozart, seeks his help in changing the Emperor’s mind, and she shows Salieri music written by Mozart to help plead her case. The quality of Mozart’s work causes Salieri to conclude that he has been betrayed by God, and he vows to ruin Mozart.

Mozart’s father, Leopold (Roy Dotrice) chooses this moment to visit his son. Desperate to hide his financial disarray from his father, Mozart takes Leopold to a costume party. Afterward, a young woman named Lorl (Cynthia Nixon) arrives, saying that a benefactor has paid her to be a maidservant to the Mozarts; she is in fact a spy employed by Salieri. Salieri thus learns that Mozart is writing an opera based on the banned play The Marriage of Figaro , but all Salieri’s efforts to sabotage the opera come to naught. After learning of his father’s death in Vienna, Mozart in his grief writes the opera Don Giovanni , and the work inspires Salieri to concoct a scheme. Disguising himself in a costume previously worn by Leopold, Salieri commissions Mozart to write a Requiem . He plans to kill Mozart after the piece is written and then to pass it off as his own. Later, an actor, Emanuel Schikaneder (Simon Callow), commissions an opera from Mozart. Working on both commissions at once destroys Mozart’s health. He completes the opera, Die Zauberflüte ( The Magic Flute ), but faints during its premiere. Salieri helps Mozart return to his home and then stays with him as he labours to finish the Requiem by the following day. In the morning, Costanze locks up the uncompleted work, and shortly after that Mozart dies, frustrating Salieri’s plot.

Amadeus for a time increased the popularity of Mozart’s music, and the soundtrack album won the Grammy Award for best classical album in 1985. The movie was adapted by British playwright Peter Shaffer from his own play of the same title, which opened in London in 1979 and won a Tony Award in 1981. The bitter rivalry between Salieri and Mozart was fictional; in real life they were apparently friendly. The Requiem was in fact anonymously commissioned but not by Salieri. At the Academy Award ceremony, presenter Laurence Olivier failed to mention the other nominees for best movie before announcing Amadeus as the winner, an omission that producer Saul Zaentz remedied after accepting the statuette. Director Miloš Forman won his second Oscar for Amadeus ; he previously won the award for One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest (1975).

• Studios: AMLF and the Saul Zaentz Company
• Director: Miloš Forman
• Writer: Peter Shaffer
• Cinematography: Miroslav Ondříček
• F. Murray Abraham (Antonio Salieri)
• Tom Hulce (Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart)
• Elizabeth Berridge (Costanze Weber Mozart)
• Roy Dotrice (Leopold Mozart)
• Jeffrey Jones (Emperor Joseph II)
• Lead actor* (F. Murray Abraham)
• Lead actor (Tom Hulce)
• Art direction*
• Cinematography
• Costume design*

