Peter Shaffer’s 1984 film Amadeus is the story of Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, told from the perspective of his peer, so called friend, and rival Antonio Salieri. The movie begins with a man yelling Mozart 's names and saying that he killed him, we soon learn that the man is none other than Antonio Salieri and he is attempting to commit suicide. This act lands him in an insane asylum, where he is then interrogated by Father Vogler a priest who gets Salieri to tell him what he meant by he killed Mozart. Salieri first tells Father Vogler about his youth and how even then his idolized Mozart and compared himself to him. Salieri desperately wanted to dedicate his life to music, but his father had different plans for him. Despite his father 's objections,
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Before the scene changes Mozart plays the piece from memory and criticizes the piece and improves it in front of Emperor Joseph 2nd, Salieri and other members of the Emperor courts, unintentionally embarrassing Salieri and adding to his rage. Time and time again we see Salieri try to embarrass Mozart or get him into some kind of trouble with the Emperor, he even goes as far as hiring a maid to spy on Mozart and what happens in his house. Salieri begins to think that God is mocking him and essentially laughing at him by allowing Mozart to be a truly genius composer, while he is nothing but mediocre composers. Salieri soon realized that his quarrel or challenge was not with Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, but with the god that Salieri, himself worshiped and served for so long, he soon sets out to destroy Mozart and in turn laugh at God himself. While he sets out to destroy Mozart secretly he acts like his friend and peer. Salieri doesn’t hate Mozart the man he hates what he represents, he hates the fact that the God that he dedicated everything to that he made what he considered the ultimate vow would allow a man such as Mozart to be so talented and he would only make Salieri what he considered mediocre. By attempting to kill Mozart, Salieri believes he will be …show more content…
Salieri plans on killing Mozart and having the requiem mass performed at his funeral and taking credit for the musical piece. As Mozart begins writing this piece and ventures into other deals in desperation for money he begins drinking heavily, his health worsens and so does his relationship with his wife, who has enough and decides to leave him and take their son with her. Mozart takes a turn for the worse during one of his performances and is take home where he is tended to by none other than Salieri, who tricks him into working on the requiem. Mozart and Salieri work together on the requiem nearly completing it when Mozart decides they both need rest. The next day they are awoken by the return of Mozart’s wife who find the requiem and forbids Mozart from working on the very piece that was metaphorically killing him. While she locks the piece of music away and returns to Mozart lying body she finds him dead. Mozart’s death is essentially a slap in the face to Salieri by God himself because it completely ruins Salieri’s plan to murder Mozart himself and to take credit for the requiem that was left unfinished. The movie ends with Salieri back in the insane asylum where he has come to accept himself as mediocre and even declares that he is the patron saint of mediocrity and thus
Before the scene changes Mozart plays the piece from memory and criticizes the piece and improves it in front of Emperor Joseph 2nd, Salieri and other members of the Emperor courts, unintentionally embarrassing Salieri and adding to his rage. Time and time again we see Salieri try to embarrass Mozart or get him into some kind of trouble with the Emperor, he even goes as far as hiring a maid to spy on Mozart and what happens in his house. Salieri begins to think that God is mocking him and essentially laughing at him by allowing Mozart to be a truly genius composer, while he is nothing but mediocre composers. Salieri soon realized that his quarrel or challenge was not with Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, but with the god that Salieri, himself worshiped and served for so long, he soon sets out to destroy Mozart and in turn laugh at God himself. While he sets out to destroy Mozart secretly he acts like his friend and peer. Salieri doesn’t hate Mozart the man he hates what he represents, he hates the fact that the God that he dedicated everything to that he made what he considered the ultimate vow would allow a man such as Mozart to be so talented and he would only make Salieri what he considered mediocre. By attempting to kill Mozart, Salieri believes he will be …show more content…
Salieri plans on killing Mozart and having the requiem mass performed at his funeral and taking credit for the musical piece. As Mozart begins writing this piece and ventures into other deals in desperation for money he begins drinking heavily, his health worsens and so does his relationship with his wife, who has enough and decides to leave him and take their son with her. Mozart takes a turn for the worse during one of his performances and is take home where he is tended to by none other than Salieri, who tricks him into working on the requiem. Mozart and Salieri work together on the requiem nearly completing it when Mozart decides they both need rest. The next day they are awoken by the return of Mozart’s wife who find the requiem and forbids Mozart from working on the very piece that was metaphorically killing him. While she locks the piece of music away and returns to Mozart lying body she finds him dead. Mozart’s death is essentially a slap in the face to Salieri by God himself because it completely ruins Salieri’s plan to murder Mozart himself and to take credit for the requiem that was left unfinished. The movie ends with Salieri back in the insane asylum where he has come to accept himself as mediocre and even declares that he is the patron saint of mediocrity and thus