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What Amadeus gets wrong
BBC Culture ^
| 2/24/2015
| Clemency Burton-Hill
Posted on 02/24/2015 2:31:28 PM PST by Borges
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To: Borges
I hate arguments like this. If you want 'facts' watch a documentary. It's a great film.
If there is no need to be true to the reality, then why use historical figures at all? Why not just invent new characters, based on historical figures if you wish, and then take as much license as you care to? My objection to these historical drama pieces is that even supposedly intelligent, educated people accept them, on some level, as real, and thus have a distorted view of history. Therein lies the propaganda value of such films. If you want to destroy a country or culture, you simply make movies, plays, etc. that cast their historical figures in whichever light you want them seen.
41
posted on
02/24/2015 3:59:34 PM PST
by
fr_freak
To: dasboot
42
posted on
02/24/2015 4:16:03 PM PST
by
Mad Dawg
(In te, Domine, speravi: non confundar in aeternum.)
To: Borges
I don’t like this article... too many notes.
43
posted on
02/24/2015 4:18:18 PM PST
by
Obadiah
(Wind turbines, aka: bird choppers, cause earthquakes due to their harmonic frequencies.)
To: fr_freak
I have no issue with the movie (because I viewed it as entertainment rather than truth), but I see your point: Too many Americans take Hollywood’s take on events as reality, and you’ll never convince them otherwise; they certainly won’t read up on it.
Just caught part of a show on “Titanic”, comparing the movie with reality. One inaccuracy was the higher death rate in second-class passengers over steerage passengers; the producers attributed this to a possible physical advantage of the average steerage passenger over office clerks and such. The movie practically has first class passengers making rafts out of the children of steerage passengers...
44
posted on
02/24/2015 4:20:43 PM PST
by
kearnyirish2
(Affirmative action is economic warfare against white males (and therefore white families).)
To: Borges
When legend becomes fact, print the legend.
To: NorthMountain; TheErnFormerlyKnownAsBig
“IMHO, one sign of a mediocre novelist is the use of too many words. Sometimes, WAY too many.”
The same thing is generally true in music too. For example, look at guitar players. Once you achieve a decent ability to play the instrument, it is not hard to improvise a guitar solo to most music, but it is hard to make a really good guitar solo. Most mediocre guitarists just try to show how technically good they are by filling up all the “space” in the solo with lots of notes, played very quickly.
That kind of works, and it can be impressive to someone watching them do it, but those aren’t the solos that anyone remembers. They don’t “stick” with you, because they have little emotional impact. So often people tell that type of guitarist to “play less”, because they are too focused on showing off to craft anything artful.
To: fr_freak
“If there is no need to be true to the reality, then why use historical figures at all? Why not just invent new characters, based on historical figures if you wish, and then take as much license as you care to?”
Well, one reason is that you can draw in the audience much easier and more quickly if you use characters they already have some familiarity with.
Sure, you could make a movie about a fictional classical composer, but nobody would have heard of him, so who cares? Plus, if he’s fictional, you’ll have to hire a composer to make up some fake music for him to have written, instead of being able to use lots of public domain classics that everyone knows Mozart wrote :)
To: dasboot
“My ears tell me Telemann was father to them all.”
Now there is a name out of the distant, Music History 335 past...
48
posted on
02/24/2015 4:57:00 PM PST
by
LaRueLaDue
(Remember- allah is the Charles Manson of deities, and mohammed is his Tex Watson. - LysolMotorola)
To: IronJack
And Bach would have been replaced by Haydn.Nothing against Bach. I have quite a few recordings of his works. However, I'm convinced that Haydn's Trumpet Concerto in E-Flat Major is what the Angel Gabriel plays for his own amusement when he's off duty.
49
posted on
02/24/2015 4:57:27 PM PST
by
JoeFromSidney
(Book RESISTANCE TO TYRANNY, available from Amazon.)
To: fieldmarshaldj
To: kearnyirish2
Titanic was pure myth making and fantasy - and succeeded beautifully. It was not intended to be a realistic docudrama about the historical event.
51
posted on
02/24/2015 5:29:38 PM PST
by
Borges
To: fr_freak
I’ve never met any educated person who thought Amadeus was anything other than an entertaining fantasy based on historical events. That’s what Peter Shaffer called his play. Do you know how many operas on historical subjects are completely off the mark in terms of actual history? No one feels misled.
52
posted on
02/24/2015 5:31:13 PM PST
by
Borges
To: JoeFromSidney
Agree. Haydn embodies a mathematical precision that somehow translates into utter magnificence. It’s the voice of the forces that guide the stars.
53
posted on
02/24/2015 6:03:28 PM PST
by
IronJack
To: Boogieman
Sure, you could make a movie about a fictional classical composer, but nobody would have heard of him, so who cares? Plus, if hes fictional, youll have to hire a composer to make up some fake music for him to have written,...
That's a good point about the music, but Mozart's familiarity is part of the point. People go to the movie thinking "Hey, I've heard of Mozart, let me go see a movie about his life." But it isn't his life - it's a fictional story. People may know that in their heads when they watch it, but I guarantee that whenever they hear the name Mozart, they'll think of the events of the movie. It will influence how they see him forever.
54
posted on
02/24/2015 6:06:17 PM PST
by
fr_freak
To: dfwgator
You always wonder if those people who do this really despise their first name.
55
posted on
02/24/2015 6:07:33 PM PST
by
Secret Agent Man
(Gone Galt; Not averse to Going Bronson.)
To: Borges
Do you know how many operas on historical subjects are completely off the mark in terms of actual history? No one feels misled.
Of course they don't feel misled. If people felt misled every time Hollywood pumped out pure BS, Hollywood would be bankrupt by now. The point is that even the "educated" will picture the atmosphere from the movie whenever they hear the name Mozart. Doesn't matter if they know the movie is fantasy. Only hardcore historians will be immune, and perhaps not even those.
56
posted on
02/24/2015 6:09:00 PM PST
by
fr_freak
To: Borges
Does this mean Wolfie wasn't really a jerk? Good. I don't like to think of him as a jerk.
He shore could write purty.
To: fr_freak
Sure, but the people making the movie care more about making a successful movie than whether people know all the true facts about Mozart. They get paid to entertain, not to educate.
To: Boogieman
Sure, but the people making the movie care more about making a successful movie than whether people know all the true facts about Mozart. They get paid to entertain, not to educate.
Of course they don't care about accuracy. That's the point. In fact, I would say inaccuracy is more what they're after. This is not a good thing. Moving pictures are the biggest propaganda machine ever invented.
59
posted on
02/24/2015 6:35:19 PM PST
by
fr_freak
To: Borges
#1 My favorite movie. (a bunch of unknowns at the time) OUTSTANDING music
perfectly dovetailed to OUTSTANDING acting.
#2 Casablanca
60
posted on
02/24/2015 6:37:13 PM PST
by
PGalt
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