• Cast & crew
• User reviews

• The life, success and troubles of Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart , as told by Antonio Salieri , the contemporaneous composer who was deeply jealous of Mozart's talent and claimed to have murdered him.
• Antonio Salieri believes that Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart 's music is divine and miraculous. He wishes he was himself as good a musician as Mozart so that he can praise the Lord through composing. He began his career as a devout man who believes his success and talent as a composer are God's rewards for his piety. He's also content as the respected, financially well-off, court composer of Austrian Emperor Joseph II. But he's shocked to learn that Mozart is such a vulgar creature, and can't understand why God favored Mozart to be his instrument. Salieri's envy has made him an enemy of God whose greatness was evident in Mozart. He is ready to take revenge against God and Mozart for his own musical mediocrity. — Khaled Salem
• Claiming to have murdered the composer Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart , the elderly Antonio Salieri recounts to a priest his dealings with the brilliant composer. Salieri was court composer to Austrian Emperor Joseph II when Mozart and he first met. The Emperor, a major patron of the arts, immediately commissioned Mozart to write an opera in German, rather than the customary Italian. Mozart is childish, arrogant, annoying and brilliant all at once and Salieri is simultaneously in awe and green with envy at his genius. Salieri uses Mozart's difficult relationship with his father and his guilt over being a bad son to drive him slightly mad and into a downward spiral of ill health, leading to his death. — garykmcd
• It is the early 19th century. An old man is thrown into an insane asylum after trying to commit suicide. He is Antonio Salieri and in the asylum he is visited by a priest, to whom he confesses that he killed Mozart. He then recounts his time as court composer to Emperor Joseph II of Austria. Mozart appears at the court and is hired by the Emperor to produce an opera. His genius is quite evident. Salieri is a devout Christian man and believes all musical talent and inspiration is given by God. Mozart's personal life and extracurricular activities appall Salieri. He cannot reconcile Mozart's talent and his lifestyle and sets out to drive him from the court. Initially his aim is to undermine him but over time his intentions turn deadlier. — grantss
• Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart is a remarkably talented young Viennese composer who unwittingly finds a fierce rival in the disciplined and determined Antonio Salieri . Resenting Mozart for both his hedonistic lifestyle and his undeniable talent, the highly religious Salieri is gradually consumed by his jealousy and becomes obsessed with Mozart's downfall, leading to a devious scheme that has dire consequences for both men. — Jwelch5742
• At the opening of the tale, Salieri is an old man, having long outlived his fame, and is convinced he used poison to assassinate Mozart. Speaking directly to the audience, he promises to explain himself. The action then flashes back to the eighteenth century, at a time when Salieri has not met Mozart in person but has heard of him and his music. Salieri is a kid who loves music and has grown up hearing about the genius of Amadeus Mozart. Mozart's dad adores him & takes him all over Europe to make Mozart perform in front of kings and popes. Salieri's dad in contrast does not encourage him at all. But one fine day, Salieri's dad chokes on his food and dies & thus marking the true beginning of Salieri's music composition career. Soon Salieri is appointed the court composer & has immense powers in terms of determining the futures of musicians in all of Vienna. He adores Mozart's compositions and is thrilled at the chance to meet Mozart in person, during a salon at which some of Mozart's compositions will be played. When he finally does catch sight of Mozart, however, he is deeply disappointed to find that Mozart's personality does not match the grace or charm of his compositions. When Salieri first meets him, Mozart is crawling around on his hands and knees, engaging in profane talk with his future bride Constanze Weber. Salieri cannot reconcile Mozart's boorish behavior with the genius that God has inexplicably bestowed upon him. Indeed, Salieri, who has been a devout Catholic all his life, cannot believe that God would choose Mozart over him for such a gift. Salieri renounces God and vows to do everything in his power to destroy Mozart as a way of getting back at his Creator. The king of Austria commissions Mozart to perform & Opera & Mozart surpasses everyone's expectations with a brilliant piece which is applauded by the King. Salieri is angry as Mozart casts Salieri's girlfriend Catarina in the Opera (without Salieri's permission). After the performance Catarina comes to know that Mozart is engaged to Constanze & she is angry. Salieri realizes that Mozart has slept with Catarina. Soon thereafter Mozart marries Constanze despite his father's express instructions to hold off the wedding. Throughout much of the rest of the play, Salieri masquerades as Mozart's ally to his face while doing his utmost to destroy his reputation and any success his compositions may have. The King wishes to appoint Mozart as the musical trainer for his daughter & Salieri convinces the King to compose a committee for selection for which all composers must submit their work. Mozart refuses & is denied the job. On more than one occasion it is only the direct intervention of the Emperor himself that allows Mozart to continue (interventions which Salieri opposes, and then is all too happy to take credit for when Mozart assumes it was he who intervened). Salieri also humiliates Mozart's wife when she comes to Salieri for aid. Constanze shows Mozart's work to Salieri to get him to consider Mozart for the job in the court. Salieri is mesmerized by the samples of Mozart's work but asks Constanze to sleep with him before giving the commission to Mozart. Constanze arrives that night, but when she disrobes, Salieri summons his servants & asks them to show her out & then smears Mozart's character with the Emperor and the court, hence nobody would give work to Mozart as a music instructor to their wards. Then Salieri sponsors a maid to work in Mozart household (as Mozart is broke & can't afford one) & does so anonymously. He instructs the maid to let him in when the Mozart's are out so that he can look at the super-secret composition that Mozart has been working on, one that he claims will revolutionize music in all of Europe. Salieri looks & realizes that Mozart is composing an Opera on a French play Figaro, which has been banned by the King. Mozart is summoned to the courts. In the middle of fierce opposition, he is able to convince the King that the play is not political & Opera elevates the play to the level of an art. He gets the go ahead from the King. Then Salieri tries to sabotage the opera by imposing a fictitious royal order not to have ballet in the Opera, which would cause Mozart to junk the whole thing. But the King surprises everyone by attending the rehearsal & approves of the whole thing. But Salieri uses his influence to ensure that the Opera is performed only 9 times & is only a moderate success. The next Opera written upon Mozart's father's death is an absolute masterpiece in Salieri's own admittance. But he again limits the financial success to only 5 shows. Mozart falls into more and more financial troubles. But he keeps on working on his opera's constantly surprising Salieri. In the poverty of his life, Constanze decides to leave Mozart & go to her mother. Interacting with her mother, gives Mozart the inspiration for his next masterpiece. He collapses during the performance & Salieri steps in to take care of Mozart when he is without his wife. A major theme in Amadeus is Mozart's repeated attempts to win over the aristocratic "public" with increasingly brilliant compositions, which are always frustrated either by Salieri or by the aristocracy's own inability to appreciate Mozart's genius. Salieri helps Mozart to finish a death opera, which he himself had commissioned Mozart to write (in anonymity). The Death opera is loosely based on Mozart's complex relationship with his father & it makes him very sick. While writing the Opera through the night, with Salieri in attendance, Mozart dies. The play ends with Salieri attempting suicide in a last attempt to be remembered, leaving a false confession of having murdered Mozart with arsenic. He survives, however, and his confession is disbelieved by all, leaving him to wallow once again in mediocrity.

