Bohemian Rhapsody — Review

“good words. Good thoughts. Good deeds.”

This is what I watched last night for the third time!

My review focuses on Bohemian Rhapsody, the movie — not the accuracy of historical events.

If you weren’t a Queen fan before watching the movie, you will be by the end of it.

I was born in 1970; Queen was well established and famous long before I can remember. Freddie Mercury was born before my mum! So to me, they were a 70’s band, a music era before my time, not the 80’s pop era where I was firmly seated.

For me, Duran Duran, Petshop boys, Nick Kershaw and Maddona was ‘top of the pops’. But of course, I knew about Queen, and throughout the 80’s they were iconic;- Not least for their performance at Live Aid in 1985. Who can’t remember what they were doing when Live Aid was aired!?

Nobody was more surprised than me when I came away from my first viewing of Bohemian Rhapsody feeling wholly enraptured. And, even though I’ve watched the film three times now, it still entertains me as much as the first time.

It was like seeing Queen for the first time, and yet I knew all the words to all the songs because I had grown up with them.

The film is about Queen the band, but focuses on Freddie Mercury and his rise to stardom amidst his private and lonely inner demons.

Freddie Mercury, born Farrokh Bulsara in 1946, is played by the talented Rami Malek. The opening scene shows Freddie working as a baggage handler at Heathrow airport. We see him racially teased by his work colleagues. They laugh at him and call him Paki. Freddie retorts, “I am not from Pakistan”. Here we begin to see Freddie’s fearless confidence and forthright character.

At work, Freddie controls any emotion or anger he may be feeling. But, of course, we may never know if this hostile, racist behaviour happened in real life. Still, the portrayal sets the scene of a young man working in a hostile environment trying to make his way in life.

Next, we see him at home with his sister Kashmira Bulsara (played by Priya Blackburn), mother Jer Bulsara (played by Meneka Das), and authoritative and conservative father (Bomi Bulsara played by Ace Bhatti ).

His father is clearly disappointed in Freddie and the lifestyle he pursues, frequenting pubs and working in a dead-end job. He wants him to become a respected member of the community to feel proud of him. Freddie shows an emotional and angry side towards his family. He stands up to his father, and a divide between Freddie, his sister and his parents becomes defined.

Straightaway we feel sad for Freddie.

And so the opening scene is set. Freddie is a failure in his father’s eyes. He feels like an outcast in society by his race and, unbeknown to the audience at this time (unless you already know Freddie’s story), a bisexual.

The chains of social expectation weigh too heavily on Freddie. He wants to Break Free. And break free, he does.

Next, we see him meet Mary Austin (played by Lucy Boynton) at the pub where Freddie has heard the band ‘Smile’. She soon becomes ‘The love of his life.

At the end of the evening, Freddie approaches Brian May, guitarist (played by Gwilym Lee) and Roger Taylor drummer (Ben Hardy). Knowing that their lead singer had just resigned, he offers to replace him. Initially, they mock him for his exaggerated jaw-line. Then, instead of walking away feeling rejected and hurt, he suddenly belts out the lyrics to one of their songs right there in the car park. It’s astonishing. He’s got their attention.

He follows it up to explain that he was born with four extra incisors, enabling him to project his voice further than most. We see Freddie turning a negative situation into a positive one with fearless confidence. The band accepts him.

The band becomes successful with Farrokh as the new singer and front-man. His outlandish outfits initially raise a few eyebrows. Still, once the audience realises his talent, the band becomes a firm favourite.

Freddie throws his whole being into turning the band into a success. He uses the band to reinvent himself and become the person he was always destined to become.

The band changes its name to ‘Queen’, and Freddie changes his name legally from Farrokh Bulsara to Freddie Mercury. Thus, Freddie Mercury and Queen are born.

The transformation from Farrokh to Freddie is extraordinary. Freddie breaks free, turns his back on convention, and embraces his newfound freedom to become Freddie Mercury — the person he wants to be.

His liberal-minded girlfriend Mary doesn’t mind that Freddie dresses in women’s clothes. In fact, she helps to dress him up from her vantage point of working in a ladies dress shop.

Freddie behaved and dressed how he pleased and appeared indifferent to the judgement of anyone else. However, his flamboyant extrovert exterior was not his stage performance — it was the real Freddie.

Once the creation of Freddie and Queen has become established, the movie follows the band’s journey to stardom, touching on the trials and tribulations along the way.

Freddie’s personal life remains the focal point throughout the movie and Mary’s acknowledgement and acceptance of Freddie being bisexual. Despite their six-year intimate relationship, Freddie agrees for Mary to move on and marry. It breaks his heart, but they agree to maintain their close friendship. He tells her that she is the love of his life.

The movie shows us a time when Freddie leaves the band and hits the drugs scene. He attempts to establish a solo career, but the booze and drugs take their toll. I suspect we see a diluted version of what historically actually happened during this time of wild parties and sexual relationships. It is during this time that Freddie is diagnosed with HIV.

It is 1985, and Mary steps in to rein Freddie in, and she tells him frankly that Queen is nothing without him and that he is nothing without Queen. She informs him that Bob Geldof is putting together the biggest live music concert ever and pushes him to reunite Queen to perform at it.

The band reform for what turns out to be the most significant and memorable performance of their rock career.

On the day of Live Aid, Freddie and his new love Jim Hutton visit his sister and parents, where Freddie finally makes peace with his father. He tells him he is off to perform at Live Aid, a charity concert whereby he will take no payment. He tells his father ““good words. Good thoughts. Good deeds.” His father hugs him and says that the family will be watching his performance on the television.

Nobody, least of all Queen, expected the crowd to react to their performance with such enthusiasm. Freddie’s command over the enormous audience sees Freddie involve and include the audience in a way never seen before. The rapturous crowd were captivated and mesmerised and loudly cheered their affection and appreciation.

Freddie tells the band he has HIV and that his time is up. It’s a shattering moment; the band are shocked, momentarily trying to comprehend the seriousness of the situation.

Despite the realness of his illness, Freddie devoted the remaining six years of his life working on making music for Queen. A testimony to the man that gave his all to entertain.

In my opinion, this movie deserves a five-star rating. The Oscar nominations and awards it received were deserved. The actors all played excellent versions of their characters.

The star of the movie was Malek playing Freddie. Still, equally, all band members threw a fantastic likeness in appearance, personality, and mannerisms to portray their roles.