As I watched the absolutely hilarious humiliation of that over-praised, over-pampered mediocrity, Barack Obama, by Mitt Romney at last week’s Presidential Debate, I couldn’t help but be reminded of my favorite scene in Amadeus, one of my favorite movies.
If you’ve never seen Amadeus, it’s fictionalized account of the rivalry between classical composers Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart and Antonio Salieri to win the patronage and support of Emperor Joseph II of Vienna.
The story is told through the viewpoint of an old and embittered Salieri, who has outlived his fame and even the public’s memory of his music, while the music of Mozart still lives in the hearts and minds of that same public.
The scene I’m referring to is the pivotal scene of the movie and sets the motivation for what is to follow.
In it, Salieri is forced to face the fact that despite his fame, despite his public acclaim, despite all that his very sizable ego tells him, he is a hack, a nothing, a mediocrity, a big fish only because the pool he lives in is amenable to flattery and susceptible to simplemindedness of his simpleminded melodies.
The gift of Salieri’s musical inspiration, much like Obama’s so-called gift for public speaking and overall genius, is revealed to be a hollow joke to Salieri himself.
Okay, here’s the full scene. Enjoy:
It’s amazing how closely the dynamic of this scene follows that of the Presidential Debate.
At the beginning, we see a confident, pompous, somewhat condescending Salieri, who’s alternately amused and irritated by the upstart Mozart’s proposals and counter-arguments, descend into full existential horror as his limitations are all to graphically illustrated to him.
And mad props to the mighty F. Murray Abraham for the way his facial expressions exactly mirror those of Barack Obama during the debate. He exactly captured the face of a man drowning in his own suddenly discovered mediocrity. Heck, he even looks a bit like Obama.
Notice too how Mozart’s dismantling of Salieri’s ego was done totally without malice. Just as Romney’s dismantling of Obama was simply the result of far better preparation and mastery of the facts.
Take the courtiers’ amazed approval as that of the American public for Romney’s true song of America Swinging over Obama’s plodding, painful, tinkerty-tock march toward socialism.
I suppose Obama’s just lucky that moderator Jim Lehrer didn’t ask Romney to “play Obama”:
Yep, that’s about all the respect “hopey-changey” and “forward” deserve.
The interesting thing is that Obama’s reaction has been exactly like that of Salieri.
Salieri didn’t decide to improve himself, study harder, and write better music.
He instead decided to try to destroy Mozart with rumors, innnuendo, and character assassination behind his back.
And, mirabile dictu!, that’s exactly what Obama has decided to do with his ridiculous “Romney is a lying liar what lies” post-debate campaign.
So, now we have a President of the United States of America directly mimicking the actions of mediocre, vindictive, petty, small-souled fictional character.
I guess that means Romney needs to get a food taster.
One can only hope that Barack Salieri and his moronic hopey-changey melody meets this fate:
While Mitt Romney’s strong-armed, straight-backed, song of a prosperous, working America fills the hearts and minds of the American people.