Bohemian Travesty – TWB86

On The Thread: Bohemian Rhapsody

Looking back on this movie in relation to the title of the film, there should be a more artist approach to this biopic for the band Queen and not the man Freddy Mercury. At face value, Bohemian Rhapsody is a paint-by-the-numbers biopic without the celebratory weight of a meaningful story.
They dangle Freddy Mercury on screen just long enough for us to pat at the plight of this man who (may have) suffered secretly with his homosexual but extroverted himself through music, another gift born unto him. To know what empowered Mercury to sing is to know the truth behind the lyrics of songs endeared by millions.
Same goes with the talents of his bandmates and what inspired them to form a band named Smile. Whether it be audiences short attention spans or the parameters of constraining a film under one-hundred and sixty minutes, Queen’s biopic lacks the importance of truth beyond the entertainment.

Freddie Mercury was Queen. Sorry, you have to hear that.

Queen is Freddy Mercury. Bohemian Rhapsody is Freddy Mercury’s movie made lame. Not that I wanted a sex-fueled drug fest of disco life in the eighties but what I did expect was an emotional tale of his journey to the truth than a behind the scenes instruction manual on how to Queen made their greatest hits. Not one survives without the other. To make this Film, Fox needed rights for the movie. The surviving members of Queen have those rights and leveraged how we perceived them on screen.
Question: Were Rami Malik’s prosthetic teeth necessary?
Biopic, or not, Queen is the one of the penultimate rock band of the seventies and eighties; however, just as they created songs from scratch and ingenuity, Bohemian Rhapsody — a movie about the band Queen — needed more of a free-spirited artistic vision to truly portray their genius. Like, The Who’s Tommy, and the concept film from Ken Russell, or Across the Universe; the arthouse Warhol treatment. Queen’s music, in light of Freddy Mercury and the band, outreaches them all.

Bohemian Rhapsody was initially a Freddy Mercury biopic with Sacha Baron Cohen casts as the lead singer.

After he left the project and some script rewrites later, Ramie Malik signed on and production commenced. I have a theory that this tame version fo the Freddy Mercury biopic was an effort to save his legacy from an embarrassing character portrayal. Cohen ‘allegedly’ left due to conflictions he had with the script. So, it’s plausible the script wasn’t good to begin with and needed some tender love care before the start of production.
There’s also another theory that the surviving members of Queen did not want Bohemian Rhapsody to focus solely on Mercury. Two specific ‘ on spoiler’ scenes in the movie could validate that claim:
  • With the entire band in the studio, sans Mercury, an annoyed Brain May rallies those in attendance and begins stomp and clap cadence of We Will Rock You.
  • John Deacon starts this rift that brings them together for we are the champions. These two moments are very cliche to the music biopic and seemed very matter-of-fact. Yes, Mercury, sang the lyrics, but the matter of fact is blank wrote the song.
  • I Love My Car song. Roger Taylor.

Bohemian Rhapsody featuring the music of Queen, and my aversion to the biopic.

Bohemian Rhapsody made me thirst for more knowledge about Freddy Mercury; his trials and tribulation as a gay man and how he and the group managed the hoopla of life, failure, and success. Those truths necessary to fully round the character of Queen who could very well serve as the headline attraction. However, Rami Malek’s portrayal of Mercury dons the posters, Youtube thumbnails, and news article headlines. Why not use images of the band? Actually, I think it would work as a flash to past and clue audiences into what they’re watching: a movie about a band.
Seldom are biopics done well in cases when the subject of the film is dead. Too many times studios and scriptwriters attempts to write a biopic of someone’s life fail based on speculation, hearsay, and confidentiality. The dead will not speak. The dead can not tell their stories unless they leave behind an account of their own personal journey. Often times these important figures die young and suddenly. Buried thoughts lost in their own memories.
When you have to grasp at straws to tells a story — especially in this case— be original. A more spirited creation bodes better than a biopic pretending to be a movie about a band. Rather than filling in the blanks, maybe leave the story alone. Celebrate the artist in a more creative way using the creations they left behind.

Are biopics, unwilling to take risks, worth the cost?

How do you tell a true story without all the facts? Maybe they meant save Freddy Mercury’s legacy from the smear of public rhetoric and scrapped the Queen biopics previous scripts in turn for this sanitized version. Not only does this desaturate a vibrant Freddy mercury storyline line, but the band also comes off as bland. Goody-to-shoes with no real emotion other than three moments in this film when they are briefly without a lead singer, Freddy shows up late to a jam session, and Freddy’s admission he has AIDS. In which, Mercury only publicly acknowledged 24hrs before his death.
Talking Points:
  • Changing the course of history to fit a triumph narrative storyline
  • Tongue and cheeky emotional scenes. Did not want to take itself too seriously.
  • Who was this made to entertain, the lover of Queen Music or Freddy Mercury fans?
Concept films: Tommy and Across The Universe. Bohemian Rhapsody deserves this treatment.

This, That, and Other News

Queen wrote and performed the theme song for Highlander: The Movie and Highlander the series. The show and the movie were my first exposure to Queen’s music. I’ve listened to We Are the Champions and We Will Rock You deservingly without ever knowing the artists performing the songs until Highlander debuted on television.
That pesky comet,  Oumuamua, might be alien. Then again, it may not be alien.

Woman calls the cops on a whale, seriously. This is what happens to the Open Water franchise. Why do people call the cops for things they should mind on their own. Get your own cat out the tree, Timmy!

Weekly Gratitude:

Doc says I’m healthy, like a bull. I say, you’re full of shit.

Flava text:

Nothing really matters, now,  does it?

Links Mentioned in This Episode:

Woman calls cops on whale… dummy, we drive cars not boats.

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