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The Definitives

Critical essays, histories, and appreciations of great films

Essay by Brian Eggert March 24, 2012

In Latin, the name Amadeus means “love of God” or, in other words, the object of God’s adoration. How appropriate then that Peter Shaffer chose this name as the title of his 1979 stage play about Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, from which director Milos Forman and Shaffer elaborated into the 1984 film Amadeus . Told from the perspective of Antonio Salieri, the pious Venetian court composer who so desires God’s grace, the story comes from the vantage point of an unreliable narrator, a man so twisted by feelings of admiration and jealousy and betrayal that his perceptions distort history into a powerful, if subjective account. Despite the title, the film does not trace Mozart’s genius, rather the envy of Salieri, whose modest talent was such that he could not compete with his artistic rival, only appreciate the gift that God had chosen to bestow on someone else. As a historical biography, there are few motion pictures that take greater liberties with history; yet as a dramatic piece of cinema, there are few that match its splendors and delight.

Legendary independent producer Saul Zaentz, whose reputation for making “unfilmable” literary texts into award-winning films (such as Unbearable Lightness of Being and The English Patient ), reteamed with his One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest director Forman on the production. Zaentz commissioned Shaffer to rewrite his play into a suitable script and, working closely with Forman, Shaffer developed his stage piece into a film that would require elaborate sets, staged productions of Mozart’s operas, and exclusive use of Mozart’s compositions almost as the film’s diegetic and non-diegetic music. From a film studio’s perspective, Zaentz and Forman’s period piece about an eighteenth-century classical composer did not arouse instant confidence, the subject being atypical box-office bait. And yet, something about Amadeus would draw considerable crowds and lead to it sweeping the 1985 Academy Awards with eight Oscars in all, including awards for Best Picture, Director, Adapted Screenplay, Costume Design, Art Direction, Makeup, Sound Mixing, and Actor (F. Murray Abraham). Perhaps audiences were and still are so struck by the film because it resolves not to attempt to understand the gift of incomparable talent, but rather to admire it from a distance with equal parts awe and resentment—a more relatable notion indeed.

