Strange group Queen. In my forty-odd years as a student of rock music it is hard to think of another band who have so divided opinion.
Few people I know would put a Queen album anywhere near a list reserved for acknowledged masterpieces but most, myself included, could reel off a list of the anthemic, often diverse hit singles they became famous for – none of which would give cause to change the station when they came on the radio.
It has, therefore, been interesting to read the varying reviews generated by the recently released Queen biopic BOHEMIAN RHAPSODY (Dir Bryan Singer, 134 minutes), that have ranged from calling it great to grandiose, fascinating to fatuous – all familiar words when Queen come to be critiqued.
So then to a personal take on the film, which comes across as a curious mix of inspired and indulgent – so in that respect alone representative of Queen, even if the depiction on screen plays fast and loose with the truth.
Which is not to criticize ‘Bohemian Rhapsody‘ for being a poor film – far from it, there are a number of enthralling scenes and the performance throughout of Rami Malek as flamboyant front man Freddie Mercury is superb. But clearly it is a sanitized version of the Queen story, particularly when focused on Mercury, the central figure of the piece.
Beginning and ending with their brilliant performance at the ‘Live Aid’ concert of July 1985, that along with accompanying video for the ‘Bohemian Rhapsody‘ single were career-defining moments, the film traces how Mercury (born Farrokh Bulsara in Zanzibar before emigrating to London with his parents as a teenager in the 60s) is working as a baggage handler at Heathrow Airport in 1970 – at this point coming across a struggling pub-rock outfit who have just parted company with their lead singer.
Convincing them to hire him by virtue of his fledgling flamboyance and more pertinently, astonishing vocal range, Mercury transforms the group – who at his insistence adopt the moniker Queen.
The portrayals of guitarist Brian May (Gwilym Lee), drummer Roger Taylor (Ben Hardy) and bassist John Deacon (Joseph Mazzello) are so uncanny (no surprise perhaps as May and Taylor are credited as ‘Creative Consultants,’ whatever that means) at times it feels like watching a documentary – which added to the inclusion of original Queen material make the number of liberties taken with the ensuing sequence of events even harder to fathom.
From the outset Freddie has talent but also ambition in abundance, convincing the group to sell the trusty van that transports them and their equipment to low-key gigs up and down the country in order to book studio time and make their first recordings.
Eventually Queen break through at the tail end of the glam-rock era, where Freddie’s theatrics and pomp-rock instincts of the others, suggest what would have happened had David Bowie replaced Robert Plant in Led Zeppelin.
As their reputation begins to spread the only cloud on the horizon at this stage for Mercury is a fractious relationship with his disapproving father, who has no time for the career path down which Queen are accelerating – their arrival in the upper echelons of rock confirmed by the enormous worldwide popularity of 1975 hit single ‘Bohemian Rhapsody.’
Encompassing a cappella, piano ballad, opera and hard rock, the scenes recreating how Mercury came to write the song, the recording sessions and battle with the record company to release a single over six minutes long are hugely entertaining.
The casting of Mike Myers, however, as a senior executive at EMI, who cannot see any potential in the record being a hit, seems little more than a stunt to make the obvious but unnecessary reference to ‘Wayne’s World‘ – the film that brought the song back into the public domain in 1992.
But in riding the enormous wave of success Queen come to enjoy, Mercury is forced to address an inner torment caused by his latent homosexuality, which brings a painful end to a hitherto heterosexual relationship with girlfriend of long-standing Mary Austin (Lucy Boynton). They would, however, remain close friends for the rest of his life.
He then enters what is portrayed as a destructive tryst with Queen management assistant Paul Prenter (Allen Leech) before finding contentment in the form of Jim Hutton (Aaron McCusker) who goes on to become his life-partner, this after rejecting Mercury’s initial advances at a lavish party thrown by the singer.
When Mercury starts gaining a reputation for prolific promiscuity, his sexual encounters and drug taking remain in the margins of the narrative, offering broad hints rather than graphic detail – almost as if the PG-13 rating has been purposely set so veteran Queen fans can watch with their children or quite possibly grandchildren.
The most affecting scene in this respect is a press conference to launch an early 80s Queen album, the event hi-jacked by persistent questions relating to Mercury’s sexuality. After deflecting the first few enquires with an aloofness Elizabeth Taylor would envy – Freddie would no doubt welcome that comparison – his demeanor becomes increasingly agitated, leaving May to ask of the assembled media posse:
‘Is there anyone who wants to talk about the music?’
In depicting Freddie as he veers between shyness and exhibitionism, Malek truly excels in the lead role, but is no slouch either in re-creating Mercury the charismatic front man and singer.
The lead up to the ‘Live Aid’ show maybe a touch gaga with regard to distortion of the facts – on the eve of their performance Freddie divulges to May, Taylor and Deacon he has contracted the AIDS virus, from which he would die six years later in 1991 – this a scene for dramatic rather than factual effect (the diagnosis was made two years later).
Nevertheless Malek catches every nuance and pose of the exhilarating performance Mercury delivered that day at Wembley Stadium, Freddie the consummate rock show man in control of the music and the audience – and for those moments spent bestriding the stage, in control of his life.
This article was first published on 14/11/2018.
NEIL SAMBROOK is the author of ‘MONTY’S DOUBLE’ – an acclaimed thriller now available as an Amazon Kindle Book.