Amadeus imagined a murderous rivalry, and its own writer called it a fantasia
Amadeus presents Antonio Salieri as a jealous rival bent on destroying Mozart, but Peter Shaffer, who adapted his own stage play, framed the story as an invented fantasia on a real theme. The fiction worked: Miloš Forman's 1984 film won eight Oscars, including Best Picture.
Shaffer's 1979 play drew on Alexander Pushkin's 1830 drama Mozart and Salieri. The film casts F. Murray Abraham as Salieri and Tom Hulce as Mozart, and frames everything as a confession. In 1823 an elderly Salieri, committed to an asylum, insists he killed Mozart. To test a young priest, Father Vogler, he plays a few tunes: the priest cannot place Salieri's own melodies but instantly knows Eine kleine Nachtmusik, which Salieri sourly admits is by his rival.
In the film's telling, the young Salieri promised God devotion and chastity in exchange for musical fame, and by 1774 he was court composer to Emperor Joseph II in Vienna. Meeting Mozart shatters him: the prodigy is crude and immature, yet his scores never need a second draft. Salieri turns against God and sets out to ruin the heavenly instrument, eventually disguising himself as an anonymous patron to commission a Requiem he plans to pass off as his own at Mozart's funeral.
The plan collapses into something stranger. Taking dictation at Mozart's bedside through the night, Salieri comes to accept the younger man's greatness, and Mozart dies deep in debt and is buried in a pauper's grave. The film ends with Salieri, wheeled through the hospital, proclaiming himself patron saint of the mediocre.
Casting was fiercely sifted. Kenneth Branagh was an early finalist for Mozart until Forman opted for an American cast; Tim Curry, Broadway's original Mozart, screen-tested for Salieri instead; and Mark Hamill was turned down because Forman feared audiences would only see Luke Skywalker. Premiering in Los Angeles on September 6, 1984, the film grossed over $90 million and won 40 of the 53 awards it was nominated for. Both leads were up for Best Actor, and Abraham took it. In 2019 it earned a place on the National Film Registry for preservation.
Source: Amadeus (film)
