The Queen biopic you have been waiting to see

‘Bohemian Rhapsody’ film review

By Jerrison Oracion, Senior Columnist

5/5

Queen is arguably the greatest band of all time. Incorporating opera in their music created a lot of the greatest hits in rock and roll history. They created rock anthems such as “We Are the Champions”, “We Will Rock You”, and one of my favourite songs, “Another One Bites the Dust”. We have waited for a biopic about Queen for a long time. Now the story of how Freddie Mercury formed the band, and the story of his personal life, comes to the big screen in Bohemian Rhapsody.

The film starts with Mercury (Rami Malek) being a baggage handler at London Heathrow Airport. Then he discovers the rest of the band including Brian May (Gwilym Lee), Roger Taylor (Ben Hardy), and John Deacon (Joseph Mazzello), and they create epic music which had never before been heard at that time. While their record label thinks that they will not do well, the band gets their music out to the world, all leading up to their famous performance at the charity concert Live Aid in 1985.

Before I saw the film, I’d been thinking that they were going to address Mercury being bisexual and having AIDS. However, many people told me that they were not going to fully address those aspects of his life, despite the film’s preview showing a hint that they would. One person also told me that the film’s timeline of events might be inaccurate.

After seeing the film, I’d say it has everything that I was expecting to see in it. The filmmakers balanced the story of Queen with Mercury’s private life. Mercury wrote hints of his bisexuality in their songs and the film addresses his illness as well. We do not know that he has AIDS until the day before he passes away in 1991.

The film not only shows his relationship with Jim Hutton (Aaron McCusker), they also show his relationship with his personal manager, Paul Prenter (Allen Leech). These romances lead to Mercury’s girlfriend, Mary Austin (Lucy Boynton), breaking up with him after she finds out that he also likes men.

Mercury being more famous caused him and the rest of the band to have disagreements with creative decisions. However, all the members of Queen contributed to the success of the band. Mercury had the idea of the six-minute-long epic song “Bohemian Rhapsody”, May had the idea of “We Will Rock You” because he wanted to make a song that everyone could perform, Deacon created the infamous riff in “Another One Bites The Dust”, and Taylor wrote songs that were underrated.

Malek’s portrayal of Mercury is great because he gets the accent right and does his signature dance moves exactly how Mercury did them, especially during the end of the film. In my opinion he should get the Academy Award for Best Actor in the Academy Awards next year. Mike Meyers makes a surprise, unrecognizable appearance as Ray Foster, the head of the band’s record label. Foster refuses to release “Bohemian Rhapsody” as the first hit single of the band’s fourth album A Night at the Opera.

Bohemian Rhapsody has everything that you would like to know about Queen. It is a film that you must see for yourself. Now that it has been made, we can wait for the biopic about The Beatles.