Over the weekend I went and watched the much anticipated movie, Bohemian Rhapsody. The film was directed by Bryan Singer and follows the journey of the band Queen and their rise to fame. Freddie Mercury is played by Night at the Museum and Mr. Robot actor, Rami Malek. I thought that Malek did a great job of portraying the amazing stage presence that Mercury had. His movements were extremely similar to those of the late star and he physically looked a lot like him throughout the film. When I first heard that Malek would be playing Mercury, I was unable to picture it. However, after seeing him in this role I thought it was a wonderful choice.
Photo Credit: Fox movies
Obviously, the music in Bohemian Rhapsody was wonderful because it is from the wonderful band Queen. After seeing the movie, I was curious to know if Malek did any of his own singing, or how the directors went about the musical parts of the movie. According to Beck, Mercury, Malek and the Canadian artist Marc Martel had their voices combined in order to create some small parts of singing in the movie. This combination of voices allowed the filmmakers to include scenes in Bohemian Rhapsody when they did not have actual clips of Mercury singing, but sounded very close to his voice.
While I did enjoy the film, I wish that it focused on more than just the music. It was made clear that Mercury had relationships with men and women, as well as him having AIDS, but these were not the main aspects of the plot. I feel as if the key focus of Mercury’s relationships was his with Mary Austin. Their love and friendship was very endearing. However, I wanted to see more of Mercury’s personal life, especially regarding his other relationships and how people felt about them. The movie does kind of touch on this, but I, and I think many other viewers, would have liked to have seen the true impact of this. Mercury being an openly gay man in this time was pivotal, I wanted to learn more about this within the film because I do think that this an extremely important part of his legacy. Nonetheless, I am sure that the writers decided to focus on the music of Queen because this is why so many love them and this is what made them famous.
Photo Credit: Getty Images
Those who know the story of Queen and Freddie Mercury know that he sadly died from AIDS related complications in 1991. The movie says this at the very end before the credits, but does not show it within the film as it ends at the “Live Aid” concert that occurred in 1985. I would have liked to see how things were for the band between this period. As well as how the members and the world reacted to Mercury’s death. I assume that the writers felt as if the viewers would already know the impact of Queen and Mercury. While I did, I think the movie left a few loose ends that should have been addressed more.
Photo Credit: Getty Images
Despite all of this, would I recommend you to watch Bohemian Rhapsody? YES. This movie was very entertaining and it was great to be reminded of how awesome the music of Queen is and how amazing this band continues to be. While I would have liked the filmmakers to discuss some more things in detail, it was still a good movie. Like me, you may find yourself having to do research after the movie to learn some details about the band and Freddie Mercury. Luckily for us, much of this information can be found with the click of a button. Grab some popcorn and go check out this movie!