Anthony's Film Review - Bohemian Rhapsody (2018)

This musical biography feels standard, but is still interesting, especially with its great leading star...

Whenever I hear about the British rock band known as Queen, three of its songs come to my mind. Two of them are well-known because they have been ingrained into the culture of professional sports: "We Will Rock You" and "We Are the Champions." The third one, however, is known for being highly unconventional: "Bohemian Rhapsody." This is a six-minute song that essentially combines rock and opera, and like some people, I never fully embraced it. When I saw the trailer for the 2018 biopic of the same name along with a friend of mine, I commented to him that, to this day, I still think "Bohemian Rhapsody" is a weird song, and he agreed. The only ones I believe would disagree with me are a group of fictional characters: Wayne and Garth plus three other guys in the 1992 comedy movie Wayne's World, in a scene where they are singing along to "Bohemian Rhapsody" while riding in a car.

Months after seeing the trailer, my friend and I went to watch the movie during its opening weekend. As it started, I thought about the choice of the Queen song title to use as the title for the biopic film. Theoretically, the movie could be called We Will Rock You or We Are the Champions. However, those titles wouldn't represent anything metaphorically. Plus, they would be confused for a different film genre, like (not surprisingly) sports movies. Bohemian Rhapsody, on the other hand, is a title that is unique to Queen and can represent how the members of the band tried to be musically experimental during their careers. So I say it's a fitting title, one that pays tribute to Queen.

You know what else makes this movie a nice tribute to Queen? The main cast. The actors playing the members of Queen are not just good in their performances. They also have striking resemblances to their real-life counterparts. It can sometimes be difficult to tell which photo of a Queen member is a real picture taken of the band member or a photo still from this movie, whether it's Rami Malek playing lead singer Freddie Mercury, Gwilym Lee as lead guitarist Brian May, Ben Hardy as drummer Roger Taylor, or Joseph Mazzello as bass guitarist John Deacon. Although each of these four actors has a memorable presence, whether in dramatic scenes or in musical numbers, it's Malek as Freddie Mercury who steals the show (no pun intended).

As told in this film, Freddie Mercury comes from a Parsi family in England and would eventually change his legal name from Farrokh Bulsara to Freddie Mercury once he decides to embark on a music career. This young man meets the soon-to-be members of Queen while performing at college parties. He also meets a young lady named Mary Austin, played by Lucy Boynton, and eventually marries her. But things get dramatic after Freddie discovers his true sexual orientation and become even more dramatic as he becomes more selfish and flamboyant later in his career. Through these events, we stick with Freddie because we still want to see him reach peak success, especially as Queen will eventually perform at the 1985 Live Aid charity concert.

So the story is not something that is phenomenally emotional, but it is still interesting to follow. What I really want to talk about is the music presented here. The main thing is that it's done well. It doesn't matter to me whether or not the actors were pretending to perform music while a Queen recording was played or actually performed the same music themselves. The result is the same: convincing musical performances by the four stars. As for the song "Bohemian Rhapsody," you do get to see the humorous moments related to producing that rock-opera hybrid or whatever you want to describe it. Needless to say, Queen's record producer at the time rejects it. (Note: That record producer is played by Mike Myers. Yes, the same Mike Myers who played Wayne in Wayne's World and did that Bohemian Rhapsody sing-along scene!)

All of this leads up to the memorable climax with Queen at Live Aid. The film recreates the massive crowd filling up Wembley Stadium in London. The sight of people occupying every square inch of the venue and the noise they create make you feel like you're really there. On stage, the film's stars portraying Queen do their thing like they are truly professional musicians. And the scene goes on for quite some time, just like during Queen's real-life appearance at Live Aid. It is a wonderful way to wrap up this nice tribute to Freddie Mercury and his band mates.

After seeing the movie, I can now say that I left the theater with a greater appreciation for Queen and especially for the late Freddie Mercury who had left a musical legacy before succumbing to an AIDS-related illness. Before watching Bohemian Rhapsody, I heard of Queen and knew some of their songs, but I never knew the names of the band members, not even its lead singer. Now, I can understand why millions of fans think Queen is awesome and why Freddie Mercury is an eccentric but brilliant genius. On top of that, I am no longer calling "Bohemian Rhapsody" a weird song. In fact, I have just added it to my music playlist on Spotify. I thank the movie for giving me the inspiration.

Anthony's Rating:

For more information about Bohemian Rhapsody, visit the Internet Movie Database.