Amadeus is a 1984 American epic drama film directed by Miloš Forman. Peter Shaffer adapted it from his 1979 stage play, inspired by Alexander Pushkin's 1830 play Mozart and Salieri. Shaffer described it as a "fantasia on [a real-life] theme", as it imagines an orchestral rivalry between two 18th-century Vienna composers, Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart (Tom Hulce) and Antonio Salieri (F. Murray Abraham). Salieri struggles to reconcile his professional admiration for Mozart with his jealous hatred, and resolves to ruin Mozart's career as his form of vengeance against God.
Amadeus received its world premiere in Los Angeles on September 6, 1984. It was released by Orion Pictures thirteen days later to widespread critical acclaim and box office success, grossing over $90 million. It was nominated for 53 awards and won 40, including 8 Academy Awards (including Best Picture), four BAFTA Awards, and four Golden Globe Awards (including Best Motion Picture – Drama). Abraham and Hulce were both nominated for the Academy Award for Best Actor, with Abraham winning. In 1998, the American Film Institute ranked it 53rd on its 100 Years... 100 Movies list. In 2019, the film was selected for preservation in the United States National Film Registry by the Library of Congress as being "culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant".
Plot
In 1823, aged composer Antonio Salieri attempts suicide and is committed to a psychiatric hospital. He claims that he murdered Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart. Father Vogler, a young Catholic priest, encourages Salieri to confess his sins before God. After Vogler fails to recognize him, Salieri plays three old melodies to jog his memory. Vogler cannot recognize the first two (which Salieri wrote) but is relieved to recognize the third (Eine kleine Nachtmusik) at once. Salieri peevishly reveals that Mozart wrote it.
Salieri begins his confession by saying he grew up hearing stories about the child prodigy Mozart. In his youth, Salieri was in love with music but was forbidden by his father to study the craft. Salieri proposed that if God made him a famous musician like Mozart, he would give God his faithfulness, chastity, and diligence. Salieri's father soon dies, which he interprets as a sign that God has accepted his vow. By 1774, Salieri became court composer to Holy Roman Emperor Joseph II in Vienna. However, he has enough taste to know that Emperor Joseph has no ear for music, though Salieri prides himself on the popularity of his work.
Salieri understands that Mozart is the better composer but is shocked to discover, upon their first meeting, that Mozart is obscene, immature, and dissolute. He also learns that Mozart never needs to pen a second draft of his music, implying divine inspiration. Salieri cannot fathom why God would choose a reprobate like Mozart as his earthly instrument. Salieri renounces God and vows to take revenge on him by destroying Mozart.
Mozart's work is ahead of its time, and he struggles to find employment in Vienna. He spends himself into debt, alarming his wife Constanze. Salieri and Mozart bond over their shared contempt for Emperor Joseph's lack of taste, but Mozart is unimpressed by Salieri's populist work, which causes Salieri great pain.
Mozart boldly adapts the subversive play The Marriage of Figaro into a comedic opera. Salieri rejoices, thinking Mozart's career is ruined, but Mozart stuns Salieri by convincing the Emperor to approve the project. The Emperor, however, finds the opera boring, and it is soon canceled. Eventually, Mozart's father, Leopold, dies. In response to criticisms and his grief, Mozart composes Don Giovanni, a dark, serious opera. Salieri is entranced but vindictively gets that opera canceled, too. Renouncing Vienna's artistic establishment, Mozart agrees to write The Magic Flute for a commoners' theater against Constanze's wishes.
After watching Don Giovanni five times, Salieri realizes that the dead commander who accuses Giovanni of sin represents Mozart's inferiority complex towards his father. Posing as an anonymous patron, in a costume Leopold had worn to a masquerade ball, Salieri persuades the unstable and debt-ridden Mozart to accept a commission for a Requiem Mass. Salieri plans to kill Mozart, claim the Requiem as his own, and premiere it at Mozart's funeral, forcing God to listen as Salieri is acclaimed. Mozart overworks himself, juggling The Magic Flute and the Requiem. Constanze, who wants him to focus on the Requiem but fears his erratic behavior, leaves with their son Karl. Although The Magic Flute is a success, Mozart collapses from exhaustion before he can finish conducting the opera.
Desperate to complete his plan but also desperate for more of Mozart's heavenly music, Salieri begs the bedridden Mozart to keep writing the Requiem. He takes dictation from Mozart throughout the night, during which he comes to terms with Mozart's superior talent. Mozart thanks Salieri for his friendship, and Salieri admits that Mozart is the greatest composer he knows.
Constanze returns around dawn and attempts to kick Salieri out of the apartment, locking the Requiem away before he can steal it. As Salieri protests, they are shocked to discover that Mozart has died. Due to his debts, Mozart is buried in a pauper's grave.
Back in 1823, Vogler is too shaken to absolve Salieri, who surmises that God would rather destroy his beloved Mozart than allow Salieri to share in Mozart's glory. As Salieri is wheeled down a hallway, he proclaims himself the patron saint of mediocrities. He absolves the asylum's other patients of their inadequacies as Mozart's laughter rings in the air.
