What do Best Picture winners A Man for All Seasons, One Flew over the Cuckoo’s Nest, and The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King all have in common? Well, each of those films boasts someone involved with the work Amadeus in one of its various productions. Paul Scofield, who won the Academy Award in 1966 for his leading role in A Man for All Seasons, played Antonio Salieri in the original British production of the play Amadeus at the Royal National Theatre in 1979. Milos Forman, director of the film version of Amadeus, won the Oscar for directing One Flew over the Cuckoo’s Nest in 1975. And Ian McKellen, everyone’s favorite Middle-earth wizard in Peter Jackson’s unparalleled trilogy, took the role of Salieri in the Broadway rendition of the play Amadeus in 1980, the year for which the drama was given the Tony Award for Best Play.
Hence, by the time Amadeus (1984, Saul Zaentz Company Production; Orion) became a Best Picture-winning film, it had already received numerous other accolades. Based on the play of the same name by Peter Shaffer (which itself is based on an earlier 1830 play by Alexander Pushkin called Mozart and Salieri), Amadeus tells a fictionalized version of the lives–and apparent rivalry–of two great composers, Antonio Salieri and Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart. Set to Salieri’s and Mozart’s music, Amadeus (the film) is a glorious pageant of powdered wigs, baroque palaces, and operatic extravaganzas. It’s like a cleaned-up version of 2018’s The Favourite, except with more depth and lovelier music. Yet the war within the mind and heart of Salieri, who recalls the story as an old man looking back on his life, is the most compelling aspect of this film. More about that this weekend…
Nominated for 11 Academy Awards, Amadeus won 8: Art Direction, Sound, Makeup, Costume Design, Writing (Screenplay Based on Material from Another Medium) for Peter Shaffer for his adaption of his own play, Directing for Milos Forman, Actor in a Leading Role for F. Murray Abraham as Antonio Salieri, and Best Picture. It failed to take home statuettes for Cinematography, Film Editing, and Actor in a Leading Role for Tom Hulce as Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart.
It was an interesting year for film in 1984: lots of variety in subject matter among the nominees. From The Killing Fields‘ chronicling of the violence and trauma of the Khmer Rouge regime in Cambodia to the Depression-era struggles of Places in the Heart, from the adventure of Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom to the hilarious and inspirational tale of Mr Miyagi and “Daniel-son” in The Karate Kid (an absolute favorite of mine), it’s interesting that Academy voters settled on Amadeus for their top prize, a period piece with a lot of fluffy clothes and over-the-top visuals. But if we believe that film is a reflection of ourselves (and I do think this), then something in Amadeus spoke/still speaks to people. The jealousy, hypocrisy, feelings of inadequacy and self-doubt, hatred, and regret that consume Antonio Salieri are aspects of the human experience that confront and challenge each of us. In this way, Amadeus is not just a period drama, but a picture of raw humanity, broken at its core and seeking truth and relief from its own often-self-imposed darkness. In short, it’s a well-deserving BP winner (not to mention, it also boasts one of the sweetest movie posters ever).
For more thoughts on Amadeus and its significance, please check out the full post this weekend!