Bryan Singer’s film titled Bohemian Rhapsody, is a biographical drama that explains how the famous rock band Queen came about, and unfortunately ended. The film is mainly focused on the life of lead singer Freddie Mercury, who is known for his unique and flamboyant presence, and also for his tragic death from AIDS in 1991, during a time where the world knew little about the disease AIDS. The movie opens with a clip of the band and lead singer Freddie Mercury (Rami Malek), preparing and running on stage for LiveAid, the acclaimed 1985 concert that funded relief for Africa, and would unfortunately be one of the last times Queen played live. The rest of the film carries on as a flashback, creating background on how the band came about and reached enough stardom to perform at LiveAid, in front of thousands of people and on live television.
Freddie Mercury was a Indian Parsi, who fled with his parents and sister to England after tragedy struck their homeland. Freddie was very talented, and knew he was born to be a star– not just a regular airport worker as shown in the beginning of the film. He is disapproved of by his traditional parents who do not understand his hopes and dreams. Freddie meets future band members guitarist Brian May (Gwilym Lee), singer John Deacon (Joseph Mazzello), and bassist Roger Taylor (Ben Hardy) outside a bar after one of their performances. Confidently, Freddie proposes becoming their new lead singer, and after being laughed at by the men, sings a riff that changes their mind. Freddie and the band have a bit of a shaky start as he originally has a clunky stage presence, butchering some words to their songs during the first performance. Soon enough Freddie and the band are playing local venues every night.
Freddie becomes romantically involved with the English woman Mary Austin, as the band takes off and decides to sell their van to produce their first record. At lunch with Mary’s parents, Freddie receives a call from the producer of Elton John, John Reid (Aiden Gillen). Freddie, Brian, John and Roger are proposed a deal with John, as well as Paul Prenter (Allan Leech), another producer with this record company. Freddie declares the band to be named Queen.
Queen’s debut with their newly signed producers is their performance of the song “Killer Queen,” on a popular television show. The band members’ rebellious and conflicting tendencies are first hinted here, when they argue with the producers who want them to lip sync the song. Freddie and Mary’s relationship gets serious and they get engaged just before finding out that Queen has been booked to tour America in 1975.
The band begins working on their next album titled, A Night at the Opera and get very creative in the process, crossing boundaries never before seen in music. The band’s creative edge, and Freddie Mercury’s unique musical talent is portrayed through the scene when they write their most groundbreaking song, “Bohemian Rhapsody.” This song is not approved of at first by any of the producers, who say an eight minute song would never make it on the radio. The band plays it all over the world on tour, and “Bohemian Rhapsody” becomes the epitome of Queen’s unique musical style. On tour, hints of Freddie’s bisexuality start after Paul kisses Freddie. Feeling obligated to the love of his life, Mary, Freddie denies these feelings. Freddie tells Mary that he is bisexual, once returning from tour, and she– tired of being ignored– tells him he is gay and breaks up with him despite her love for him.
Freddie grows extremely lonesome living alone in a giant house, so he throws a huge party. Drunk, and upset Freddie is rude and disrespectful to the other band members who leave and head back to their families at home. Freddie makes sexual advances on one of the waiters, who is first disgusted but then tells Freddie to come find him once he finds and learns to “love himself.” It is in this scene where Freddie stops hiding his sexuality and embraces being gay.
The Queen members experience a lot of turmoil in the following scenes, when Freddie’s ego seems to get in the way of his relationships with people. John comes up with the bands new hit “We Will Rock You” involving fans in the bands performance. Despite the rise of tensions between Freddie and the other band members, Queen produces more hits, this time the songs “Another One Bites the Dust” and “I Want to Break Free”. A hint at the disapproval 1980 society still had of homosexuals is made in the scene, where the band performs “I Want to Break Free” on MTV. Suspicions from the press and media of Freddie’s own sexuality arise as they relentlessly attempt to have Freddie admit to being gay.
Paul, who becomes the antagonist of the film proposes Freddie to start a solo career, with clear jealousy of Freddie’s dedication to the band. Freddie is first disgusted, but eventually is convinced after receiving a 4 million dollar deal with CBS records. Freddie toggles with drugs and an unhealthy lifestyle as Paul takes advantage of him, keeping Freddie in the dark about an offer Queen received to perform at LiveAid. Finally, just after Freddie is diagnosed with AIDS, he finds out about LiveAid. Freddie believes this may be his last performance, and attempts to rekindle his relationships with John, Brian and Roger.
The band performs “Bohemian Rhapsody” and “Radio Gaga” on stage in front of 75,000 people, and Freddie seems to have finally mended the bonds he broke with a number of people in his life, including Mary, the band, and his family.