Forman’s production relishes in extravagant details, enough to make the film a wonder of pure visual stimulation, even if that does not equate to historical accuracy. Larger-than-life powdered wigs and elaborate costume design by Theodor Pistek capture the ostentatious trends of the period, but also exaggerate styles present in eighteenth-century Vienna, while borrowing from French styles of the era perpetuated by Marie Antoinette, Joseph II’s sister. Cinematographer Miroslav Ondrícek shoots night scenes by candlelight, but with an amazing clarity and atmosphere. The production was filmed in Forman’s native Czechoslovakia, in Prague, where, unlike most now-modern European cities, the architecture retained the production’s desired centuries-old appearance. As a result, Forman’s crew was required to build few sets of their own (only one of Mozart’s opera houses, Mozart’s apartment, and a few other interiors), and location shooting was utilized for an unquestionable transportive quality. Prague’s Estates Theatre was used to film several opera scenes and was the actual location where Mozart premiered his operas Don Giovanni and La Clemenza di Tito in 1787 and 1791, respectively.

But these are just a few of the numerous, if negligible historical inconsistencies. Shaffer’s greatest deviations reside in his description of his titular character. Although evidence suggests Mozart’s sense of amusement was not above the scatological, surviving documents show nothing to determine that Mozart behaved as Hulce plays him—like a spoiled brat whose creative genius has been taken for granted, not because he is cruel or pitiless, but simply because it comes so easy to him. Contrary to the factually vague accounts which make reference to how “some woman” described Mozart’s laugh, there exists no concrete evidence that implies the composer actually laughed in the hilarious way performed—a staccato series of harsh, high-pitched bursts that begin like a clown riding a washboard and then ease off into a self-conscious sigh, a sound brilliantly developed by Hulce. Even a characteristic not so specific, such as how Mozart conducts his opera, is chosen for dramatic effect. Operas of the eighteenth century were not directed by a sole conductor standing front-and-center; rather, a concertmaster instructed the orchestra while a conductor was off to the side playing a fortepiano. Although toward the end of Amadeus , during a performance of The Magic Flute , Mozart is seen at a fortepiano, the majority of the film shows Mozart conducting the orchestra alone. Despite its inaccuracy, the film’s low-angle shot from the orchestra’s perspective, looking up at its conductor, has become an indelible one not only for this film, but to be repeated in any subsequent motion picture involving a classical or modern composer.

Abraham earns his Oscar by portraying Salieri as a man of painful inner conflict. Every smile has a double-meaning, a hidden hurt, as Salieri remains torn between his jealousy for Mozart and his wholehearted admiration of the genius’ music. But this character is torn in other ways as well. He prides himself for abstaining from women and drink, yet cannot help himself around sweets. Always at his desk or atop his instructing piano rests a dish of candy morsels. When Salieri first sees Mozart, he looks for someone who appears to have been venerated by God. While looking, he finds himself distracted by servants setting out a luxurious feast; he regards the spread and lets out a quiet moan of food ecstasy, and later sneaks into the room alone to steal a truffle. Salieri’s vice may not fall into gluttonous extremes, but in this single incidence he has given in to his own temptation. How duplicitous or simply self-unaware then that in his accounts to the priest, he portrays himself as an obedient servant of the Lord, completely oblivious to his own double standard and convenient condemnation of Mozart.

Just as Salieri’s view of himself is mutated, his reasoning of God’s desires range from tragic to disturbing, as shown on the young priest’s face. Played by Richard Frank, Father Vogler is Salieri’s sole audience member and listens as the raconteur weaves a sort of warped logic out of his misfortunes, all of which he blames on God. Mozart’s death gives way to the most powerful scene in Amadeus , which finds the composer suffering from exhaustion on his deathbed, and Salieri, who has tricked Mozart into writing a “death mass” so that he might steal it for himself and play it at Mozart’s funeral, offering to take dictation. As the story progresses, at times Vogler appears understanding and even enthralled by Salieri’s account; others, Salieri’s tale becomes unfortunate or tragic because, as Vogler’s face tells us, he believes so wholeheartedly that God controls all, that when his life goes awry, God becomes an unforgivable monster, cruel and mocking to such extremes that not even Vogler can defend. Vogler appears devastated and speechless in the final scenes, perhaps out of shock over Salieri’s murderous actions, perhaps from the misfortune that piety has brought forth. Faith has driven Salieri mad.

