Historically inaccurate but sublime in every other aspect

Rating: 9/10 (9 January 2002)

Amadeus is a great movie and gains in quality after repeated viewing. It's right up there in my top ten list. Why historically inaccurate? Well, I am a big Mozart fan and I've read all the published letters he wrote to his father. Believe me, if Mozart had a disliking to someone, he'd mention it to his father without having reservations. If Mozart ever mentions Salieri in his letters, he refers to him as his colleague and doesn't have one nasty thing to say about him. Salieri never commissioned or helped Mozart with the Requiem score nor did he poisoned him (which also has been rumored) nor did he work him to death. I feel sorry for Salieri because he himself had only nice things to say about his colleagues. I think he deserves better and wonder why he's being portrayed as such a villain. (Bad enough for him no one knows his music...) By the way: Mozart's outrageous giggle which everyone loved and was the onset of an imitation-contest in Italy was "made in Hollywood". If the makers of Amadeus would have read the letters he wrote to his wife and niece, they could have dispensed with the fabricated intrigues and use factual material that would make Milos Forman's Mozart look like a choirboy. But hey: I still love to watch this movie, even for the umph-th time! Thanks Milos!