Norman Schwartz replies to my dislike of Amadeus:

>hmm...  I have 2 -VHS and 1 -DVD copies of Amadeus.

Enjoy!

>I enjoy Amadeus,

Chacun a son gout.

>a semiserious

A *deadly* serious

>study on human nature and snippets of some of the most glorious music ever
>written, and most probably ever will be written, thrown in performed by Sir
>Neville and colleagues.  What more can one expect and ask for?

I agree, the soundtrack is wonderful.  Best thing about the movie, in fact.
I was introduced to it via the play.  My wife made me see the movie.  But
I do disagree that it studies human nature.  None of those characters have
much to do with human nature and everything to do with stacking the deck to
demonstrate a rather pitiful idea, or more accurately the pitiful promise
of an idea.  My quarrel is not that it's inaccurate or even non-realistic,
but that it's untruthful, even dishonest in its representation and in the
way it manipulates its audience.

>It may have even turned some people onto to classical music, and therefore
>indirectly benefit to all of us.  It certainly didn't do any harm.

I hope it did the first, but I disagree that it didn't do any harm.  As
Stirling Newberry was so fond of pointing out, the enemy of the good is not
the bad, but the third-rate.  There may actually be people who regard this
as Great Art because it comes bundled in that wrapping and thus makes them
unfit for really serious, honest work, just as Gone with the Wind probably
made people unfit to read Faulkner.  No, not everybody and certainly not
anyone seriously interested in books who may have enjoyed GWTW.

Steve Schwartz