Amadeus (1984) - Film directed by Milo Forman

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A funny period film about Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart and his rival Antonio Salieri. I have a major problem with films of this kind because I have no idea how to separate the fact from the fiction. I don't know if the people were real, the circumstances, the events, the story. I don't know and that is irksome because in the back of my mind a lot of the stuff that happens in the film will be associated with Mozart and a lot of it may have nothing to do with him.

I knew nothing about this film because I had never heard of it before and the day I watched it it came highly recommended. It very quickly turned into a humorous look at an interesting man in an interesting time period. The humour is light and it doesn't take over the film but adds to the story and the characters who are often very over-the-top.

There is a lot of music, obviously, in this film and if you are a fan of Mozart or classical music then this will be very good. It seems a lot like musicals or the like which take moments out of the film to play music to the audience. While this is nice, because you hear some of Mozart's work, it makes the film ridiculously long. Horribly long. By the end I was bored and this is not the way anything should end (always leave them wanting more). I don't think that the musical sequences should be cut out but I think there is a lot of superfluous footage that could just go away and make the whole film more manageable and enjoyable to watch.

If you love the opulence and style of the late 18th century then you will enjoy looking at the film and the odd touches of humour are much appreciated. There are quite major flaws in the film which can be so easily rectified and that is frustrating. If you can watch a biographical film and not constantly question the accuracy then maybe you will enjoy the film more than I did.