Dec 16, 2009

Amadeus | Amadeus as Dramatic Monologue

In the following essay, Martha A. Townsend explores "the striking similarity that Amadeus shares with the dramatic monologues of Robert Browning."

When Milos Forman's lavish $18 million film adaptation of Peter Shaffer's Amadeus was released in the fall of 1984, it quickly garnered the praise of both the press and American moviegoers. In just the first month of its release while playing in only one hundred theaters, Amadeus grossed over $5 million. The following March, the Directors Guild of America named the Czechoslovakian-born Forman best director of 1984 for his colorful retelling of the supposed rivalry between the obsessed, jealous court composer Antonio Salieri and Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, egocentric, impudent...