Cast
Production Kenneth Branagh wrote in his autobiography Beginning that he was one of the early finalists for the role of Mozart, but was dropped from consideration when Forman decided to make the film with an American cast. Forman declined to have Tim Curry, who originated the role of Mozart on Broadway, reprise his role; however, he allowed Curry to screen-test for Salieri instead at Shaffer's suggestion. Mark Hamill, who replaced Curry as Mozart towards the end of the stage play's original Broadway run, was rejected by Forman because of his association with the character Luke Skywalker, believing audiences would not accept him as the composer.
Forman invited Hulce to a "get-acquainted session" in late 1982. However, Hulce was instructed not to study conducting, as the modern discipline is different than in Mozart's time, when conductors primarily kept time and often played along at the keyboard. Meg Tilly was cast as Mozart's wife Constanze, but she tore a ligament in her leg the day before shooting started. She was replaced by Elizabeth Berridge. Simon Callow, who played Mozart in the original London stage production of Amadeus, was cast as Emanuel Schikaneder, the librettist of The Magic Flute.
The film was shot on location in Prague for seven months, with primary filming ending in July 1983. and in Kroměříž at Kroměříž Castle. Forman was able to shoot scenes in the Estates Theatre in Prague, where Don Giovanni and La clemenza di Tito debuted two centuries before. Several other scenes were shot at the Barrandov Studios and Invalidovna building, a former hôtel des invalides, built in 1731–1737.
Forman collaborated with American choreographer Twyla Tharp for scenes that featured recreations of Mozart and Salieri operas.
The movie presented high realism by using candlelight inside the Estates Theater in Prague and filming full-length, authentic opera scenes.
Tom Hulce reportedly used John McEnroe's mood swings as a source of inspiration for his portrayal of Mozart's unpredictable genius. He claimed he did not find Mozart's signature laugh until he downed a bottle of whiskey. The Making of Amadeus. DVD. Warner Bros Pictures, 2001. 20 min.
Reception
Critical reception Amadeus holds a score of 90% on review aggregator Rotten Tomatoes based on 160 reviews, with an average rating of 9.1/10. The site's consensus states: "Amadeus liberties with history may rankle some, but the creative marriage of Miloš Forman and Peter Shaffer yields a divinely diabolical myth of genius and mediocrity, buoyed by inspired casting and Mozart's rapturous music." Metacritic, which uses a weighted average, assigned the a score of 87 out of 100, based on 28 critics, indicating "universal acclaim".
Giving the film four-out-of-four stars, Roger Ebert acknowledged that it was one of the "riskiest gambles a filmmaker has taken in a long time", but added that "there is nothing cheap or unworthy about the approach", and ultimately concluded that it was a "magnificent film, full and tender and funny and charming". Ebert later added the film to his Great Movies list. Peter Travers of People magazine said that "Hulce and Abraham share a dual triumph in a film that stands as a provocative and prodigious achievement." Stanley Kauffmann of The New Republic put it on his list of films worth seeing.
In one negative review, Todd McCarthy of Variety said that despite "great material and themes to work with, and such top talent involved," the "stature and power the work possessed onstage have been noticeably diminished" in the film adaptation. The film's many historical inaccuracies have attracted criticism from music historians.
Box office The film grossed $52 million in the United States and Canada and by November 1985, while still in theatres overseas, had grossed over $90 million worldwide to date.
Accolades The film was nominated for eleven Academy Awards and won eight, including Best Picture. At the end of the Oscar ceremony, Laurence Olivier came on stage to present the Oscar for Best Picture. As Olivier thanked the academy for inviting him, he was already opening the envelope. Instead of announcing the nominees, he simply read, "The winner for this is Amadeus." An AMPAS official quickly went onstage to confirm the winner and signaled that all was well before Olivier then presented the award to producer Saul Zaentz. Olivier (in his 78th year) had been ill for many years, and it was because of mild dementia that he forgot to read the nominees.Olivier, by Terry Coleman, 2005, p. 484 Zaentz then thanked Olivier, saying it was an honor to receive the award from him, before mentioning the other nominees in his acceptance speech: The Killing Fields, A Passage to India, Places in the Heart and A Soldier's Story. Maurice Jarre won Best Original Music Score for his scoring of A Passage to India. In his acceptance speech for the award, Jarre remarked "I was lucky Mozart was not eligible this year". While accepting his first Oscar for Best Actor, F. Murray Abraham drew loud cheers when he said: "There is only one thing missing for me tonight—and that is to have Tom Hulce standing by my side."
The film is one of the few Best Picture winners never to enter the weekend box office top 5 after rankings began being recorded in 1982. The film peaked at No. 6 during its 8th weekend in theaters. Saul Zaentz produced both Amadeus and The English Patient. In 2006, Writers Guild of America West ranked its screenplay 73rd in WGA’s list of 101 Greatest Screenplays.