{"id":6613,"date":"2018-12-22T22:51:20","date_gmt":"2018-12-23T03:51:20","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/retromaggedon.com\/?page_id=6613"},"modified":"2021-09-15T15:14:40","modified_gmt":"2021-09-15T20:14:40","slug":"bohemian-rhapsody-2018-review","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/retromaggedon.com\/index.php\/movie-reviews\/bohemian-rhapsody-2018-review\/","title":{"rendered":"Bohemian Rhapsody (2018) Review"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
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Click here<\/a> to visit our movie review section for more!<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Bohemian Rhapsody (2018)<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

~Review by Grawlix (December 2018)<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

In the world of motion pictures, there are probably few phrases more loaded than \u201cBased on a True Story\u201d. And for movie watchers, there are few instances that drive this point home more clearly than watching a movie depicting a subject with which you are intimately familiar. I remember the first time I personally experienced this. Back in the mid-nineties, I rented Dragon: The Bruce Lee Story<\/em>. I was very familiar with Lee\u2019s life (and death) at this point and was amazed at how flagrantly (it seemed) the movie diverged from fact. In hindsight, it wasn\u2019t too bad, honestly. Most of the stuff depicted did happen, more or less, but it was in the wrong order, for matters of pacing I suppose. I guess you could call it the paradox of the biopic: anyone whose life is extraordinary enough to merit a cinematic retelling probably can\u2019t have true justice done to it in the space of a mere two hours.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It\u2019s probably germane at this point to mention that I\u2019ve been a Queen fan since 1989. Freddie was still alive, then, and they had just released their album, The Miracle,<\/em> to general apathy. Live Aid may have only been four years previous (Highlander<\/em>, three) but the entertainment world has a short memory. Apparently it was a little different in their native England, but back then, and for a while, at least in America, Queen were seen as just another group of aging AOR dinosaurs making their final crawl into total irrelevance. Even Freddie\u2019s death in late \u201891 (and the release of Wayne\u2019s World<\/em> a few months later) only afforded the band a short lived blip in their overall profile. After all, in 1991, the US was in its tenth year of Republican presidency, the Moral Majority and Christian Coalitions were very much things, and the average Joe Sixpack just wasn\u2019t ready to embrace the legacy of a flamboyantly queer rock star who had died of AIDS (and not the good, noble AIDS, like Arthur Ashe got, but the bad kind, that gays got.). But yeah, let it be known, I know my Queen.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

So with that in mind, let\u2019s talk about Bohemian Rhapsody<\/em>, the new Queen biopic directed (for the most part, anyway) by Bryan Singer. Is this the real life? Is this just fantasy? Well, I guess it\u2019s real enough, keeping in mind the caveats of biographical film making. Most of the events depicted probably did happen to a some degree although timelines are condensed and some events are shuffled around (an amusing early example being a 1974 tour montage being set to a song from 1978). The irony is that, for all the mega-success they experienced during their heyday, the actual story of Queen, as a band, is fairly mundane. The band\u2019s lineup remained constant through their entire careers up until Freddie\u2019s death with no violent, interpersonal drama to speak of (unlike, say, in the case of Oasis, or Cream, or the Everly Brothers, or M\u00f6tley Cr\u00fce). There was no crazy, drug-fueled destructive excess (unlike, say, The Who, The Doors, Black Sabbath, or M\u00f6tley Cr\u00fce). Nobody died under inauspicious circumstances (unlike, say, The Rolling Stones, The Sex Pistols, or, uh, M\u00f6tley Cr\u00fce … Jesus Christ M\u00f6tley Cr\u00fce were a train wreck weren\u2019t they?). As such, when it comes to the history of the band, the story sticks to mostly benign happenings like the development of songs: Bohemian Rhapsody (explored at length), We Will Rock You, and Another One Bites the Dust, and the occasional battles with record executives.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I called this a Queen biopic, but it\u2019s clear from the beginning that the focus will be on Freddie and the movie gamely tries to give a condensed version of his life, from his humble beginnings as a Zanzibar (now part of Tanzania) born Parsi kid named Farrokh Bulsara on to super-stardom as the outlandish Freddie Mercury. His personal life is explored, including his long standing relationship with Mary Austin, the closest he came to having a wife, as well as the men in his life, Paul Prenter and, later, Jim Hutton, and even his well documented love for his cats. The movie also endeavors to contrast Freddie\u2019s swagger while performing with his more introverted bearing when offstage, and his protracted internal conflict as he slowly, and sometimes painfully, came to terms with his sexuality. Rami Malek, who plays Freddie, seems up to whatever the script throws at him, but he never seems to really get the opportunity to cut loose. Part of this is likely due to the compressed timeline of the story that rarely leaves room for any sort of extended introspection, though the band\u2019s insistence on handling some of the rougher edges of Mercury\u2019s life with kid gloves probably also came into play. In some of the performance and studio scenes, you\u2019d be forgiven for thinking they just spliced in some vintage footage – they\u2019re that good, and Malek is totally on point. But in others the facsimile doesn\u2019t come close, which I guess just stands at a testament to how irreplaceable Freddie truly was. Freddie for a scene may be doable, but Freddie for a whole movie just isn\u2019t feasible. Also, kudos to whoever had the easily overlooked task of fabricating Rami\u2019s mouth prosthetic because getting Freddie\u2019s unique profile just so definitely went a long way towards maintaining the illusion.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

