Examination of the Motion Picture Amadeus

While the movie "Amadeus" fails to remain true to almost any historical truth in its depiction of its title character and of his unseen nemesis, Antonio Salieri, it maintains vestiges of accuracy, and of course, brilliant dramatization that almost makes up for its inaccuracies and earned it its 53 nominations and 40 awards from various organizations dedicated to deciding what should count as "good film."

Beginning with the main character himself, Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, the film mostly follows the events of the last few years of his short life, excepting the brief moments that an aged Salieri provides narration many years in the future. Shaffer, the film's writer, and Forman, the director, did reasonably well on showing the background of Mozart's life. They captured the absolute awe-inspiring music he created, and gave it substance by having the only other musically trained character in the film, Salieri himself, praise it as the work of God. This closely mirrors historical records of much praise for Mozart by famous and influential composers, such as Haydn claiming to Leopold Mozart, "Your son is the greatest composer known to me by person and repute, he has taste and what is more the greatest skill in composition."

They also accurately depict Mozart's slow but steady fall from the heights of society, falling into debt and failing to earn any appreciable income in any manner. However, many, many, many creative liberties were taken with other parts of his life. For example, while Mozart was known to have composed several what are called scatalogial compositions for his and his friends' amusement, Shaffer depicted him in the movie as wildly inappropriate, uncouth in the face of royalty, and overall ill-suited for being a member of higher society in the general time period. This is made all the more clear in comparing Mozart's actions within the movie to his colleagues such as the court composer Salieri, who in turn presents the classical socialite characteristics. Mozart, raised to perform for the highest echelons of society, should have had no difficulty in at the very least pretending to act sophisticated, something touched on only lightly in the movie.

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Salieri, in comparison to poor Amadeus, was even more wildly exaggerated in the name of a fantastical movie filled with drama and political struggling, usually without Mozart's knowledge that he was a part of this conflict. Antonio Salieri indeed was an actual historical figure, who was the court composer in charge of Italian opera in the court of Joseph II. Some reports claim that he was, in fact, present at the funeral service of Mozart after his death, but it seems that this is where all similarities between fact and cinema end. While the plot of the entire movie centers solely around Salieri's unquenchable jealousy of the brilliant, yet immature child Mozart, there is no account at all of any sort of ill-will between the two great composers.

Yes, while it may be true that Mozart was a far greater composer than Salieri was (who even heard of him before the movie?), Salieri had no reason to sabotage the future of Mozart in any way. He was a great composer in his own right, not anywhere near as incompetent at composing as "Amadeus" depicts him, and near the end of his life, had the honor of teaching other musical greats such as Beethoven, Liszt, and Schubert. While his actions certainly gave the movie substance and drama that true history would almost definitely have not offered, Antonio Salieri seems to be mostly the poor victim of a very well made, artistic, raking of his name through mud.

The last notable person to be examined in particular is the face of royalty, Emperor Joseph II of enlightened despot fame. Of all the semi-major characters in the film, Shaffer and Forman seem to have deemed Joseph worthy of being the most historically accurate. This, however, is not saying much, especially when Mozart and Salieri are used as examples of "accuracy." Emperor Joseph II historically is known as one of the three great absolutist monarchs, alongside Catherine the Great of Russia and Frederick the Great of Prussia.

A patron of both education and culture, his many reforms improved the lives of his people, at least until his death. Afterwards, most of his changes fell apart due to the popular push against such radical change in so short of a time. But that's not the point, or the position he took in "Amadeus." Known as the "Musical King," Joseph II steered Austrian art towards its more Germanic roots, commissioned many pieces from great names such as Beethoven and Mozart, and overall was the epitome of an artistic patron. The movie takes this noble man, and transforms him into a bumbling musically inept idiot, incapable of either discerning good music from bad or from making any sort of decision on his own. Salieri, the "incapable" composer manages to somehow control almost all things musical and artistic within the fictional Joseph's court.

The portrayal of historical events, seesawed between faithful accuracy and extreme fictionalization and dramatization. The composition, rehearsal, and premiere of Mozart's operas "The Marriage of Figaro" was roughly historically accurate. While Emperor Joseph II may not have personally doomed Figaro through yawning, he actually did express concerns over how long the opera was, which the film uses as a humorous, yet telling method of showing how each of Mozart's latest and greatest works failed to relieve any of his financial stresses.

"Don Giovanni," however, was not an eventual failure because of Salieri's connivances. All records seem to show that it was met with wild success, and was considered one of the greatest operas of the time. The fictionalization of this account does contribute greatly to the plot. Here, we see Salieri for the first time openly admitting to the audience that he had personally sabotaged Mozart's efforts, marking his descent into mad jealousy, and in turn, further towards damnation in his quest against God's beloved.

But a historical movie, fully admitted to not be meant as an accurate documentary, cannot be solely judged only on its faithfulness to actual events. As a visual work of art, "Amadeus" is a fantastic movie that attracts with a plot continually pushed forward by incrementally growing drama, and a movie that serves to almost repulse its viewers with the desperation of its main villain Salieri. The acting is great, presenting every side of every character, to tell us whether they deserve pity, respect, or disgust.

Mozart, the genius, induces both humor and cringing through the immaturity that drives Salieri wild with anger, while at the same time, his unwavering dedication to brilliant music makes Mozart's fall only the more saddening. Salieri, too, brings about a wide range of emotion. Pity from his life's work being shown to be nothing in only the p of a few years, anger at his kind treatment of Mozart while also secretly planning his ruin, and so much more. Beyond just the characters, subtle changes in the environment, whether it be snow, rain, the royal theater or just a poor man's one, accurately set up moods and expectations, sometimes before the viewer realizes what is going to happen.

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