Bohemian Rhapsody is a movie tribute to the rock band Queen centring upon the life of their original lead singer Freddie Mercury who died in 1991.
Freddie Mercury’s life was certainly memorable filled with tremendous high, outstanding creative achievements interspersed with some intermittent lows. The movie, starring Rami Malek of Mr Robot fame. Directed by Bryan Singer, who was unceremoniously sacked by studio executives shortly before the completion of the movie (he still gets Director credit).
The Queen band members Brian May (Guitar) and Roger Taylor (Drums) approved of Malek’s performance.
I’ ve loved Queen ever since I was about 11 years old, at that time my family was living in a dry arid town situated on the Murray River (border between Victoria and New South Wales) and aptly named Tooleybuc. With absolutely nothing to do, and being relatively new to towns with no friends, I made use of our neighbour’s trampoline (they were away for the holidays) and with my sister’s large cassette stereo, I practiced trampoline moves, for most of the day, listening to my only cassette album of Queen. I know the song lyrics back to front from those few weeks of school holidays. I’ve since learned that many great guitarists picked up a guitar because of May’s riffs and shredding i.e. Slash said he was inspired by the same album and the way he became exceptional was learning all Queen songs.
As soon as I heard that the movie was screening, I knew I had to make the venue just as significant and chose iMax in Melbourne (biggest cinema screen in the world with a sound system to match) and I wasn’t disappointed. The movie played all their biggest hits: Bohemian Rhapsody, Killer Queen, Crazy Little Thing Called Love, We Are the Champions, We Will Rock You, I Want to Break Free, Radio Gaga and their performance triumph at Wembley Stadium in 1985 for the iconic Live Aid Concert.
The movie was well done and I enjoyed it; so well worth seeing if only for the great soundtrack and the revelation; that the 6 minute Magnus opus song of Bohemian Rhapsody was made in a remote Welsh farm shed.
Very Good Biopic Movie 4 Stars.
