Mozart not American!

Rating: 1/10 (11 December 2003)

This film might have been able to get by on wonderful music and grandiose spectacle, but casting an American actor to play Mozart (and his chick) is a serious mis-service to history. The fact that many reviewers approve of this movie & rate it so highly is proof of this. I'm not against American culture per se (far from it) but the Americanisation of history in films (i.e. which gives the impression that many significant figures from the past grew up somewhere near Disneyland) is a terrible thing - it whitewashes cultural diversity & gives a totally distorted view of the world as it was, and still is. This cannot be overlooked. If an Austrian actor was chosen for the part (not Arnie) the film probably would have made less money so I guess that wasn't an option? Better to cast someone who appeared in "Animal House"? Instead of a "Directors' cut" how about a "Realistic cut"? Please explain?...well, if one of the characters in "Amadeus" had stepped out to buy a cheeseburger from Macdonald's or had switched on "MTV" at some point in this movie, it would not have seemed out of place - in what's supposed to be the story of an Austrian composer who lived in the 18th century! In other words, Houston, we have a problem!