11/23/22 Amadeus? (1984 movie)

     It has been nice having time to unwind and do stuff we normally wouldn't.  Out of pure randomness, I was watching Youtube videos Thursday night (after we got back home from my in-law's house) and video clips popped up from the movie Amadeus, which was done in 1984.  I don't know why I even chose to watch them, but I thought they were interesting, and it occurred to me I never saw the movie back then.  Wife couldn't believe I said that, and all I could say was that when it came out, I thought it was related to that stupid pop song that just repeats "Amadeus, Amadeus, rock me Amadeus".  That song was horribly obnoxious and there might have been a movie tied to it, but it wasn't this one.

    This movie was set in Amadeus lifetime, from the later 1700s into the 1800s.  I believe the story picks up around 1760, it is about the life of Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, but as seen through the eyes of Antonio Salieri, a lesser-known composer of the time.  He was passionate about music from a young age and considered himself devoted to the craft, as one must be to be able to make music pleasing to God's ears.  In enters Mozart who is gifted above all but wrapped in the body of a young horn-dog who cares more for pleasures of the flesh, than devoting his skills to his true gift.

    Salieri is good enough to become the composer to Emperor Joseph II, when they hear of young Mozart.  Mozart is then invited to come and perform for the emperor when Salieri becomes obsessed with Mozart and his carefree ways yet cannot deny the skill and passion how he understands and writes music.  The movie then becomes a fictional recounting of their lives, Salieri always trying to bring Mozart down, but never really can because he loves the art of music too much.

    The story is good in that it is only the recounting from Salieri's old age that we know of Mozart's life, so we don't know the full story.  We just see moments of greatness, when he shows up and plays one of his creations just by hearing it once, to when he performs one of his great concerts or operas.  Salieri is being questioned on whether he had anything to do with the death of Mozart, who died tragically in his 40's, but it is believed it was from his alcoholism.  In the end, Salieri admits Mozart was the greatest composer he ever met, and he resigned himself to at most being the patron saint of mediocrity, as all he ever produced was mediocre music, not for God, but for the mediocre people around him as he seems to lose his mind.