Of course, the music of Amadeus , nearly all Mozart’s and performed by England’s Academy of St. Martin in the Fields conducted by Sir Neville Marriner, raises the production, adding grandiosity to the drama and in turn enhancing the film into—in same cases literally—operatic realms. Several scenes are filled by on-stage performances in which diegetic music drives the moment. Most ingenious is how Forman and Shaffer carefully place Mozart’s music in non-diegetic ways to accompany scenes, selecting compositions to define not only a moment within the film’s dramatic structure but also to exhibit Mozart’s genius. When considering the alternative, such as an original motion picture score, there was no choice at all, really. The subject gives way to some of the best music ever written, and to not use that would be nothing short of foolish. At the 1985 Oscar ceremony, when Maurice Jarre won for A Passage to India , he quipped at how lucky he was that the music of Amadeus , not being an original score, could not be nominated.

Bibliography:

Abert, Hermann. W. A. Mozart . Cliff Eisen, Stewart Spencer (trans.). New Haven: Yale University Press, 2007.

Holmes, Edward. The Life of Mozart . New York: Cosimo Classics, 2005.

Morton, Ray. Amadeus: Mozart on Film . Milwaukee: Hal Leonard Corporation, 2001.

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6 Reasons Why “Amadeus” Is The Best Movie of The 1980s

The Eighties were a truly intriguing time for cinema. While Americans buried the auteur driven films of the Seventies with glitzy, glamorous films influenced by rock videos, world cinema began to grow ever more introspective.

Just compare “Rambo: First Blood II” with “Come and See.” Both are war films, both were released in 1985, yet they show the crucial divide between popcorn driven American films and the introspective, almost harrowing films happening throughout the rest of the world.

It seemed as though no one was willing to bridge the gap, to make grand films the way they used to, the kind of films that should be shown in big old movie palaces. No one seemed to interest to in stimulating the heart, mind, and funny bone, all the while delivering pure entertainment.

Then came Amadeus.

Amadeus proved that they could make them like they used to. In fact, they could make them bigger and grander then ever before. Of course, it took a European director to marry the two sensibilities together and bridge the gap. Milos Forman, that pioneering Czech director who gave the world One Flew Over The Cuckoos Nest, set out to create the greatest music film ever produced. In actuality, he made the greatest film of the decade.

Here are six reasons why Amadeus is the greatest film of the 1980’s.

6. The Story. The Glorious Story.

Some men are cursed with greatness, while others lack the talent to achieve greatness. Some men a cursed with a desire for fame, while others just naturally achieve it. Every man harbors jealousy to those who are better than them. There is nothing new to this story. It’s as old as time itself.

Amadeus takes this story and completely reinvents it, pitting one man’s jealousy of another’s talent against that same man’s love of that other’s talent. How can you hate the man who creates such lovely music?

When we meet Salieri, he is an old man attempting suicide. It is an atonement for sins that we will learn about as the films progresses. He survives and is sent to an asylum where he is visited by a kindly Father whom Salieri wishes to hear his confession.

Before he does this, however, he asks the priest if he knows music. He plays the priest several melodies that are completely lost upon him. Finally, he plays something that the Father instantly recognizes. He asks Salieri if he wrote that delightful melody. Salieri grows sullen and replies, “No, that was Mozart.”

Thus begins the enthralling tale of an overly ambitious court composer whose own talent is slim. His entire world is shattered with the arrival of the young Mozart, a prodigy who becomes the talk of Vienna. Mozart is crude and playful, nothing like the stoic Salieri, who cannot believe that God would have given such a gift to a person as lewd as Mozart.

Mozart seeks Salieri’s influence in the court and the two become ‘friends,” all the while Salieri does everything he can to stop Mozart’s advancement in society. The only problem is Salieri loves Mozart’s music more than anything he’s ever heard. In one of the greatest sequences, Salieri reveals that it was because of his influence that Mozart’s “Don Giovanni” was only staged six times, yet Salieri himself went to every performance.