One of the biggest problems with crafting a biopic out of a real life is the need for the story to have a villain. In Bohemian Rhapsody, that role is filled by Paul Prenter (Allen Leech), Freddie\u2019s manager, and on-and-off lover, for about a decade starting in the late 70\u2019s. Prenter is presented as a selfish and isolating influence, living high on the hog while encouraging Freddie\u2019s more extravagant indulgences, pushing Freddie to leave the rest of a band behind to pursue a solo career, and keeping Freddie ignorant of the overtures from his friends, family, and the rest of Queen to return to the fold, particularly as the deadline for playing Live Aid, a megashow guaranteed to revitalize their careers, is looming on the horizon. The film even suggests that Queen broke up during this time, or very nearly did. When Freddie finally kicks Prenter to the curb, Prenter outs him in a series of tell-all interviews to the notoriously unscrupulous British press.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It\u2019s true that Prenter was not very well liked by the rest of the band, and when his and Freddie\u2019s relationship finally soured for good, he dished some of the dirt to British tabloids, but the film severely downplays the role Freddie (who claimed excess came naturally to him) had in his own questionable decisions. Likewise, Queen was<\/em> facing something of a creative burnout by the early 80\u2019s but they addressed this partially by each member (not just Freddie) exploring solo projects and partially by scaling their core output back from roughly an album a year to an album every two years. But they never really missed a beat and certainly were never in any real danger of breaking up.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Prenter died of AIDS in 1991, just a few months before Freddie himself did, so he\u2019s not around to defend himself. And, while I wouldn\u2019t call his portrayal in Bohemian Rhapsody<\/em> a full on character assassination, the movie certainly nudged his own legacy towards the bus, if not fully throwing him under it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Bohemian Rhapsody was mostly directed by Bryan Singer, who, ironically, has had his own share of sex-related controversies in recent years. He apparently got most of the movie finished before unexpectedly disappearing for a few days, ultimately being sacked with a few weeks of shooting left to go. He was replaced by Dexter Fletcher (probably better known as an actor, although he is presently directing Rocketman<\/em>, an Elton John biopic) though the final product still bears Singer\u2019s name. Like most other aspects of the film, the direction is competent, but not particularly prone to risk taking. The last fifteen minutes or so of the movie recreates the band\u2019s triumphant performance at Live Aid, which is impressive for its scope and attention to detail, but I dare say was in danger of running a bit too long. By contrast, while I realize that Freddie was the focus, it would\u2019ve been nice if the rest of the band got a little more attention from the screenplay. As it stands, often it seems like the other band members are more props than characters, which is a real shame since they actors portraying them (Gwilym Lee, Ben Hardy, and Joe Mazzello) bear an uncanny resemblance to their real life counterparts. The movie does note Roger Taylor\u2019s notorious wandering eye and oft temperamental attitude, but at least a mention of May\u2019s Red Special guitar or Deacon\u2019s Deacy Amp would have been worthy additions. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Probably the biggest what-if scenario when it comes to Bohemian Rhapsody<\/em> is the one in which the originally cast Sacha Baron Cohen stayed on board as Freddie. The story goes that SBC wanted to do a more gritty R-Rated version of Freddie\u2019s life, but the band understandably said no. In one sense it\u2019s too bad, because it certainly could have been a compelling story. Arguably, Bohemian Rhapsody<\/em> ends just as the real drama was beginning, and a well executed tale of a dying Freddie desperately trying to sing one more song could have put the movie into the Academy Award conversation (for what that\u2019s worth, these days).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

But on the other hand, it\u2019s probably just as well. Freddie never got to take a proper victory lap, nor was he able to see Queen get the belated recognition and appreciation that they, as rock pioneers, so richly deserved (though how much of a role Freddie\u2019s own death played in solidifying that very legacy is open to discussion), which is a damned shame, and Bohemian<\/em> Rhapsody<\/em> in its current state is probably the closest we\u2019re going to get to rectifying that particular oversight. Perhaps there will come a day when a more nuanced Freddie Mercury biopic will be made, but for now, as a Queen fan, this is good enough.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Any way the wind blows\u2026.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Final Grade: B<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Understand that Bohemian Rhapsody<\/em> less of a chronicle and more of a celebration. As theater, it\u2019s pretty milquetoast, with just enough drama to keep the narrative moving. But it works just fine as a primer for the uninitiated. And long time fans can revel in the fact that a great man, and a great band, are finally getting their due.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Trailer<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

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