150 Word Review: 'Amadeus' (1985)

Too many notes...

Photo: Orion Pictures

The royal court of Austrian Emperor Joseph II in 1791 was not unlike modern social media: endless rooms crammed with two-faced suck-ups and petty tyrants. Into this world of casual backstabbing steps an artist of heavenly talent, Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart. Brilliant and naive, the famed composer is no match for His Majesty's weasels.

Director Milos Foreman's Oscar-winning adaptation of Peter Shaffer's play about faith, creativity, and the corrosiveness of envy, Amadeus, is timeless because humans cannot help themselves when wanting what they can’t have. Tom Hulce gives an underrated performance as Herr Mozart, a former child star. Hulce balances multiple truths: Mozart was an immature boor blessed and cursed by genius.

But this is F. Murray Abraham's story, as conniving court composer Salieri, a bureaucrat of average talent blessed and cursed with self-awareness—his true gift: fake smiles. Salieri is a small, grasping man whose resentments feed on him like locusts.

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