This duality is something that all men share. We can all harbor both love and hate for the same person. We all long for something others have that we don’t. This is especially true for artists. Creations and creators can often differ greatly. Yet, having the power to destroy the creator while longing for more of the creations is something that is unique to Amadeus.

5. Old School Cinema Never Dies

Amadeus was one of the last of the great American New Wave films. It was an auteur driven period piece based off of a stage play, produced four years after the crash of the old Hollywood (Heaven’s Gate) and seven years after the birth of the blockbuster (Star Wars). In reality, Amadeus had no business being made in 1984.

The ten highest grossing films of the year included the likes of Beverly Hills Cop, Police Academy, Ghostbusters, and The Karate Kid – all of them escapist fantasies that aimed for a mass market and high returns. Though some of these have become acknowledged classics over the years, none of them aimed to be earth shattering. They diluted the art to enhance the pulp and audiences couldn’t get enough.

Then, dropped into the middle of all this like an ancient relic, comes Amadeus. It had the look and feel of films like Barry Lyndon and The Taking Of Power by Louis XIV, and was filled with bravura performances akin the films of Olivier and Welles. It was almost three hours long and contained no exciting action sequences, long opera performances, and a subject who is mostly known today through marble sculptures and background music. Yet, the film was a critical and commercial smash.

It won an astonishing eight academy awards, including Best Picture, Actor, Director, and Adapted Screenplay. More importantly, it proved that classic film techniques and storytelling were alive and well, and that director driven, auteur films could still be huge successes.

4. Representing The Past As Never Before

Most of the time throughout Hollywood history when filmmakers decided to take their audience to the eighteenth century, things tended to look stagey. Costumes look like costumes and the settings look like sets. Rarely did the viewer ever feel truly transported back in time.

The one film that truly broke this stereotype was Stanley Kubrick’s Barry Lyndon, a commercial flop that has sense grown to be regarded by many as the most beautiful film every created. Those few who saw the film were effortless transported back in time. Nine years later, Amadeus achieved the same effect, only to mass appeal and success. Yet, Amadeus takes it one step further by portraying historical figures as average people.

Milos Forman broke with tradition and hired American actors to play the major roles, a move which immediately made the Viennese royalty more approachable. The sheer fact that noted character actor Jeffery Jones plays the Emperor in the film really breaks down the stoic barriers that so many ‘royal court’ films posses.

Milos also fills his film with adolescent buffoonery. Never is Mozart treated as a figure of great standing. He is, essentially, a young man with raging hormones, who is gifted (or cursed) with a brilliant musical mind and a progressive, forward thinking ambition that is destined to bring him ruin. Just compare Tom Hulce’s Mozart to Gary Oldman’s Beethoven in Immortal Beloved to see how differently this great composer was portrayed.

3. Captures The Nihilistic Underbelly Of The 1980’s

Antonio Salieri is a quintessential villain for the eighties. His feelings toward everyone remain ambiguous, and his intentions change based upon opportunity. His sheer disregard for emotion when posing as Mozart’s father and commissioning a requiem mass (a piece Salieri somehow knows will kill him) is staggering. Once Salieri resigns himself to a hatred of the God has forsaken him, there seems to be no line he won’t cross.

In one of the great scenes that was cut from the theatrical release, he humiliates Mozart’s wife by making her think she must sleep with him in order to gain his influence to get Mozart a job. Once she is bare chested and on the verge of removing the last of her clothes, Salieri rings the bell for his attendant to come in and see the woman out. It is a stunning sequence that shows the depths of depravity that Salieri becomes willing to stoop to.

2. Captures The Gleeful Abandon Of The 1980’s

Where as F. Murray Abraham’s Antonio Salieri is the perfect 80’s villain, Tom Hucle’s Mozart is his counterpoint. Mozart is playful and full of life. He is a like a character from a Truffaut film, and yet could be a member of The Breakfast Club. His spends money with gleeful abandon and drinks too much. He is a lost youth who is reveling in the prime of his life. Strip away the years and there is little separating him from the members of the brat pack.

