by Chris Marshall:
One of the first things I thought while watching Amadeus was that Mozart, portrayed by
Tom Hulce, bore a striking resemblance to Fred Armisen. As much as I like
Armisen, I felt like this was a bad sign right off the bat. Our hero (is he a
hero?) turns out to be one of the most annoying characters in the Oscar Project
to date.
Most of the problem stems from his laugh, which is an
abomination. Few things bother me more than a bad laugh, and this film gives
him oh so many opportunities to use it. And then there’s his stupid, stupid
face. I hated him so bad.
This is a shame because outside of Mozart himself, there’s
nothing very objectionable about Amadeus.
I thought F. Murray Abraham was good as Salieri, and in fact, I started rooting
for him to murder Mozart as soon as possible. I’m not exactly sure this was the
director’s[1]
intention.
If Gandhi was a
prime example of how a film can be saved by a good performance, then Amadeus is an example of how it can be
completely derailed by a bad one. I know the record will show that Hulce was
nominated for Best Actor, but I can’t for the life of me understand why. If he
was supposed to come across that way,
then I blame Forman. Somebody’s gotta take the fall.
The core of the film [SPOILERS ABOUND] is about Mozart’s
rivalry with Salieri. The latter was Emperor Joseph II’s court composer, while
Mozart was just a young upstart. Salieri knew right away that Mozart was a
supremely talented composer, and time after time, he was overshadowed by the
newcomer’s success. Ultimately, he develops a plan to ghost write Mozart’s
Requiem Mass, murder him, and take credit for the composition. Fate intervenes,
however, and Mozart dies before the piece is completed. Shucks.
I know that Salieri’s plan was completely, unequivocally
evil, but as I mentioned, I hated Hulce’s Mozart so badly that I started hoping
for his success. I don’t know if this makes me a bad person or not.
 |
| I hate everything about his stupid face. |
The entire film was told from the perspective of an elderly
Salieri, as he recounted the tale to a priest who had come to visit him in an
insane asylum. The movie ends with us hearing Mozart’s laugh one last time, so
I think it’s safe to say that it was the direct cause for Salieri’s insanity. I
have no doubt that I also would have been institutionalized if I had to listen
to that for years and years.
So anyway, the asylum angle is fine with me. The only
problem is that “old Salieri” looks a lot like old Biff in Back to the Future. Or the old guy in Prometheus, which is not a compliment. I guess I shouldn’t be so
harsh about such a minor thing, but surely makeup technology isn’t that much
better now than it was thirty years ago.
The 80s have been a weird decade because I’ve tended to like
the movies I didn’t expect to and dislike the ones I thought I’d enjoy. I’m
discovering that I’m enjoying Out of Africa exactly as much as I expected I would (not much at all), but it’s
the exception and not the rule. Maybe I’m being short-sighted, but I just
couldn’t see past Amadeus’s obnoxiousness. It tainted the entire movie for me.
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