AMADEUS (1984) *** This is a good movie, a fun movie with great music, but how demented do you have to be to think that it's better than Ghostbusters ? Homer Simpson voce : "Damn Academy Award morons...they probably knew that the Ghostbusters were too cool to show up at their stupid party..." But is it appropriate to channel Homer Simpson in communications associated with a film on Mozart? In this case, it is. In fact the worst of it is that Falco didn't cut his masterful pop cut, "Rock Me Amadeus" until after the film's release, it would have worked so well through the closing credits. If you're satisfied with a film predicated on a highly questionable historical premise, depicting Mozart as a childish simp hell-bent on having a good time at all costs, and sporting a cool girlfriend (Elizabeth Berridge) who must have seemed exotically American in the monarchic halls of Vienna ( I am, I am! Sounds like a great flick to me! )...you're going to have a good time with this movie. Tom Hulce catches a side of Mozart that more respectful, respectable films would have probably missed on purpose ("But it does ," he said adjusting his monocle, "bring high art to the masses. Is that a good thing? I wonder...."). Hulce's reflections of Peter Shaffer's (or Antonio Salieri's, whoever) contemplations on genius ring true. Many say that Salieri is libeled in death and my guess is that's right, but F. Murray Abraham is a great monster of him, anyway, so who cares?! Get over it, that's why libel laws don't apply to dead folk...they have no standing because they're lying in graves...get it?! hyeeeeahhhh-heh-heh-heh...
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