Take, for example, the famous party scene in which party goers call out different composers for him to mimic (or really, mock). If you were to change the clothing and the setting to that of a high school party, yet leave the rest of the scene untouched, you could easily slide it into the films of John Hughes or Cameron Crowe from that era.

There are many other scenes peppered throughout the film that show the influence of the decade, but they are cleverly woven into the fabric of the period and only enhance the feeling of transportation.

1. The Greatest Acting Of The Decade

If there is one thing the cinema of the 1980’s gave us, it was great performances. Who can forget Robert DeNiro in Raging Bull, Michael Douglas in Wall Street, or even Dustin Hoffman in Tootsie? But when it comes down to it, F. Murray Abraham and Tom Hulce give the greatest performances of the decade in Amadeus.

Each actor brought something completely different to their roles, yet the chemistry between the two of them is electric. They act as both mirror images and polar opposites. When they conduct their respective symphonies, Forman shoots them from the same angle so the difference in their performances can be studied in full view. You can clearly see as Abraham shows Salieri’s subtle lack of confidence in his work, while Hulce’s Mozart rides his ecstasy into the dizziest heights of conducting.

When the academy was forced to pick between the two of them, the nod went to Abraham for tackling the tougher role. His work as an old man, buried beneath some of the most convincing prosthetics ever filmed, is truly the jewel in his crown as an actor.

Of course, both Abraham and Hulce are supported by a stellar cast, including the aforementioned Jones as the bumbling Emperor Joseph II, and the ravishing Elizabeth Berridge as Mozart’s wife Constanze. Though they work toe to toe with the two stars, they never take away from their thunder.

The reason why Amadeus remains a classic with is the acting. The performances stick with you long after you’ve left the theatre. They resemble us so much that they stick around and pop up from time to time.

So, naturally, the number one reason why it is the best film of the 1980’s is the acting!

Author Bio: David Brimer is a professional musician and writer from Florida. He has toured the world with artists as diverse as Jackson Browne and Hanson, and has published a few short stories in small literary magazines. He is a self-professed cinephile who loves pure cinema.

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Amadeus might just be the perfect movie.

It takes a topic many have heard of but few have really looked at in-depth. It provides a main character so twisted and beguiling that every scene is a triumph of intrigue.

They take the best of Mozart and layer it into the most sublime score, perfectly complimenting the story but without overdoing any of it.

I feel as though through watching it, we understand every aspect of Salieri's intent but don't have to agree or even like him. It's a story that shows us one of the greatest, most creative minds, whilst simultaneously showcasing the most depraved and lowest acts human kind can be capable of.

I have never seen a movie spring between blossoming hope, endless desperation and titanic longing so readily, mixing into a cocktail that fascinates and captivates.

It also hasn't appeared to age despite it being almost 40 years old, each scene is layered and shot in a way that shines with sophistication.

Despite a nearly 3 hour run time it leaves us wanting even more, and somehow allows an entire cast to shine, only made stronger by the performance of F Murray Abraham.

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by Milos Forman

Amadeus essay questions.

Does the narrative seem to suggest that Mozart deserved his ultimate misfortune?

If you think that it does, you can argue that Mozart creates his own downfall. He disrespects Prince-Archbishop Colloredo, who had been his benefactor for years, and he disregards Leopold's pleas to return to Salzburg. Then, he incites Salieri's wrath. Salieri could have been a powerful ally for Mozart had Mozart not insulted and humiliated him many times. Furthermore, despite his financial troubles, Mozart continues to spend recklessly. He disregards Constanze's attempt to limit his spending, and he instead does as he pleases.

If you think that it does not, you can argue that Salieri takes revenge too far. He exploits Mozart's guilt over a deceased Leopold, and he does not relent even when Mozart's personality has softened.

How do gender dynamics influence the narrative?

Constanze commands tremendous power in Mozart's life, in spite of this being atypical for a woman of the times. This is the case because Mozart is an infantile man who needs direction. Mozart is not able to handle independence. Constanze essentially replaces Leopold. She advises Mozart and tries to manage his finances. Unfortunately, she encounters the same difficulties that Leopold encountered with Mozart. Mozart disregards any source of authority.

