Amadeus - Passion with a Price

Amadeus movie poster from IMDb

  For a 3-hour movie, it was really worth the watch. Amadeus has caught my attention in many ways, but one thing about Amadeus has really captured my interest is the way the characters were brought to life on screen.

  Let's start with Mozart. Tom Hulce, the actor of Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, has certainly brought out the defining features of Mozart on screen. **SPOILER ALERT!!** It was brilliant to see Mozart with his rather unique demeanor; from his quirky and annoying laughter to his fascination for oddities such as being involved in a theatrical masquerade parties. For someone who is already placed on the far right o the normal distribution of society back then, in terms of musical talent, it was interesting to watch how Mozart's attitude and social skills were well beyond the normal Viennese society as well. He was obnoxious towards women and he is unable to observe basic etiquette in a high society such as behaving in the presence of royalty. In a way, Mozart's extraordinary gift in music came at the price of unable to adapt to societal norms back then, which ultimately led to his downfall as his snobbishness for his talent made him unable to teach pupils. As a result, he regretted when he was in a serious financial constraint as his poor reputation was spread throughout the high society, which made him an unfavourable teacher among the high society. But bad qualities aside, I've also observed that Mozart is actually one who can remain committed to things. In all obviousness he is devoted to his music and can go on for hours composing an opera in his room, but he also shows dedication and commitment when he is stuck in a rut between famous soprano singer Katerina Cavalieri and his future wife, Constanze Mozart. If Mozart were to marry Katerina, his financial status would be somewhat settled as he will be marrying someone from a high end society, but he was adamant in choosing to remain by Constanze's side, even though she was just a commoner. Hence, Mozart was still respectable in some ways to me due to his ability to remain committed and loyal to the things (and people) he loves.

  Now for the antagonist, Salieri. Salieri to me seemed like Mozart on the other side of the mirror. He was all the things that Mozart wasn't on the outside. Salieri was a man who played by society's rules, and became a respectable court composer with mannerism to the German emperor back then, Emperor Joseph II. Even his clothes were the total opposite of Mozart as he was always wearing, dark and dull coloured clothes compared to Mozart who prefers to wear colourful and eye-catching clothing. But when it comes to their personalities, Salieri is strikingly similar to Mozart due to his own show of commitment to things. For starters, he is a man who is committed to God in the beginning, as he was always praying to God for spiritual guidance in helping him through his journey to become a famous musician. Salieri is also passionate about music as much as, or even more than Mozart, as he began to develop a love for music himself despite his father's disapproval, and not forced like how Mozart was by his father. What makes this comparison even more obvious is how at the end, they both eventually succumb to their passion for music. Mozart destroyed himself because of his undying love for music (which ultimately made him die, oh the irony), while Salieri destroyed his sanity because of his obsession for good music, which eventually led him to be obsessed with Mozart's musical masterpieces, even though he says that he hated him. Hence, Salieri to me is like an alter ego of Mozart and vice versa.

  Another character that deserves an honourable mention would be Emperor Joseph II, the emperor of Germany back then. Jeffrey Jones did a fantastic job at bringing out the character of Emperor Joseph II, as he portrayed a strong, powerful, and intimidating character, like how an emperor should be. There was something about Emperor Joseph II's character that made it really entertaining to watch him. One would be his powerful demeanor that commands the loyalty of his subjects, apart from his very humourous effort in learning music despite being deemed as tone deaf by Salieri. His powerful presence as an emperor also brought out the responsible and just values in him in order to keep his country safe. During the scene where he confronted Mozart on his upcoming opera, the emperor had to make an immediate action to ban Mozart's upcoming opera as it was based on the French work of Figaro which celebrated status inequality and oppression. As a ruler responsible of his subjects' safety and wellbeing, Emperor Joseph II had to ban Figaro and also question Mozart as soon as he found out about Mozart's plan, as he had the duty to protect his people. I can definitely see that he is a wise ruler respected by many. Hence, Emperor Joseph II became one of my favourite characters in the movie.