One word that can be used to describe this biopic is incredible. Bohemian Rhapsody left me leaving the movie theater blasting “Radio Ga Ga” in my car on the way home. Since then I have been playing non-stop Queen music and I am not even sick and tired of listening to it. But enough of my experience watching it; lets get into the actual review of the film. When I do, film reviews the way I will break down each film and the amount of ways I break down each film is going to be based on the genre of the film. Since this is a biopic about the rock group Queen; I will break it down in to these three categories followed by an overall review. The three categories will be Casting, Historical Truth and Detail.
Casting
For casting we will start it off with Queen’s lead singer Freddie Mercury who was portrayed by Rami Malek of Mr. Robot fame. Rami Malek did a pehnomenal job portraying the eccentric late Freddie Mercury. Nothing but praise for his portrayal. He looked just like Freddie Mercury so props to the makeup department for that one. Rounding out the rest of the band was Gwilym Lee as Queen’s guitarist, Ben Hardy as Queen’s drummer Roger Taylor and Joseph Mazzello who played the character Tim from my personal favorite film Jurassic Park; as Queen’s bass guitarist. All three of them also did an incredible job portraying each other member of the band. Another member of the main cast was Lucy Boynton who portrayed Mercury’s girlfriend then later his wife to divorced best friend. Boynton gets nothing but praise for her acting in the film. Boynton’s performance drives the emotional points of the film and gives the Rami Malek played Mercury purpose during certain parts of the film. In terms of supporting cast, I am not going to go over each supporting cast member but I am going to highlight two people that took part in this film. The first person I will mention is Aidan Gillen. Aidan Gillen played Queen’s manager John Reid in the film. The character of John Reid was portrayed as a man who you thought had good intentions but was really a conniving piece of shit like another character actor Aidan Gillen played named Little Finger from Game of Thrones. Little Finger like the character John Reid both wanted what was best for them and in the end, both ended up failures in their ultimate goal. One with his neck sliced opened and the other abandoned on a busy street in Manhattan. Another actor I will point out is Mike Myers famous from movies such as Austin Powers and the TV show Saturday Night Live. Mike Myers plays the character Ray Foster at a record label called EMI. His character provided moment of laughter in the film but that is not the reason I am mentioning Mike Myers in this review. You see back in 1992; Mike Myers starred in a movie called Wayne’s World. One scene of the movie has the character Wayne and his friends jamming out to Bohemian Rhapsody in their car. This scene put that song to number one on the charts 17 years after the songs release. In the Queen Movie Myers character objects to putting that song out as the single to the Queen Album A night at the opera bringing Mike Myers full circle.
Historical Truth
When it comes to Historical Truth of this film a lot of is not true to the point that this film is less a biopic on Queen then it was a feel-good movie. I could list off a few things in this film that were not true but I will name at least three things that were not true in Bohemian Rhapsody.
- In real life, Brian May had briefly dated Mary Austin and Freddie didn’t become interested in her until after he was already the lead singer of Queen. The movie shows the meeting of Mary Austin and Freddie Mercury at a 1970 Smile concert.
- Bohemian Rhapsody showed Jim Hutton and Mercury meeting when Hutton was hired as a server at a party taking place in Mercury’s house. In the film Hutton rejects him but they talk until late into the night. In reality, Hutton was working as a hairdresser at London’s Savoy Hotel at the time. His relationship with Mercury began in 1985 and they remained together until Mercury’s death in November 1991.
- In perhaps the biggest departure from the truth, Queen never, in fact, split up the way the movie depicts. In the movie, Freddie signs a $4 million solo deal behind the band’s back, and they are livid. He subsequently says he wants to take a break from the band and they all go their separate ways. In reality, the whole band was burned out by 1983, having been on tour for a decade. They only stopped touring but still kept in touch so there was never a breakup as portrayed in the movie
Detail
The detail in this film is astounding. Starting with the films climax at the 1985 Live Aid concert. The band wore the exact same outfits as seen in the film during that day and Mercury’s moves around the stage were portrayed by Rami Malek exactly the same in the movie. Most of the outfits worn by Malek in the film were the same one’s mercury wore during Queen’s tours and his mannerisms were the same. All of the band member’s haircuts were the same during each new year the film shows the band in. Props to the makeup and costume department that worked on this film they got about every little bit of detail right in this film.
Final Review
I give this film an 8 out of 10. The two points taken off were due to lack of truth in the film. But overall the film was incredible. Even though I would not consider this film a biopic. To me personally this was one of the best films I seen based on a musical act. 200,000 times better then that god awful Tupac film which should be banned as movie. Bohemian Rhapsody out now.
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