Amadeus

Amadeus is a movie based on the lives of the 2 composers Mozart and Salieri in the 18th century. It is set in Vienna, Austria.

It starts by showing Salieri as an old man. He locked himself in a room, and tried to kill him as he yelled apologies for killing Mozart. I thought he was dead in the beginning, but he didn't. Then, he is out into an asylum. A priest comes in to talk to him about what happened, and to get a confession. Salieri doesn't really want to talk to the priest at first, but he ends up talking to him.

Salieri tells how he wanted to become a composer at an early age. His father wanted him to do something else, but when his father suddenly choked at dinner, Salieri took it as a sign. He thought God wanted him to be a composer. It flashes forward to Salieri as an adult, a court composer in Vienna. Salieri next meets Mozart, but they weren't really introduced. His opinion of him completeky changes, and he thinks he is childish.

Salieri had prepared a Welcome March for Mozart as he met the emperor, and the emperor and his court thought it was great. But Mozart, only hearing it once, played it for them again adding things to it and making it better. Salieri wasn't too happy about this, and he started to envy Mozart even more. But he still thinks his music is perfect and amazing.

Salieri decides to disguise himself as Mozart's father, and asks him to write a requiem mass. He gives him money, and promises there will be a lot more. Mozart doesn't know that as soon as he writes it, Salieri's plot to kill him will work. Salieri doesn't think about how he will kill Mozart, he only thinks about how the court will praise him when he steals Mozart's work.

Mozart continues to srruggle financially, and work on the pieces, soon causing his wife to leave him. He finally finishes, but collapses during the performance from exhaustion. The movie ends with Salieri finishing his story to the priest, who is shocked. He says that God killed Mozart, and is taken away in his wheelchair.

I think this was a great movie overall, but it isn't historically accurate. From what I have read, they were only accquaintances in their time. Mozart supposedly died of a fever...

http://www.ask.com/wiki/Amadeus_(film) I got most of my information from here. http://www.csci-snc.com/WhatKilledMozart.htm