Amadeus/YMMV
< Amadeus
- Adaptation Displacement: Mozart and Salieri is little more than a footnote.
- Crowning Music of Awesome: Mozart was arguably the greatest composer in history, and Salieri was no slouch himself. Both of their music--but especially Mozart's--is featured throughout the film.
- Subverted in one case: Salieri's opera was fantastic, and was played completely straight, but numerous characters are shown yawning through it.
- One could argue that it was perhaps the way Salieri remembers that opera. Or that he was focusing on the worst among the audience. It wouldn't be surprising, considering he thought himself to be so inferior to his rival.
- As an explanation of the opera, what Salieri is doing here is basically catering to the lowest common denominator. He's giving the audience a big bang at the end of the show so that they know when to applaud. The sound mix deliberately emphasizes this; all the instruments mix together into an overwhelming blur of sound with no clarity to it. It's not bad, just unimaginative. Salieri hates himself for not being able to do better than this.
- Subverted in one case: Salieri's opera was fantastic, and was played completely straight, but numerous characters are shown yawning through it.
- Crowning Moment of Funny: Anytime Mozart laughs, especially when he does so when he can't think of anything to say.
- Family-Unfriendly Aesop: Talent and character are completely unrelated. A handful of rare individuals are born special, for no reason or merit, a few others are sharp enough to see talent in others but do not have it themselves and are doomed to carry the burden of mediocrity. And most people are just mindless morons.
- Not necessarily. It could be that some people are more obscenely talented than others, but you still shouldn't let envy get the better of you and let it take over your life.
- Foe Yay: Salieri and Mozart...oh, where to start? Notably, Mozart died soon after Constanze came back and took the Requiem away from him. This happened just after she promises to be a better wife, showing that Salieri shared something with him that she didn't: a love for music.
- Historical Villain Upgrade: Salieri.
- Jerkass Woobie: Mozart. He's an obnoxious, vulgar nutjob with an annoying laugh, but you still can't help but feel bad for him. It helps that he has somewhat of a childish innocence about him too, and generally means well.
- Hell, Salieri might even get points here too.
- Most Annoying Sound: Mozart. Please. STOP. LAUGHING.
- The Woobie: Mozart's young maid who's in Salieri's service. She never really knew what was going on, but what happened will haunt her forever.