Amadeus (1984)
Decided to start watching all of the Oscar best picture winners, in order. I hadn’t heard of some of these movies, some I love and have seen multiple times already and I actively hate others, planning to never watch them again. Fair warning, there will be spoilers in these and other reviews to help explain my point of view.
Amadeus tells the highly fictionalized story of Ludwig Amadeus Mozart, from his early years as a child musical prodigy, to his death. The story is told from the perspective of fellow composer Antonio Salieri, who in the movie’s version of their lives, is a rival of Amadeus, harboring a lifelong jealousy so severe that he may have perhaps killed Amadeus, or at the very least didn’t do anything to help him when he was near death.
I saw this movie when it was on cable after its theater run, but didn’t really get into it, so I didn’t absorb a lot of the details. On this re-watch, I did pay attention, and as with all other “based on a true story movies” I researched it to learn more. I didn’t know until doing so that this is pretty much a made-up story that has little to do with the actual lives of these two men, short of the music attributed to them. Realizing this made me so upset; more and more I have determined that one of my biggest pet peeves is “true stories” that aren’t in fact true. I can accept taking some liberties by not including all of the minutiae of a person’s life, because that would be tedious and boring, but completely making up situations, people, places and relationships is unforgiveable.
As a movie, Amadeus is well-done; I cannot argue with being considered a good movie. It is funny and entertaining and well-acted. It won eight of the 11 Academy awards it was nominated for, all well-deserved. My dislike for the storytelling device prevents me from enjoying it full, however, so from that perspective I would give it 2 out of 5 stars. As a piece of film, I would give it 4 out of 5 stars.