"Strong parallels exist between Salieri and Mozart." Please agree or disagree with this claim, and provide evidence to support your stance.

If you agree with the statement, you can begin by stating that both Mozart and Salieri have domineering fathers, and the death of these father figures have tremendous effects on them. Furthermore, both Salieri and Mozart have a strong passion for music, and both men find ways to subvert authority, although Mozart's approach is more straightforward.

If you disagree with the statement, you can discuss Mozart and Salieri's development throughout the film. Mozart becomes humbler as the film progresses whereas Salieri's hubris increases. Moreover, Mozart redeems himself before he dies. He asks Salieri for forgiveness. Salieri, however, does not ask for redemption despite confessing his actions to the priest. He feels as if God has already punished him enough. He merely goes on a rent where he absolves all mediocrities, which include the priest and the asylum's inmates.

Is Salieri a reliable narrator?

If you say yes, you can argue that he confesses information that depicts himself in a negative light. He confesses to the priest that he spread false rumors about Mozart and that he propositioned Mozart's wife for sex. Furthermore, Salieri is an old man in a mental asylum. You can say quite convincingly that he has nothing to lose.

If you say no to Salieri being a trustworthy narrator, however, you can argue that Salieri's description of Mozart feels exaggerated. In Salieri's narrative, Mozart has an obscene laugh, and Mozart's mannerisms make even Emperor Joseph II feel uncomfortable at times. Furthermore, Salieri does not experience firsthand a lot of what he recounts. His spy, Lorl, witnesses certain scenes and relays the information to him. Information might have gotten lost or misinterpreted in transmission.

If Mozart had not died, would Salieri have gone through with his plan to kill him?

If you say yes, you can argue that Salieri's actions leading up to Mozart's death prove that Salieri reached the point of no return.

If you say no, you can use the tender scenes that occur the night before Mozart dies to support your position. On that night, Mozart tells Salieri that he is thankful that Salieri came to see his opera, and he also compliments Salieri's transcribing skills. Salieri is earnestly moved by Mozart's words. Mozart dies at the moment where there seemed to be a real turning point in his relationship with Salieri.

Amadeus Questions and Answers

The Question and Answer section for Amadeus is a great resource to ask questions, find answers, and discuss the novel.

critically comment on the relationship between Mozart and Salieri throughout this drama

The film is a male-dominated landscape, and various male characters compete against each other. Mozart, for example, insults and publicly humiliates Salieri many times. Upon meeting Emperor Joseph II, Mozart calls a piece that Salieri writes...

What kind of person was Mozart portrayed? Please use two examples.

Mozart is portrayed as an a fun-loving eccentric genius. Mozart is a genius, but an infantile man. He spends beyond his means, parties too much, and defies authoritative figures, including his father, Leopold. These negative traits all contribute...

Why does the old man try to killing him self bye cutting his throat

The old man had confessed to poisoning Mozart, and had attempted suicide by cutting his throat.

Study Guide for Amadeus

Amadeus study guide contains a biography of Milos Forman, quiz questions, major themes, characters, and a full summary and analysis.

• About Amadeus
• Amadeus Summary
• Character List
• Director's Influence

Essays for Amadeus

Amadeus essays are academic essays for citation. These papers were written primarily by students and provide critical analysis of Amadeus by director Milos Forman.

• Classical Music Breaks Bad: Mozart’s Downfall in Amadeus
• False Destiny

Wikipedia Entries for Amadeus

• Introduction

30 pages • 1 hour read

A modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more.

Act Summaries & Analyses

Character Analysis

Symbols & Motifs

Important Quotes

Essay Topics

Discussion Questions

Playwright Peter Shaffer has been famously criticized for inventing a historical narrative in Amadeus . Research the real history of Mozart and Salieri and choose one aspect of the story that Shaffer created or changed. How does this change create meaning in terms of the play’s overall message?

Considering Mozart’s unhappy end, who do you think is at fault for his fate? Why? Use evidence from the text to support your answer.

How does the play treat the women characters? Be specific. Considering that they are shown through Salieri’s eyes, what does this depiction say about how Salieri views women?

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