I’ve literally just walked out of an advanced screening of the movie Bohemian Rhapsody. I was fortunate to be invited to a special screening brimming with free booze and popcorn. Fortunately, I don’t drink, but I do love popcorn! Especially of the free variety!
I’ve come away from this movie absolutely blown away. I enjoyed every single second of it. To clear the air and remove any summation of bias, I am not what you would call a fan of Queen. I have a few of their records. I appreciate all they had achieved. I recognise their vast and impressive musical catalogue for its diversity from the hardest of rock, to symphonic classics, to out and out pop music. They did it all. They did it all so very well. So amongst my musical collection, there is a Queen album or two (or three). That’s about the extent of my fandom.
Bohemian Rhapsody traces the life of Freddie Mercury so magnificently portrayed in this movie by Rami Malek. At times, he is an absolute dead-ringer for Mercury, especially in the second half of the singer’s quite extraordinary life.
The rest of the band are also so well casted. As stated above, there are times where you feel you are watching the real Queen.
It’s impossible to fit a the life of Mercury in a mere two hours, but Bohemian Rhapsody does it well. We begin and end with the band’s lauded performance at Live Aid in 1984. One of the most amazing sets by a Rock band in history.
In between this monumental triumph, we see the high’s and low’s of any band dynamic all interspersed with Mercury’s love affairs with women and men and his ultimate acceptance of his sexuality.
An early scene in the film brought me to tears. Not many films have ever done that. Mercury laying on his back with his wife under a piano. His fingers reach up and twinkle the first few notes of what eventually becomes one of the greatest Rock songs of all time… “Bohemian Rhapsody”. The music, the notes, the significance of this piece of music triggered some sort of emotion in me. I shed a tear.
Bohemian Rhapsody as it stands right now, ranks as the finest Rock bio pic I have ever seen. I hope to see this sort of film about some other bands I have devoted more than three quarters of my life to.
The film moved me. The portrayal of Mercury floored me. And the musical legacy of Queen just shines on through.
