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Bohemian Rhapsody


I'll admit to a sense of trepidation going into Bohemian Rhapsody. Queen have been my favourite band since the mid-80s, I guess, and I really didn't want the film makers to fuck this up. So, after a couple of hours of spine shivers and leg jiggles, I can confirm that any impending fuck-up was averted. Much of the thanks for this has to go to the casting director, Susie Figgis. The actors playing the four band members were as close to the actual lads as no mind (Freddie was a tad taller than Rami Malek but that's a small quibble). I actually forgot I wasn't watching Mercury, May, Taylor and Deacon, especially in the concert scenes. Special mention must go to Joseph Mazzello for getting John Deacon's unfussy feet movement down pat. The voice amalgamation was a nice trick too - Malek has said in interviews that it's probably about 90% Freddie that we hear on screen.

There's a messy history to Bohemian Rhapsody. It's been knocking around for a decade, at one stage Sacha Baron Cohen was down to play Freddie but pulled out due to 'artistic' differences. Later, Ben Whishaw got the nod, with Dexter Fletcher as director but this never got off the ground. Finally, the current iteration was green-lit and moved along bumpily until director Bryan Singer was fired for absence and cast/crew clashes, with Fletcher coming in to complete. Very rock and roll.

The film itself, as a film, is nothing ground-breaking. It follows Freddie from the start of the 1970s, meeting Brian and Roger and joining their band, Smile; the family's disapproval of his lifestyle; Freddie's friendship with Mary Austin and his recognition of his homosexuality; and so on. All this seems to be a reasonably accurate account of Freddie's life but there have been some digs at the film for supposedly sanitising things. Maybe I'm blinkered, but I don't see what else they needed to do in that respect. Play up the lifestyle angle? Homosexual promiscuity? Drug and alcohol binges? More flamboyance? To my mind, this would have been to the detriment of the musical side of the story. That's where it's at, the rest was covered.

It's really all about what it should be - the music. The band jamming, recording and especially, playing at the pinnacle of the film, Live Aid in 1985, are incredible sequences. That Wembley gig is the film's secret weapon of sorts. All the tribulations and betrayals lead up to this cathartic rock-god affirmation. On a slightly more critical note, the soundtrack of the film is as expected, like a greatest hits album, with most of the stadium anthems but, sadly not many of the more intricate gems (see below).

There's some great dialogue here too (thanks to Anthony McCarten and Peter Morgan), notably in the recording sessions for A Night at the Opera and the displaying on screen of the critical notices about the song Bohemian Rhapsody (mostly shit to average ones) might possibly mirror the reviews for the film itself. Not from me, though. I had a great time watching this and it's even encouraged me to crack open Queen, Queen 2 and Sheer Heart Attack once more. Glorious.

Hear also:

 My Fairy King and The Night Comes Down (from Queen - 1973), Ogre Battle and The March of the Black Queen (from Queen 2 - 1974), Brighton Rock and In the Lap of the Gods...Revisited (from Sheer Heart Attack - 1974), The Hero (from Flash Gordon - 1980), Machines (Back to Humans) (from The Works - 1984).

SPOILERS IN POD!!

Listen to "Bohemian Rhapsody" on Spreaker.

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