Is this the real life?

Film review: Bohemian Rhapsody

MANILA, Philippines — It’s with the opening line of Queen’s Bohemian Rhapsody that I title this review; as that pretty much sums up how critics and reviewers have been writing about this film, asking why the grittier aspects of the band’s frontman Freddie Mercury’s life are absent from the film biopic. Me, I’m wondering if that’s necessarily a fair question at all. It is a Hollywood production, with the surviving members of the band having final script approval, so it’s inevitable that there would be a version that would protect the legacy of the band and Mercury. 

And what a legacy it is. Queen ruled in the early-‘70s up to the mid-‘80s. While bands that preceded them like the Rolling Stones tour to this day; if you think about it, today’s kids are more aware of Queen’s hits than they are of the Stones — ask the twenty-something about the Stones and (I Can’t Get No) Satisfaction may well be the only hit they know, while Queen’s Bohemian Rhapsody, We Will Rock You, We Are the Champions, Radio Ga Ga, Love of My Life, Another One Bites the Dust and Crazy Little Thing Called Love still figure on their playlists and continue to crop up in movie soundtracks. Lady Gaga herself admits she grew up on Queen, and her own stage name comes from Radio Ga Ga.

So is the movie any good? Well, Rami Malek is terrific as Mercury, and his riveting portrayal will take you through the whole film. That alone is worth the price of admission. The film starts on a high note — the band warming up for the 1985 Live Aid concert where the members literally stole the show — and then takes us back to 1970, when Mercury was a struggling nobody who could sing, and would hang around the pubs where Smile, the band of Brian May and Roger Taylor would gig.

It’s most likely the facile manner in which the film treats Mercury’s sexuality, and his succumbing to AIDS, that have some reviewers praising Malek but dissing the film treatment. These facts are all addressed but admittedly in an oblique, passing way. The last half-hour of the film is great though, as it faithfully chronicles what some people now tend to forget — at his core, Mercury was a fantastic showman, and it was the live performances of Queen that are the stuff of legend. Anyone fortunate enough to have watched Queen live will always cherish that memory. 

Fortunately, there’s still enough in this film to make it an enjoyable ride, a musical journey that for those born in the ‘80s and onwards, will be an eye-opener to how rock and pop music evolved to be what it is today. Queen was one of the bands of its time, and for posterity. Its music lives on in a very unique manner that other musical acts can only aspire for.