Amadeus, the movie

July 9, 2010 | Posted by GrumpDaddy

This movie has significance to me in ways of which only a few are aware. In spite of that history, it is probably the greatest movie I have ever seen. The cinematography, casting, acting and costuming are all tremendous but the tragic story overwhelms the technical features of the film.

The story is told by Salieri, who early in life prayed:

Lord, make me a great composer. Let me celebrate Your glory through music and be celebrated myself. Make me famous through the world, dear God. Make me immortal. After I die, let people speak my name forever with love for what I wrote. In return, I will give You my chastity, my industry, my deepest humility, every hour of my life, Amen.

When he saw the music Mozart had created effortlessly, he was astounded:

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But they showed no corrections of any kind. Not one. He had simply written down music already finished in his head. Page after page of it as if he were just taking dictation. And music, finished as no music is ever finished. Displace one note and there would be diminishment. Displace one phrase and the structure would fall.

At first, he was puzzled:

All I wanted was to sing to God. He gave me that longing… and then made me mute. Why? Tell me that. If He didn’t want me to praise him with music, why implant the desire? Like a lust in my body! And then deny me the talent?

Then, he turned upon the God to whom he had prayed:

(speaking to a crucifix) From now on we are enemies, You and I. Because You choose for Your instrument a boastful, lustful, smutty, infantile boy and give me for reward only the ability to recognize the incarnation. Because You are unjust, unfair, unkind, I will block You, I swear it. I will hinder and harm Your creature on earth as far as I am able.

If you haven’t seen this movie, run, don’t walk, to the nearest place you can find it and buy it- I guarantee you will want to watch it several times in your life. It will move you.