September 6, 1984 (Los Angeles)
September 19, 1984 (United States)
Amadeus is a 1984 American period biographical drama film directed by Miloš Forman and adapted by Peter Shaffer from his 1979 stage play Amadeus. The story is set in Vienna, Austria, during the latter half of the 18th century, and is a fictionalized story of Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart from the time he left Salzburg, described by its writer as "fantasia on the theme of Mozart and Salieri". Mozart's music is heard extensively in the soundtrack of the film. The film follows a fictional rivalry between Mozart and Italian composer Antonio Salieri at the court of Emperor Joseph II. The film stars F. Murray Abraham as Salieri and Tom Hulce as Mozart. Abraham and Hulce were both nominated for the Academy Award for Best Actor, with Abraham winning.
Amadeus was released by Orion Pictures on September 19, 1984, thirteen days following its world premiere in Los Angeles on September 6, 1984. Upon release, the film received widespread acclaim and was a box office hit, grossing over $90 million.
Considered one of the greatest films of all time, Amadeus was nominated for 53 awards and received 40, including eight Academy Awards (including the Academy Award for Best Picture), four BAFTA Awards, four Golden Globe Awards, and a Directors Guild of America award. As of 2021, it is the most recent film to have more than one nomination in the Academy Award for Best Actor category. 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".
Storyline
In 1823, aged composer Antonio Salieri is committed to a psychiatric hospital after attempting suicide, during which he claims that he murdered Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart. Father Vogler, a Catholic priest, encourages Salieri to confess his sins before God. After the young 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 that he grew up hearing stories of Mozart the child prodigy. As a youth, Salieri offered God a deal: if He allowed Salieri to become a famous musician like Mozart, Salieri would offer his faithfulness, chastity, and diligence. His unsupportive father soon dies, which Salieri interprets as a sign that God has accepted his vow. By 1774, Salieri becomes court composer to Emperor Joseph II in Vienna. However, he has enough taste to know that Emperor Joseph has no ear for music, and that his own compositions will not stand the test of time.
When Salieri meets Mozart for the first time, he immediately knows that Mozart is the better composer, but is shocked to learn that Mozart is obscene, immature, and dissolute. Adding to his dismay, he learns that Mozart never needs to pen a second draft of his music (see Mozart's compositional method), 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 has trouble finding work 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 for the same reason, 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. However, to Salieri's equal disbelief, the Emperor finds the opera boring, and it is promptly cancelled. In response, Mozart composes Don Giovanni, a dark, serious opera. Salieri is entranced, but vindictively gets that opera cancelled too. Renouncing Vienna's artistic establishment, Mozart agrees to write The Magic Flute for a commoners' theater.
After watching Don Giovanni five times, Salieri realizes that the dead commander who accuses Giovanni of sin represents Mozart's inferiority complex towards his own father. He concocts a plan to humiliate God. He persuades the unstable Mozart that his late father has risen to commission a Requiem Mass. He 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 both The Magic Flute and the Requiem. Constanze, who wants him to focus on the Requiem, leaves with their son Karl. Although The Magic Flute is a success, the dying Mozart collapses before he can finish the Requiem.
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, 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 and kicks Salieri out of the apartment before he can steal the Requiem. Due to his debts, Mozart is unceremoniously 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 the smallest part of Mozart's glory. As Salieri is wheeled down a hallway, he proclaims himself the patron saint of mediocrities. He loudly absolves the asylum's other patients of their inadequacies as Mozart's laughter rings in the air.
Sound Effects Used
- Sound Ideas, APPLAUSE - MEDIUM AUDIENCE: LONG APPLAUSE 01 (debut)
- Sound Ideas, CHIMES, WIND - GLASS WIND CHIMES: RINGING 02 (debut)
- Sound Ideas, COIN, GOLD - LARGE GOLD COIN: HIT AND RING 01 (debut)
- Sound Ideas, DOG, MIXED BREED - MEDIUM DOG, GROWLING, ANIMAL 02 (debut)
- Sound Ideas, HUMAN, LAUGH - SMALL CHILD LAUGH (debut)