“Bohemian Rhapsody now for sale on Blu Ray and DVD;” the words stayed in my ears as Spotify continued on to playing another ad (yes, I still refuse to pay for premium). I remember seeing that movie in theaters over Thanksgiving break just a mere two and half months ago, and then, again, in theaters, a month and a half ago. Walking out of the theater after the first time my head was in two completely different places: a part of me was energized enough to go belt out a concert of my own, and the rest of my head was spinning, trying to process and analyze everything I felt I had just experienced. The car ride home my dad and I recalled the little cultural and conceptual details that made it great: from Mary’s line being ahead of the times to Freddie about how he didn’t choose to be gay, to how the producers captured the extensiveness and grandness of the world wide cause of Live Aid, and everything in between. The movie was an experience. There was an vibrant spirit in the way this dead man’s life story was told that made the movie something special, and inspiring.
By the time I had seen most of my other friends at school had, I was the late comer. They all raved about the movie when they first saw it, and their excitement continued on, as they would play Queen during our free time or while we were doing homework together. Every. Chance. They got. And I didn’t get it, until I saw the movie. I came back from Thanksgiving break and started putting on Queen while doing homework, or pretty much any chance I got. Because after seeing the movie, the songs were more than just catchy old songs we had rediscovered; we knew the context now, we saw the deliberation behind it, and how invested in each song Freddie felt while singing it.
The one other person in our friend group who had yet to see it was my best friend. She had spent her last few days of Christmas break in New York City, and finally saw the movie there. Her first words to me about it were “yeah but you didn’t tell me how good it was! It really made you feel something, you know?” And this time, I did know, I realized that was what made the movie special.
As millenials, our iPhones are with us pretty close to 24/7. We see so so many videos everyday, vlogs, YouTube clips, educational movies in class, ads on websites, Snapchat stories, Instagram stories and posts, Netflix shows, and documentaries, and movies. The first thing I do when I get out of class is catch up on Instagram stories, despite the fact that I definitely have homework to do and could also name you at least three other things off the top of my head that I would rather be doing. And this is fine, I’m not condemning this procrastination any way. I am just thinking, what if every once in awhile we chose to watch something that might make us feel something besides vague laughter, or disgust at another murder show? Maybe our lives wouldn’t change, ultimately it’s all video. But maybe, there would be a few more people inspired by the way felt after seeing a video, like ‘post seeing Bohemian Rhapsody for the first time’ type of inspired.