Bohemian Rhapsody truly captures the iconic and highly successful life of Freddie Mercury, the lead singer of one of the biggest rock bands known to this day, Queen. From the day that the band was formed in 1970 to their famous Live Aid performance in 1985, the film presents the timeline of the continuous success of Queen, specifically highlighting Freddie’s life and his importance to the band. Slight spoilers ahead!
Overall the film is over a timeline of 15 years, revealing the ups and downs of Freddie Mercury’s life and how he rose to fame. In the beginning of the film, we’re presented with a young Freddie (Farrokh Bulsara) before he was known as the icon he is today and are shown how and where he meets his future bandmates, Brian May, Roger Taylor and John Deacon, along with his future partner of 6 years, Mary Austin. As the film progresses, we see the success of Queen and how they quickly became one of the most known British bands of all time, as we are shown the production of multiple of their best songs. However, besides Queen, the film talks about many of the struggles and issues Mercury had to deal with throughout his life, such as finding himself and his sexuality, drugs and AIDS. The film ends with Freddie reconnecting with his late partner, Jim Hutton, who we are introduced to half-way through the film and Queen’s truly iconic Live Aid performance at Wembley Stadium in 1985, which was first shown in the first minute of the film.
Rami Malek, who plays Freddie, perfectly portrays the journey that he goes through in his life when trying to discover his true self, in regards of style, personality and sexuality. Mercury was in a loving relationship with Mary Austin from years 1970 to 1976, however Freddie was always an extravagant person with flamboyant characteristics, which the media picked up on, along with Mary. He eventually comes out to Mary as bisexual, where she counters that he is gay and calls off their engagement. Mercury’s personal manager, Paul Prenter, portrayed by Allen Leech, was presented as a villain type character throughout the film as he blackmailed him before he came out by using the possible sexual relationship they had back in 1975, which was the time when he began to question his sexuality.
However, my personal favourite part of the film is the contrasting beginning and ending scenes of the 1985 Live Aid performance. The film begins with a sequence Mercury waking up the day of the concert and preparing to walk out to perform the most known performance of his career, which then cuts away to him early on in his life, before he was known. Similarly, the final 20 minutes of the film is the recreation of the Live Aid performance, where Rami Malek truly embodies Freddie Mercury the passion that he put into the performance 37 years ago. However the very final scene of the entire film can have a deeper meaning. We are introduced to an acapella version on Queen’s hit song ‘Don’t Stop Me Now’ while watching all members of the band walk out of frame, specifically in the order of Freddie walking out first, then John and then Brian and Roger walking out together, which then breaks into the original version of the song, along with a slideshow of images and information about Freddie's life afterwards. This portrays the way that life turned out for the band members after the Live Aid performance, as Freddie sadly passed away 6 years later due to AIDS, which he found out he had prior to the concert, then John Deacon walking out alone as he retired from the music industry only a few years after Freddie’s passing, and finally Brian and Roger walking out together at the end portrays the fact that they stuck together after the passing of their bandmate and contributed towards many projects regarding Queen and Freddie.
Here I have included a video, presenting the accuracy Rami Malek performed when portraying Freddie Mercury and also the ending scene to the film.
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