Brilliant. Grand. Immaculate. These are the words that come up when I think of this film. There aren�t enough to explain how great it is. Milos Forman has delivered another blinder. This is the story of Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart (Hulce), the famous musician, told in retrospect by Antonio Salieri (Abraham), who is locked up in a mental asylum because he thinks he is the one who killed Mozart. This sets us up for a massive story of jealousy, greed, comedy and drama like no other. You see Salieri, expertly played by Abraham, is jealous of Mozart's natural talent, and goes out to destroy him by any means necessary. A great story for all. Only problem is, the version I watched ran at 180 minutes, which is pretty long by my standards, but a film this great deserves to be sat through.
Music plays a big part in the movie, and is naturally all opera and classical. Now, myself only being a young person, I never found classical to be my forte in terms of music, yet after I watched this I can honestly say I love it. It really made the movie feel bigger in a way, it took us to another level most films can�t manage.
Not only was the music brilliant, the costumes and setting were great too. It really boasts such grand production values, all of the people and settings seem authentic and are very pleasing to the eye. The Georgian houses of Venice, the cobbled roads, the snow swirling through the air - it�s just a great big breath of fresh air from all the action films we get lately, and was especially good back when the film was made, 1984, the age of cheesy films, video nasties and The Terminator. Added to that, this movie is far better than other kinds of films compared with it, like Sense and Sensibility by Ang Lee, which is inferior by a long way. |
