By Paul Goldfinger, Editor@Blogfinger.net
It doesn’t matter if you never heard of Queen or if you hate rock and roll, this movie is so well done that you will become emotionally involved, and you will love most of the music.
In the mid-1980’s I was listening to jazz and classical, but I could not avoid Queen‘s music because my younger son was a huge fan, and he and his 3 best friends in high school had formed a band called “Premonition,” and Eileen allowed them to practice in our basement. They wrote “Premonition” on one of the overhead beams, and I hope it’s still there. And they played “We Are the Champions” at high volume over and over in our house.
This movie made me realize how accessible Queen’s music really is and how beautiful. I heard of Freddie Mercury, but in this film we find out about him and his life, and it is touching and utterly engaging emotionally. His relationship to his band-mates, his friends, his sexuality, his music, and his family is unforgettable. It is unlike other biopics such as the one for Ray Charles, where the music takes a back seat to drugs and a dissolute life.
I was aware of Rami Malek who plays Freddie Mercury because I had seen him in the streaming series “Mr. Robot” which is a very good series, but it’s amazing how the producers saw that and called Malek in to audition for Freddie Mercury, because the rolls are so different. It is fascinating to find out how Malek was turned into a singing and dancing gay guy for the film.
You can buy it today on Amazon Prime for $20.00. It is the first movie I ever bought to be owned and played only by streaming. I have a good TV and sound system, but I will, at some point, see Bohemian Rhapsody again on a big screen with a big-time sound array.
Rhapsody is up for some big Oscar awards, and Malek could win best actor.
Here is a video of the actual Queen at Live Aid in 1985. This medley lasts for 24 minutes, but don’t miss the ending. This video has been seen over 160 million times.
If you love music, you should buy the soundtrack of “Bohemian Rhapsody.”