Movie Review- Bohemian Rhapsody

Haven Thacker and Keegan Thomas

Bohemian Rhapsody is a drama biography film about the band Queen. It was directed by Bryan Singer and released on November 2, 2018. Currently, 98% of viewers enjoyed, whereas the critics gave it a 62% on rotten tomatoes. Critics have spoken and left many positive comments about the film.

Queen is a very well known group of talented British men who created songs you may know such as Bohemian Rhapsody, Killer Queen, We Are the Champions, We Will Rock You, Another One Bites the Dust, and many more. They formed their band in 1970 and were constantly creating hit songs that many still listen to today.

The movie focuses on the lead singer, Freddie Mercury. It shows how his fame came to be and the ups and downs of it all. It includes every step of the group’s journey and how they became world-renowned artists.

Although this film could have been rated R, the creators kept it PG-13, which was beneficial to create a larger viewing audience. Many critics rated the movie as entertaining yet historically inaccurate.

“ [A] major factual inaccuracy is the film’s handling of Mercury’s HIV diagnosis. In the film, Mercury learns he is sick shortly before the band reunites for Live Aid. The script has Mercury use his diagnosis to cement the band’s reformation, but in reality Mercury most likely did not even know he had the disease before Live Aid. Queen’s Live Aid performance took place in 1985, and by all accounts Mercury wasn’t diagnosed with HIV until April 1987. The movie’s altering of history here has been criticized by press.”-(Indiewire, November 5th, 2018)

The movie did this on purpose, there would’ve been no real climax if Freddie found out about his HIV after the Live-Aid, yet that is what happened in Mercury’s real life. It was a strategic writing move to create suspense and an entertaining story arc. This point of view is perfectly stated in this quote by David Edelstein.

“Some of the liberties do Mercury and Queen an injustice, but most are harmless (if dim). A hundred small things wrong barely matter when there are one or two big things right.”(New York magazine, November 2nd, 2018)

Besides the few historical inaccuracies, the film did a fantastic job portraying the life of Freddie Mercury and how his fame affected the his life and the band. It included the most important events of the band together, Freddie’s individual career, as well as personal life. The actors chosen for the roles were perfect appearance and performance wise. It’s a must see!