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God Save Queen: The new film Bohemian Rhapsody captures the spirit of the legendary ’70s band
National Review ^ | 10/31/2018 | Kyle Smith

Posted on 10/31/2018 12:31:08 PM PDT by SeekAndFind

Is this the real life? Is this just fantasy? Also: Will you do the fandango? Can anybody find me someone to love? And: Who wants to live forever? Running through these pertinent questions with Professor Freddie Mercury at Queen College makes for a largely joyous two hours at Bohemian Rhapsody, a movie that lacks much in the way of imaginative filmmaking but has a subject I find irresistible.

A movie that consisted of nothing but making-of stories about the dozen or so best Queen songs, and playing them over a theater sound system, would best nearly everything actually offered at the multiplex this year. Indeed, I’d be thrilled to watch an entire movie about the making of the title song, which struck me as by far the weirdest and most gripping pop track I’d ever encountered when I first heard it on a transistor radio next to my bed when I was falling asleep, aged nine. You would call such a movie, I suppose, “Bohemian Rhapsody Rhapsody.” That 1975 opus stands beside Brian Wilson’s pocket masterpiece “Good Vibrations” in the category of rock singles with the density of neutron stars. I wish I could hear either of them for the first time again.

Recording that demented pileup of weepy piano ballad, bombastic metal, and fake opera is a highlight of the Freddie Mercury biopic Bohemian Rhapsody, featuring a spritely but screen-filling Rami Malek (the Mr. Robot star) as the camptastic Zanzibar-born British singer from a conservative Zoroastrian family. We see him as a youth in his sternly middle-class home. On the wall — this is a witty moment — is a portrait of the Queen.

One royal inspires another. Born Farrokh Bulsara, the youth recasts himself as “Freddie” and presents himself at a pub to a band called Smile that has just lost its lead singer. Drummer Roger Taylor (Ben Hardy) and guitarist Brian May (Gwilym Lee) are skeptical until he busts out a few notes. “I have four extra incisors,” the singer explains. That means a bigger mouth, which means a greater vocal range, or so he thinks. On stage his act amounts to Mick Jagger, only more so.

Music and costumes can be enough to make a movie, it turns out: Julian Day’s amazing array of reimagined Seventies fashions gives the eye plenty to do while the soundtrack wells with the gorgeous bombast of the original recordings (not recreations) of those Queen hits. So I enjoyed the film, even as I wished for more from the director, Bryan Singer, than lackluster cinematic and thematic choices. There’s the usual breakthrough scene when an important phone call comes in informing Freddie that the band has acquired management help, the usual making-it-big-montage, the usual squabbles with the suits — although, as this is the Seventies, the suits wear Hawaiian shirts and shrubbery on their faces. (Mike Myers is in this movie somewhere; see if you can spot him.)

The usual this-is-so-crazy-it’s-bound-to-flop scene feels a bit rote when the band plead for “Bohemian Rhapsody” to be released as a single though deejays prefer shorter songs. Since many tracks that were even longer had proved radio mainstays by 1975 (“Like a Rolling Stone,” “Won’t Get Fooled Again,” “Stairway to Heaven,” etc.), this is a stale argument. Rather than hear about how a soon-to-be famous song is sure to flop, I’d rather Singer had made time for more of the best Queen compositions or had a scene about the making of “Under Pressure,” only a snippet of which is heard in passing.

The new film Bohemian Rhapsody captures the spirit of the legendary ’70s band. Is this the real life? Is this just fantasy? Also: Will you do the fandango? Can anybody find me someone to love? And: Who wants to live forever? Running through these pertinent questions with Professor Freddie Mercury at Queen College makes for a largely joyous two hours at Bohemian Rhapsody, a movie that lacks much in the way of imaginative filmmaking but has a subject I find irresistible.

A movie that consisted of nothing but making-of stories about the dozen or so best Queen songs, and playing them over a theater sound system, would best nearly everything actually offered at the multiplex this year. Indeed, I’d be thrilled to watch an entire movie about the making of the title song, which struck me as by far the weirdest and most gripping pop track I’d ever encountered when I first heard it on a transistor radio next to my bed when I was falling asleep, aged nine. You would call such a movie, I suppose, “Bohemian Rhapsody Rhapsody.” That 1975 opus stands beside Brian Wilson’s pocket masterpiece “Good Vibrations” in the category of rock singles with the density of neutron stars. I wish I could hear either of them for the first time again.

