Bohemian Rhapsody

Bohemian Rhapsody is a rock biopic about Freddie Mercury, the flamboyant and electrifying frontman for the 70s and 80s powerhouse band, Queen. The film begins when Freddie was still known as Farrokh Bulsara (at least by his family) and was a design student in London working as an airport baggage handler. Barely spending any time at home with his very traditional Indian/Persian parents and sister, the self-named Freddie spends his nights prowling clubs, listening to bands. He happens to be in the right place at the right time when the lead singer of a local band called Smile quits. With a quick, improvised audition while standing in a parking lot, Freddie is in the newly re-christened Queen and his ascent to rock royalty begins. 

 Despite a two and a half hour run time, the film clips along quickly, never dwelling for long on any one period of Mercury or the band’s life. They play local gigs and then sell their van to fund the production of their first album. It gets the attention of a record company that gives them time and funds to record a follow-up, which includes the infamous song of the film’s title, “Bohemian Rhapsody.” The record execs doubt the song and refuse to release it as a single. Mercury finds a way to get the song on the radio anyway, and Queen goes on to be one of the biggest bands in the country and the world. Mercury, despite being common law married to a nice girl named Mary, finds himself straying while on the road, usually with men. He eventually embraces his homosexuality privately while the band only gets bigger and more successful.

The main conflict of the film comes in the form of the villainous Paul Prenter, Freddie’s personal manager, who manipulates Mercury into going solo and then isolates him from the band and other opportunities. Eventually, Mercury figures out what’s going on, banishes Paul, returns to the band, and goes on to perform their triumphant set at 1985’s Live Aid in front of an audience of over a billion people. We also see Mercury get diagnosed with AIDS as well as find lasting love in Jim Hutton.

It’s a lot to pack in, and the film suffers from some typical biopic problems. The water is wide but not necessarily deep. We get a good if not always historically accurate overview of Mercury’s history with his band, but we don’t really learn much about what drove them, personally or musically. The other members of the band are largely only there are foils for their front man and never really come across as much other than a good bunch of guys usually shaking their heads at wacky ol’ Freddie.

Bohemian Rhapsody’s biggest problem is that it is formulaic. It is structured like many other rock movies – it opens with the artist about to perform an iconic show but then casts the viewer back to how it all began, so the film can then end with that performance that we all know is coming. Whether it’s Cash at Folsom or Mercury at Wembley, the formula is the same. The irony is that Queen was one of the least formulaic bands ever. Their music was such an unpredictable mishmash of rock, boogie-woogie, opera, country, and everything else they could throw in there, this somewhat predicable film hardly does the spirit of their music justice.

However, having said that, when the film just centers on the band and Rami Malek’s wonderful performance as Mercury, the concerns about predictability and formula just sort of melt away. The music, as ever, is propulsive, electrifying, and downright fun. The recreation of the band’s exhilarating twenty minute set for Live Aid is joyous and almost as good as the real thing. Bohemian Rhapsody as a film is hardly groundbreaking, but it does do a surprisingly effective job of capturing what made Queen a groundbreaking band.