Select language, opens an overlay

Comment

Mar 10, 2018Yuhu rated this title 5 out of 5 stars
FIVE Glittering Stars! This movie is all about the second-rate composer Salieri, his unrequited love of (and dedication to) God--a love and devotion answered by God's silence and neglect, which sparks his hatred of God--and his intention to murder God's favorite, Mozart ("the Creature")--who has unaccountably received all the gifts that God should have given to His faithful and sacrificing servant, Salieri. It's really not about Mozart at all, except that Amadeus embodies the miraculous beauty that emanates, spontaneously, unsolicited, and unaccountably, from God. It's also a movie about The Enlightenment and its effect on the upwardly-mobile, the in-the-know, and the wanna-know--and Milosz Forman creates fine, sly, perfect little scenes that are a delight to watch. Many of those vignettes feature the earnest but rather slow and 'dotty' Emperor Joseph II, played to absolute perfection by Jeffrey Jones--so well that I just can't visualize any other actor in that role--and as Emperor he is surrounded by a court retinue of the wise, the pretentious, the second-rate, and the jealous (and among these actors, each seems perfectly cast and 'right' for his role). Don't waste time worrying about whether this story is historically accurate or not (it's not); enjoy it as a wonderful peak into the18th century mind: Rooted in beliefs that are being uprooted, celestial music that springs from an idiot savant, with a cast of characters who are creeping tentatively toward a rationality that they don't understand and will probably complicate their lives. All things said, Amadeus is, in the Emperor's favorite phrase, something.....Quite.....New!