Recording that demented pileup of weepy piano ballad, bombastic metal, and fake opera is a highlight of the Freddie Mercury biopic Bohemian Rhapsody, featuring a spritely but screen-filling Rami Malek (the Mr. Robot star) as the camptastic Zanzibar-born British singer from a conservative Zoroastrian family. We see him as a youth in his sternly middle-class home. On the wall — this is a witty moment — is a portrait of the Queen.

One royal inspires another. Born Farrokh Bulsara, the youth recasts himself as “Freddie” and presents himself at a pub to a band called Smile that has just lost its lead singer. Drummer Roger Taylor (Ben Hardy) and guitarist Brian May (Gwilym Lee) are skeptical until he busts out a few notes. “I have four extra incisors,” the singer explains. That means a bigger mouth, which means a greater vocal range, or so he thinks. On stage his act amounts to Mick Jagger, only more so.

Music and costumes can be enough to make a movie, it turns out: Julian Day’s amazing array of reimagined Seventies fashions gives the eye plenty to do while the soundtrack wells with the gorgeous bombast of the original recordings (not recreations) of those Queen hits. So I enjoyed the film, even as I wished for more from the director, Bryan Singer, than lackluster cinematic and thematic choices. There’s the usual breakthrough scene when an important phone call comes in informing Freddie that the band has acquired management help, the usual making-it-big-montage, the usual squabbles with the suits — although, as this is the Seventies, the suits wear Hawaiian shirts and shrubbery on their faces. (Mike Myers is in this movie somewhere; see if you can spot him.)

The usual this-is-so-crazy-it’s-bound-to-flop scene feels a bit rote when the band plead for “Bohemian Rhapsody” to be released as a single though deejays prefer shorter songs. Since many tracks that were even longer had proved radio mainstays by 1975 (“Like a Rolling Stone,” “Won’t Get Fooled Again,” “Stairway to Heaven,” etc.), this is a stale argument. Rather than hear about how a soon-to-be famous song is sure to flop, I’d rather Singer had made time for more of the best Queen compositions or had a scene about the making of “Under Pressure,” only a snippet of which is heard in passing.

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Nor does Singer deliver a deep understanding of Mercury. He was with his longtime love Mary Austin (a touching Lucy Boynton) for six years before he told her he was bisexual; no, she corrected him, he was gay. Singer hesitates to depict Mercury as promiscuous, leaving it to the side via a montage of the singer diving into the early-80s leather scene, instead focusing on Mercury’s longtime relationship with Paul Prenter (Allen Leech), who is presented as the primary reason Mercury fell out with the band for a time, before they reunited for the 1985 Live Aid concert in London.

Singer builds way too much of the movie around that 20-minute performance, which leaves him little time for anything but a superficial treatment of the principal conflicts of Mercury’s life, such as the turmoil he must have felt as he was deceiving the woman he loved. Singer is equally shallow about Mercury’s uneasy relationship with his Zoroastrian family. But he does get himself worked up about how the press shouted impertinent questions at Mercury at a press conference about the band’s 1982 album. You can guess why Singer (who was fired before completing this film amid sexual-misconduct allegations) is not a fan of reporters asking too many questions about celebrities, but it’s the worst, most self-serving scene in the movie. Mercury’s problem is not the press.

It turns out that Mercury was already ill with AIDS when he agreed to do that memorable Live Aid show, his performance at which is how he remains in memory: bouncy, campy, irrepressible, scarcely containable within Wembley Stadium. When Mercury died six years later, his masterpiece hit No. 1 on the British pop charts again. This time it sounded even more haunting: Goodbye, everybody, I’ve got to go. Gotta leave you all behind and face the truth.


TOPICS: History; Music/Entertainment; Society; TV/Movies
KEYWORDS: band; bohemianrhapsody; hollywood; moviereview; queen
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To: beergarden

Just another Hollywood homo recruitment movie.

Gross.


21 posted on 10/31/2018 1:40:10 PM PDT by TheNext (Anonymous Source)
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To: Magnum44
"Queen music, like so much other classic rock, was just too imprinted in my teenage years for me not to be interested in the bands story."

Unfortunately, so many Queen "fans" have never heard their best stuff. These were incredible musicians and their first three albums before they went completely commercial were awesome. Queen 1 is just straight ahead rock. Queen two is much more complex and operatic and its my favorite album of Queen's. Queen three is a combination of the first two and a masterpiece in its own right. Brian May's 5 minute guitar solo in "Brighton Rock" is one of Rock's best ever. "Night at the Opera" was their Sistine chapel - perfection and it was all downhill after that musically although it was the most popular, and successful period of their career.

