Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart Essay, Research Paper
The main actors and their characters they played are:
Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart – Tom Hulce
Antonio Salieri – Murray Abraham
Mozart’s dad – Roy Dotrice
Mozart’s wife – Elizabeth Berridde
Emperor Joseph II – Jeffery Jones
Milos Forman – Director
The movie “ Amadeus” was based on two composers, Mozart and Salieri. In the begging of the movie Salieri tries to commit suiside. A priest comes to see Salieri to ask him if he has anything to confess. Salieri then begins to unravel the story of Mozart and Salieri’s life together. Mozart has been a great composer since he was four years old. Salieri on the other hand not as good and would never be as good as Mozart. In the movie you can see how jealous Salieri is of Mozart. Salieri’s father was against him playing music, and on the other end Mozart’s father praised it and insisted on it. Salieri wanted to play music more than anything in the world. One day while in church, Salieri asks God to let him be a great composer and in return he would give him his chastity and write for God. The next day Salieri’s father died and this was a miracle in Salieri’s eyes.
His family had to go to Vienna where Salieri then became discovered. Salieri worked his way up to the courts and was the Emperor’s composer. Mozart was to perform for the Emperor, when Salieri got news of this he grew anxious to meet the great composer. He wanted to see what this marvelous composer looked like with all the talent he possessed. The story then goes on about Mozart composing operas and pieces for the Emperor. More and more Salieri was growing to hate Mozart, because he was not as good and realized he would never be. In the middle of the movie Mozart finds out that his father has died. This slowly kills Mozart, he can’t write, he drinks more and more, and his relationship with his wife is suffering.
Salieri sees how Mozart’s father’s death effects him and uses it to his advantage. Salieri buys a mask just like the one Mozart’s father wore at mask party. Salieri goes to Mozart’s house under the mask and tells him to write an opera about death. Mozart starts to write the piece and it makes him very ill. Mozart does not realize that the piece is killing him slowly. While Mozart is conducting an opera he faints. Salieri takes him to his home to get rest. Salieri tells him the opera was excellent there is a knock on the door. Mozart thinks it is the man with the mask. Mozart tells Salieri to tell the man that he is not finished. Salieri goes to the door it is the men from the opera house. They want to know if Mozart is ok and to give him his share of the money. Salieri goes to Mozart and tells him the man with the mask says that a hundred more will come if he finishes the piece before tomorrow night.
Mozart is happy at first because of the money, but then realizes because he is sick that he will never be able to finish the piece. Salieri asks Mozart if he needs help with finishing the piece. They are up all night long; they are almost done when Mozart has to take a break. They both fall asleep, and are awaken by Mozart’s wife. Mozart’s wife comes back because she misses Mozart she tells Salieri to leave. He tells her that he cant because Mozart needs to finish the piece. Mozart’s wife tells him that he cant work on it anymore because it is killing him. While Salieri and Mozart’s wife are fighting Mozart dies. Salieri in his old age tells the priest that God killed his own miracle and wishes that he could have done it himself.
Mozart and Salieri’s relationship is awkward. In Mozart’s eyes he thinks that Salieri can’t stand him and that he is not a good composer. Mozart views Salieri as an okay composer but has on one occasion made fun of him. Salieri on the other hand hates Mozart in some way. He has thought out how to kill him and make himself more famous. He feels that God has put him on this earth to ruin his own life. Salieri has severe mental problems.
Mozart and his father have a love hate relationship. Mozart loves his father more than anything and owes his entire career to him. Although Mozart loves his father, he has disobeyed him by marrying his wife and not waiting for his father to get to Vienna. Mozart’s father loves his son more than anything, but hates the fact that Mozart drinks too much and does not make enough money. His father wants him to go back to his home with his father but Mozart refuses because he loves Vienna too much.
Mozart and his wife have a loving and honest relationship. Mozart loves his wife very much and is stressed at times because he can’t always provide for her. He is faithful to her after they got married and stands up for her when she fights with Mozart’s father. Mozart’s wife is a loving, understanding, and supporting wife. She would do anything for her husband but worries about him all the time. She is concerned about his drinking and that he is not getting paid for his marvelous work. She cares about money very much because Mozart goes through very quickly, and there is never enough money for her. Mozart loves to part and spend money doing it.
Mozart and the Emperor are not very close. Mozart thinks that the Emperor is to old fashion, but Mozart still respects him as the Emperor. He also likes the Emperor because he let him marry his wife and stay in Vienna where he wanted to stay. The Emperor like Mozart’s talent but thinks that he is a little outrageous and irresponsible. The Emperor did allow Mozart to perform a play that he had outlawed and allowed ballet in the play even thought that was against the Emperor’s rules. Mozart was able to convince the Emperor about a lot of things that the rest of the court did not like.
Salieri and Mozart’s wife do not have much of a relationship. They only come in contact with each other on two occasions. She came to salieri to show him her husband’s work to see if it was good enough. Because Salieri was so astounded with what he read he threw the music on the floor and left her. She was not happy because of how rude he was that day. The next time she talked to him was when she came home and her was there with Mozart. She asked him to leave right away and didn’t want Mozart to do anything that would make him even sicker. Salieri doesn’t show much interest in Mozart’s wife. He doesn’t really show a like or dislike for her. At the beginning when she brings the music for him he is nice and gracious to her but after that day he doesn’t speak of her nor have any conflict with her.
Mozart’s father and Mozart’s wife have a great conflict. Mozart’s father thinks that she is a bad housewife and can’t clean or cook and that she is a slob. He doesn’t understand why Mozart and his wife excepts gifts without knowing whom they came from. Mozart’s wife thinks that his father gets to involve in their lives. She says that they can’t ever do enough to please him. She doesn’t want him living in their house any longer and so he leaves. Their relationship is a major conflict.
I enjoyed the film, it was not only educational but it was entertaining also. The way the story was presented was a great why to show the story through one-person eyes, which was Salieri. The way Salieri told the story was through his eyes and only his eyes so you did not get all sides of the story. I liked how they made the characters real. They did not make them boring, usually when you watch a movie from that time period it is boring. They made the characters believable. The movie was long, but I think it was necessary to be that long. I thought that the movie was good and I would suggest it to someone. I wished that all the things in the movie were true, it lost my interest after when I found out it was not all true.