Bohemian Rhapsody

           I don’t know about you, but there have been times where I have seriously wondered why something or someone won the awards they did.  After watching Bohemian Rhapsody, I have no questions as to why Rami Malek won the Academy Award for his portrayal of Freddie Mercury.  He did a great job, and this is coming from someone who is very particular about who even sings the songs of Queen.  There is no doubt in my mind that Mr. Malek deserved all the accolades he received.            

                It’s the early 1970s, and Farrokh Bulsara (Rami Malek), who will later change his name to Freddie Mercury, is struggling to find a direction in his life.  It is a fact his father points out regularly.  Then, on a night Freddie goes to see a band he likes, his life changes forever.  He finds out the lead singer has moved on from the band after their performance, leaving drummer Roger Taylor (Ben Hardy) and guitarist Brian May (Gwilym Lee) on their own.  When Roger and Brian hear Freddie sing, they ask him to join the band.  Since Freddie can’t play the bass guitar, they must add a fourth member, John Deacon (Joe Mazzello).  The band Queen has now been formed.

                Queen has good success from the start, but it isn’t until Freddie convinces the others to sell their tour van and make a demo that things for them really start to fly.

                With a recording company behind them, Queen becomes a big name.  The problem is, the recording company doesn’t want to have the band experiment with their music, something the band is insistent they do.  The biggest thing the two sides disagree about is the song “Bohemian Rhapsody”.  At six minutes long, the company executive, Ray Foster (Mike Myers), believes it will be too long of a song for radio stations to play.  He wants a different song as their single.

                The band, especially Freddie, is adamant that “Bohemian Rhapsody” will be their single.  When Foster continues to refuse, all four members of the band unite and walk away from the company.  With their departure, Foster predicts no one will know the name Queen by the end of the year.  He is very, very wrong.

                Without Foster, and with the release of “Bohemian Rhapsody”, Queen’s success continues to grow.  With it comes tension in the group.  While Brian, Roger, and John have started getting married and having children, Freddie remains on his own.  He buys a house that is so big each of his cats has their own bedroom.  His ex-fiancée, Mary Austin (Lucy Boynton), lives next door.  Other than that, Freddie is alone.

While still with Mary, Freddie discovered he was gay.  Since his stardom was on the rise at the time of this discovery, Freddie has had a hard time finding someone who wants him for him.  Not sure how else to lead this new aspect of his life, Freddie becomes involved with the party scene.  The person leading him in is Paul Prenter (Allen Leech), one of Queen’s managers.  And a very bad influence.

                For the very lonely Freddie, Paul is one of the worst influences he could have.  He is the driving force behind the downward path Freddie’s life takes.  Paul is the one who manipulates Freddie into firing Queen’s long-time manager, John Reid (Aidan Gillen), and has Freddie leave the band to pursue a solo career.  It is also Paul who keeps Freddie’s loved ones away, as well as opportunities Freddie may like to do.

                Mary is the one who finally pulls Freddie out of the situation he is in.  This is not surprising, because if there is anyone in his life who will be able to reach Freddie and who he will listen to, it is Mary. 

Fortunately, Freddie does listen to Mary.  After he talks to her, Freddie is able to see all that Paul has done to him.  He tells Paul he never wants to see him again, and does whatever he can to get back together with the band.

It is at this time that Freddie finds out he has AIDS.  He tells his bandmates so they don’t hear it from anyone else, but insists they don’t dwell on it.  He would rather live what time he has left to the fullest.

The film ends with Queen performing at Live Aid.  On the side of the stage are Mary; her partner, David (Max Bennett); and Jim Hutton (Aaron McCusker), a man who only wanted to be with Freddie once Freddie liked himself.  It is these people, the members of Queen, and his family who are with Freddie until the end.  They are the ones who truly loved Freddie, and I’m glad he realized that before he died.

                Mentioning Freddie’s family, there was something very interesting I found in the film.  First, no matter how successful Freddie became, his family still lived very simply.  Second, even when there was tension or other stress going on between Freddie and his family, when he met someone important to him, he took them home to meet the family.  He took Mary there very early on in their relationship, and he did the same for Jim.  Despite how they may disagree with how he was living his life, it always mattered to Freddie that his family meet who was important to him.

                While this film was slow at times, it was also beautiful.  It showed how lonely it can be at the top, as well as how difficult it can be sometimes to live with a person whose mind doesn’t stop thinking of ideas and possibilities.  Some would say it is difficult living with genius.

                This film also showed how important it is to find people who would still love you if you had nothing.  If you had no acclaim to your name.  Those are the ones who will be there through the hard times.  And then, for the times when you must go through the difficulty alone, they will be the ones waiting for you on the other side.  Ready and willing to welcome you back into their lives.  Those are the people who are most important.  And they are very hard to find.