22 posted on 10/31/2018 2:13:23 PM PDT by circlecity
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To: circlecity; Magnum44

RE: Brian May’s 5 minute guitar solo in “Brighton Rock” is one of Rock’s best ever.

Not many people know this, but aside from being a superb guitarist, Brian May was also an academic, IN THE HARD SCIENCES.

He was awarded a PhD in astrophysics from Imperial College London in 2007 and was Chancellor of Liverpool John Moores University from 2008 to 2013. It took him 36 years to finish his PhD thesis !

He was also a science team collaborator with NASA’s New Horizons Pluto mission.


23 posted on 10/31/2018 3:13:20 PM PDT by SeekAndFind (look at Michigan, it will)
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To: circlecity

Razorfist had an excellent Metal Mythos on Queen. Album by album going through their history. I agree with him completely about Innuendo maybe being their best. It is 47 minutes long and pretty sure he has some saucy language.

https://youtu.be/dY_mc7jU29k


24 posted on 10/31/2018 4:14:55 PM PDT by Chipper (You can't kill an Obamazombie by destroying the brain...they didn't have one to begin with.)
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To: SeekAndFind

Saw this last night. I’d give it a 4 out of 5. Music obviously as good as ever...I was reasonably impressed with the story line of how it showed Mercury to be flamboyant, reckless and incredibly entertaining and a brilliant performer. That’s exactly who he was. (the actor who played him was fantastic btw)


25 posted on 11/03/2018 7:08:13 AM PDT by oust the louse (The LEFT has no principles, it only has goals! They are the party of death, cheating and taxes.)
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To: SeekAndFind

Mercury had a powerful voice, and ‘Who Wants To Live Forever’ is one of those haunting songs you never forget, but I’d rather HEAR Mercury than look at him. Visually I find him icky.


26 posted on 11/03/2018 7:14:58 AM PDT by ClearBlueSky (ISLAM is the problem. ISLAM is the enemy of civilization.)
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To: SeekAndFind

Mercury had a powerful voice, and ‘Who Wants To Live Forever’ is one of those haunting songs you never forget, but I’d rather HEAR Mercury than look at him. Visually I find him icky.


27 posted on 11/03/2018 7:14:59 AM PDT by ClearBlueSky (ISLAM is the problem. ISLAM is the enemy of civilization.)
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To: Magnum44

If “out there” means the dark, satanic side of life, I agree with you.


28 posted on 11/03/2018 7:27:37 AM PDT by newfreep ("INSIDE EVERY PROGRESSIVE IS A TOTALITARIAN SCREAMING TO GET OUT" @HOROWITZ39, DAVID HOROWITZ)
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To: newfreep

I didn’t necessarily mean satanic. Just most artists seem to be left brain thinkers. Not logical. Think and make decisions based on feelings. Basically the basis of liberalism.


29 posted on 11/03/2018 7:44:43 AM PDT by Magnum44 (My comprehensive terrorism plan: Hunt them down and kill them)
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To: Magnum44

Yes, I knew what you meant...I simply added the clarity of truth.


30 posted on 11/03/2018 7:57:08 AM PDT by newfreep ("INSIDE EVERY PROGRESSIVE IS A TOTALITARIAN SCREAMING TO GET OUT" @HOROWITZ39, DAVID HOROWITZ)
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To: beergarden

To be fair, the movie, intentionally or otherwise (as some staff such as Rami Malek, Freddie Mercury’s actor, indicated that such was the result of time constraints and not part of their vision) actually depicts homosexuality in a very negative light, since it made clear Freddie Mercury’s homosexuality was largely responsible for his falling out with Queen, his girlfriend, and also adopting some rather negative behavior, to say little about it resulting in his death via AIDs. Plus, Paul Prenter, the only other major character to adopt the lifestyle, was depicted in a very negative manner (so negative, in fact, that he’s the closest the film has to a villain), being largely responsible for Mercury’s downfall besides Mercury himself, shifts blame onto others for his actions, used Mercury for his own gratification, and hid various details from him, such as the Live Aid concert plans and Mary Austin calling him. In one way, the movie even implies that he should have stuck with Mary Austin rather than embrace homosexuality. I can tell you this much, it CERTAINLY is better viewing than When We Rise on ABC or Supergirl on the CW.


31 posted on 02/05/2019 4:52:07 PM PST by otness_e
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