Discussion Theatre / Amadeus

Pulled this:

• Adaptational Sympathy: In the stage version of Amadeus, Salieri comes to a sick and dying Mozart in his cloak and mask disguise to try and terrify him to death, only for Mozart to unmask him and Salieri to deliver a "The Reason You Suck" Speech that drives him to a complete mental collapse. In the movie, Salieri visits a sick and dying Mozart as himself and sits with him to try and help him complete his final Requiem, leading Mozart to quietly apologise to Salieri for being such a jackass before dying without ever learning that Salieri was his enemy. Although it was debatably Salieri coming to Mozart to encourage him to work on the Requiem through the night when he was already extremely ill that ultimately killed him. Additionally, Salieri is celibate in the movie, while his original theatrical characterization had him seducing a student to spite God, and almost sleeping with Costanze before changing his mind and rudely leaving her out. Though in the director's cut, the Costanze scene still happens, although even in that he comes across as better since he doesn't violently shout at her.

Salieri going to a gravely sick Mozart and helping him to write the requiem is not that sympathetic if you consider that 1) Salieri himself commissioned the requiem in disguise. He even intercepted the money Schikaneder sent Mozart and lied to Mozart that it was an advance payment for the requiem, thus putting more pressure on Mozart to complete it. 2) Salieri knew that Mozart was ill and he knew working on the requiem was psychologically stressful to him. If Salieri's sympathies for Mozart were genuine, he would let him have his much-needed rest and not torture him with the requiem. But of course, it was all Salieri's plan to drive Mozart to destroy himself. With this context, the claim that Salieri is more sympathetic in the movie than he is in the play seems highly questionable.

Regarding Salieri's seduction of the student and the sexual extortion of Constanze, the latter scene is indeed in the director's cut and it gives an extremely unsympathetic impression of Salieri. That he supposedly comes off minutely less unsympathetic in the movie (because he doesn't yell at her or what) seems a very flimsy basis for an example of Adaptational Sympathy.

Let's just say and leave it at that.

Pulled this. How is Mozart a jerk? He may be Brilliant, but Lazy or a Manchild, but he is not a Jerkass. He always means well.

• Jerk with a Heart of Gold: Mozart may be a jerk, and seem to make fun of and insult everyone despite their respect for him. However he loves his wife and kid as well as his father, and has made about as many celebrity friends as that other Jerkass Genius. Lastly he apologizes to Salieri for mocking him before he dies, which actually gives Salieri a My God, What Have I Done? moment.

Let's just say and leave it at that.

I pulled this from the page:

• All There in the Manual: It's implied the lone child at the party where Mozart plays musical chairs— the same child that witnesses him playing music as his penalty for losing— is young Ludwig Van Beethoven.

Two issues:

1. It does not explain how the boy is implied to be Ludwig van Beethoven. Which leads to the question whether it is really implied the boy is Beethoven.
2. All There in the Manual is when important information about a work's universe is only given in supplementary material. Something that is actually implied in the movie is not All There in the Manual.

Let's just say and leave it at that. Hide / Show Replies