Rock Me Amadeus

Rating: Null/10 (4 February 2002)

What can i say that hasn't already been said? It's a fantastic film, and i can look past the historical inaccuracies. Peter Shaffer never intended it to be a 'documentary', it's a drama. Just as Pushkin (I think it was him!) wrote a play called "Mozart and Salieri" on how salieri had poisoned Mozart, which in the day was a popular rumour (since disproved). It's entertaining and spectacular to watch, even if you aren't a big fan of classical music. I think it's a wonderful way to bring it to the masses...after all i saw the film first when i was 13 and it spawned my now 10 year obsession with Mozart and his music. Salieri i can relate to. Who hasn't felt the desire to do something but felt inadequate "Why implant the desire like a lust in my body, and then make me mute?"...salieri ignoring the fact that he himself was quite talented...i certainly can't write an opera, he wrote 40! I love the depiction of Salieri's battle with God, and the title could not be more appropriate "Amadeus" which means, beloved of God. You can empathize with both characters, Abraham and Hulce give such depth to the characters. We see that Mozart is a childish, vulgar man, in his outward attitude but when it comes to his music he is nothing but sublime and beautiful. Salieri is an insecure, talented man who seems to feel sort of like the 2nd favourite child. The scene near the end when Mozart is composing the Requiem is almost breathtaking. It lends to the imagination what the composition process might've been like for Wolfi, but most importantly it demonstrates the complex layers of Mozart's music and how well they all fit together. He writes beautiful melodies, but the structure of his music as a whole is what makes it truly amazing "misplace one note...and the structure would fall".