Salieri's Story, Not Mozart's

Rating: 5/10 (19 December 2013)

"Amadeus" is one artist's approach to solving the many mysteries of young Mozart's life, including the now-mythologized circumstances surrounding his early death at the age of thirty-five.
Interestingly enough, the film was more of a character study on Salieri, a Composer to Emperor Joseph II (Jeffrey Jones). The film opens with Antonio Salieri (F. Murray Abraham) in an asylum after attempting suicide, asking for forgiveness for murdering Mozart (Tom Hulce) in 1791. His story; his confession; this film, is told to a priest by the name of Father Vogler (Richard Frank). "Amadeus" takes place primarily in Vienna, from 1781 until 1791, when Mozart dies. Through Salieri's words, we are able to see Mozart as he is (supposedly) when away from public eye, and the picture is less than ideal. Mozart, although still an undeniable genius and musical prodigy, is also immature, rude, selfish, and has no respect for his wife, children, family, nor anyone else in society.
It goes without saying that the accompanying music is phenomenal. Mozart' compositions are essential and forefront enough throughout the entirety of the film to be considered a character. The costume design, period production, mise en scene, etc. was all exceptional. However, I could hardly watch the film because of Mozart's character. Especially his laugh. To make this worse was the fact that this was all in the director/writer's imagination. Yes, this is historical fiction. And I understand that not all facts portrayed in the film need to be historically accurate. However, although this has been perfectly fine for me in other films, in this film, it simply did not work. I really wanted to like this film, I did. But I could not. I had to force myself to watch most of the scenes, saved purely by beautiful costumes and melodious compositions. I found myself hating Mozart, but why? I should rather hate the Mozart this film has created!
As I said, thankfully this was more Salieri's than Mozart's plot, and Salieri, although far from lovable, was a watchable and complex character. Although he idolizes Mozart's genius, he hates his character, and struggles with this up to the very last moment. And, really, that is precisely how I felt.