Cast: F. Murray Abraham, Tom Hulce, Elizabeth Berridge

Directed By: Milos Forman

In a celebration of music to one of the world’s best classical composers, Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, this marvelous winner of eight Academy Awards including Best Picture, brings to light the last decade and the hidden instances in the life of Mozart. Whether the legend is true or not, the medium for storytelling exposes the audience to the greatness and madness of W.A. Mozart while at the same time, not boring us with what feels like an instant replay of his greatest moments.

A truly visual and musical masterpiece of film making the movie is surely a treat for classical music lovers.

The plot revolves around the rivalry between the genius Mozart (Tom Hulce) and the jealous court composer F.Murray Abraham (Antonio Saliere) of Emperor Joseph II (Jeffrey Jones) of Austria, AKA the musical king. Mozart’s most beautiful pieces (focusing more on his operas than his many symphonies) and shot on location in scenic Vienna and Prague, Czechoslovakia in buildings like the Tyl Theater where Mozart actually conducted the première performance of "Don Giovanni" are the highlights here.

The film opens up in 1823 in Salieri's residence where we hear the elderly composer calling out in despair, "Mozart, forgive your assassin. I confess, I killed you!" Moments later, the man cuts his throat and wrists as he can no longer bear the guilt of having murdered the greatest composer of his time. As was done in the nineteenth century, Salieri is taken to a mental institution where his wounds are tended and a priest is sent to him to discover why he attempted suicide. In the presence of the young priest, Salieri begins to weave an intriguing, complicated, and heartrending tale of his life and how it intertwined with Mozart.

Salieri as legend has it was once the most famous composer in Europe, but the priest doesn't recognize anything he plays on the piano installed in his cell. Until the old man plays a work that the priest declares is "charming...I didn't know you wrote that." "I didn't," responds Salieri. "THAT was Mozart."

As a young pianist from Salzburg, Mozart enters the royal court in Vienna and gains immediate attention for his talents. But Mozart’s behavior, his jackal style of laughter, makes him a Mickey for Salieri who sees him as an uncultured buffoon. People wonder as to how a talented man such as Mozart can be so crazy. Even as Mozart's talents are realized, he isn't widely popular, for his music is too complex for the average man to understand.

Thus Salieri's opera's are given far more applause by the people than from Mozart. But internally Saliere is aware that it is truly Mozart’s work that should stand out and not his. But Saliere is a shrewd man, and does all he can to bring his music to the fore than bring Mozart to the pedestal. He curses Mozart for taking to alcohol and wasting such a talent that God has given him. This leads Salieri into a personal insanity in which he plots vengeful destruction of Mozart.

Mozart is able to improvise music on the spot better than Salieri can compose through pages of the written work. To that, Mozart was able to create whole symphonies and operas in his head, and partly on paper. Writing the music down on paper was mere dictation, "scribbling" as Mozart called it. Yet for all his talent, Mozart was not always appreciated in his day, the Emperor Joseph II contending that his operas contained "too many notes."

Mozart's marriage to Constanze (Elizabeth Berridge) is ridden with love all the way. Constanze wants Mozzy as she affectionately calls him to succeed and take his life seriously. She does everything she can, even going to the extent of slipping off Mozart’s compositions and landing up at Saliere’s courtyard, begging the Italian composer to give her husband a chance to play in the court. Salieri agrees on the condition she meet him at night, to which she agrees. Even Mozart’s father tries to compel the composer to sober up, but to vain. Another instance is when Constanze leaves Mozart to go back to her mother’s house, due to the constant drinking beige that Mozart is on. But she returns only to find Salieri in the house with Mozart’s compositions. Mozart is dead drunk which leads to his premature death in 1791 at the age of thirty-five.

The story that Salieri may have poisoned him enraged many of Mozart's fans but made for thoughtful and thought-provoking movie viewing. Salieri’s performance indeed was great for it was no wonder that F. Murray Abraham won the Best Actor award for his role as the insanely jealous Antonio Salieri.

But for those who really would like to know, the real truth seems to be that Mozart died from mercury poisoning. In their day, mercury was considered a curative for syphilis; unfortunately for Mozart, as we now believe, he had a bad liver, which could not properly dissipate mercury like a healthy organ.

The audio quality on this DVD is exceptional, and shines during the musical moments and the classical pieces and opera. Worked watching a second time.

-- Reviewed by Verus Ferreira