Talk on movie 'Amadeus': shaping view of humanity

Goldwasser states the movie travels deep into the human psyche, and it shows how easily-earned greatness can turn to determined evil. Photo courtesy of Google ImagesBy Seth Goldwater

Few films have shaped this writer’s opinion of humanity as much as the film Amadeus. Based on Peter Shaffer’s play, the plot follows Antonio Salieri as he aspires to become a top composer in Vienna, Italy. 

At the beginning of the movie, Salieri is an old man who tries to commit suicide for allegedly killing Wolfgang Mozart 32 years prior. He is sent to an asylum and is visited by a young priest who insists on a confession. 

Salieri eventually gives in spitefully and begins his story about his God given dreams of being a great composer.  His dreams become reality as he instructs and is the composer for Holy Roman Emperor Joseph II. He is a Godly man, and thanks the Lord for his success. 

It is during this time that he hears of a young prodigy from Salzburg named Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart. He has heard fascinating stories about Mozart’s childhood, including the fact that Mozart wrote his first concerto at four, symphony at six and an opera at twelve. 

Antonio attends a performance at the court of the Prince-Archbishop of Salzburg and looks for Mozart among the guests. He finds Mozart, only to find his expectations of a righteous gentleman shattered by an immature promiscuous boy. Further, his music is magnificent, and Antonio believes God mocks him with Mozart’s genius. 

He slowly turns from a Godly man with poise and standards to a manipulative devil, seeking to destroy God’s gift. He uses his status and influence to diminish Mozart, in the hopes of eclipsing Mozart with his own music. 

He drives himself insane at the thought of surpassing Mozart through destroying him, and, in the end, is tortured for thirty-two more years by his own inability to succeed. 

This movie delves deep into the human psyche. It shows how easily earned greatness can turn to determined evil. 

It also harps on the product of overbearing instruction mixed with constant spoiling of the noble class. Mozart’s lack of righteousness is caused by the lifestyle his father and his society created for him. He values his work as perfect because his father demanded it and his audience praised it. 

It may not be his fault that he is the product of his father’s work. Antonio, on the other hand, has no one to blame for his mediocrity but himself. Yet, he cannot truly accept it as long as Mozart and his immature absent-mindedness stands before him. 

The true struggle in the movie is between the nature of two starkly different men. Is one man born with talent, but lacking in humility more deserving than a man of mediocrity with bounds of humility? Is it fair to destroy a man because he commits subconscious mockery to the hard work of another?