Bohemian Rhapsody

Published Post author

Poster for the movie "Bohemian Rhapsody"

Bohemian Rhapsody

Fearless lives forever

20182 h 15 min


Director Bryan Singer
Runtime 2 h 15 min
Release Date 24 October 2018
Movie Media Cinema
Movie Status Available
Movie Rating Not bad

Bohemian Rhapsody was a little bit of a mixed bag. On one hand, Queen. Finding someone who does not like Queen and also does not have questionable tastes in music is next to impossible. If nothing else, 99% of people will likely agree the film has a great soundtrack. On the other hand, this is a biographical film. While a good biographical film is always entertaining, they are a bit different than other forms of media. Things can tend to get muddled when transitioning from the real world to Hollywood. And covering a large amount of time can make the film feel a little too light.

The film covers Queen’s formation in 1970 and runs up to their Live Aid performance in 1985. 15 years is a long time for a single film to cover and the details felt sparse because of that. Taking a 15 period and cramming it into a movie is a lot harder than a short event like Sully. Most of the film jumps between key points in Queen’s history, such as the recording of their major hits. But as much as Bohemian Rhapsody was marketed as being about Queen, it focused mainly on Freddy Mercury.

While the rest of Queen was in the film substantially, Freddy was easily the main character. Which is an understandable Hollywood decision, since he was the lead singer. He was also the member of the band with the craziest stuff going on. Freddy Mercury was eccentric (rich person word for ‘crazy’); he led the life of sex, drugs, and rock n’ roll on top of being bisexual in a time when that was not ok in the public’s eyes. To the world, he was a rock star, but the portrayal of his private life in this film holds reminiscence to Michael Jackson (crazy Michael Jackson, not on-trial Michael Jackson).

For any biographical film, the devil is in the details. Some details in Bohemian Rhapsody were great. A prime example is the Live Aid stage, which was an exact replica from the actual event back in 1985. They honestly could have just played footage from back then for the last 20 minutes of the movie and it would have been close to the same. But in other areas, mistakes were made.

The opening made it seem like Freddy had never performed and only dreamed of it before joining Queen. Freddy Mercury was in two bands before he joined Queen. The movie shows Queen performing in Rio in 1977, but their first real show there was not until 1981.  A montage of Queen’s first American tour showed them playing in Cleveland, Houston, Atlanta, and Pittsburgh (none of those were in their first tour). And this list goes on and on. For a biographical film light on other details, much of the included information is simply wrong.

November 25, 2018