Overrated tripe

Rating: 3/10 (8 October 2002)

God, why do so many people like this movie? I mean, I thought it was cool when I was a little kid and I saw it, but other than some cool performances from Hulce and Abraham, what has this movie got to offer? Excerpts from Mozart's most popular stuff you could buy for $2 on any discount classics CD? It's got director Forman's usual overuse of head shots and quick reaction shots, his usual reliance on audience reactions to carry the supposed impact of a star's performance (as seen also in his lackluster 90s bioflick, Man on the Moon), plus you've got a whopping case of historical falsification. The whole thing about Salieri murdering Mozart is ridiculous historical fable that's been passed around by people for years, and has less validity than your average second gunner JFK story. But viewers of this movie will, unfortunately, probably walk away from it thinking that Salieri was a bad, bad man indeed. This is unfair to his life and his music, but the producers of this hero-worshipping (though also hero-deflating, in the modern ambigously "realist" style) flick couldn't care less. I guess they just didn't see any other possibility for drama in the tale of the spoiled, brilliant musician and instead of concentrating on his professional laxitude and his obsession with sex (which did get an airing), they came up with the whole Salieri murder thing. Bad idea, bad movie.