A study in madness

Rating: Null/10 (1 August 1998)

No character other than Captain Ahab in MOBY DICK comes close to the obsessive, egotistic, insanely jealous Salieri. The music is wonderful, the sets and costumes are grand, but the performances are what really makes this the powerful film that it is.
Slowly we are drawn into old Salieri's madness until we at last understand why he did what he did -- but by that time, we see what a patheic creature he is. He is, as he himself says, the "patron saint of mediocrity." His insane anger against God causes him to destroy himself -- and yet, he is allowed to live in order to see his own destruction. That is the real horror of the story.