Despite being a fan of Queen -- I mean, who isn't, right? -- I avoided the flick Bohemian Rhapsody for as long as I could before catching it earlier this week on Amazon Prime. I avoided it for the same reason I sometimes fast-forward to the rock portion of the hit song; that part where Brian May's guitar and the lyric "so you think you can love me and spit in my eye" give the song a full injection of sass and attitude.
Com'on, you've done that too, right? Skip to that part? I mean, the tragic opera set-up tells an awesome story. But after a while all the scaramouchies and fandangos, all the thunderbolts and lightning can be very very frightening to me.
Plus, the flick received so-so reviews outside Rami Malek's channeling of Freddie Mercury.
Oh man, was waiting a mistake. Bohemian Rhapsody is a wonderful film. What it lacks in presenting a true bio-pic (come on, naysayers, you can't expect a 134 minute movie to depict accurately a band's rise to legendary status) it more than makes up in exploring the tragic loneliness of Freddie Mercury.
And that's the real story, isn't it? The story we really want to watch and hear about?
I think most Queen fans will agree with me that no matter how much we loved Queen as a band -- the great songs, brilliant instrumentals, perfect harmonies -- it was Mercury's strut and attitude that pulled us into the fan club. And, as Bohemian Rhapsody points out well, there was something missing from Mercury's personal life that he found on stage. Finding it there allowed him to feel alive, and it transformed him into a Rock and Roll God.
I always find it ironic that the tragic lifestyle of an artist can inspire work so great that it makes millions of people happy. But that tragedy is the secret sauce of Queen.
And, it's what makes this movie really special.
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