What are some other films about real people/events that are purely fictional that could rival this?
The only one I can think of is Midnight In Paris but honestly, it's not even close to being as good as Amadeus.
Gettysburg since it's based on a book that changed some things from what really happened.
shareIt's right up there, isn't it?
Okay, "Lawrence of Arabia" and "The Great Escape" are better films, especially to those who don't like opera, and they're about as historically accurate as "Amadeus".
FYI "Lawrence" is fairly accurate, compared to other historical films, and "The Great Escape" is more accurate than you'd think. The tunnels were actually dug in real life, but the people doing the digging were all fictional creation and not based on real escapees. Which makes it... moderately accurate, by the standards of Hollywood.
This is the biggest thing on tv
shareIt's at least probably my favorite historical film. I'd probably consider it to be the best, though I haven't seen all of the historical fiction films out there to make a complete comparison.
Honorable mention goes to Saving Private Ryan and Titanic.
This movie made tens of millions of people believe that Mozart was a giggling imbecile, and that Salieri was a loser. It is pure nonsense.
shareThat's why they call it "fiction".
There are plenty of books and films that take historical figures and change them around. Are they all just nonsense? This film was never sold as a true story. It's actually based the 70s and 80s broadway play. Perhaps if you saw the play, you would understand that it's just in good fun. I think it's an excellent film.
I think Amadeus blows away any of the other "historical fiction" contenders mentioned here. I can't think of a better film in this genre. I'll add two very good films that I believe qualify, but don't rise nearly to the level of Amadeus (it's tough to compare them, really) and involve relatively recent history: (1) Melvin and Howard (2) Inherit the Wind.