I read Jeffrey Kauffman's DVD review of Amadeus at http://www.dvdtalk.com/reviews/read.php?ID=36303 and agree with his point that the movie is not a real depiction of Mozart's actual life.

However, if one looks closely at the structure of the film, it does set itself up in a realistic way.

FACT: Antonio Salieri went crazy late in his life and was committed to a sanatorium.

FACT: While in the sanatorium, the crazy Salieri claimed he killed Mozart.

The film Amadeus is structured so that it all occurs while Salieri is in the sanatorium. While there, he confesses to a priest, therefore everything depicted in the film is his confession to the priest. So it may not be an actual depiction of Mozart's life, but it's not intended to be. Instead it's the crazed confessions of a madman.

(Also, the title of the film is "Amadeus" which was Mozart's middle name and means "Beloved of God" and is the basic theme of Salieri's confession, that Mozart was naturally more gifted than he was. It turns out all men are not created equal.)

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Which is exactly the point I was making.

The fact that Salieri goes throughout the film without wearing a wig, as practically everyone else in the film does, is the tell-tale indicator that it's his version of events instead of a more factual depiction.

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