'The critics' never liked Queen in the first place. Some of the most scathing reviews I have ever read have been of Queen albums, throughout their career- Dave Marsh calling them 'the first truly fascist rock band' and the like.
I don't like biopics really so it's not for me, but it seems popular with the general public which is fine.
I enjoyed it.
Many of the reviews carry on about how it gives short shrift to Freddie being gay, and to his difficulties with his father. I thought they focused on those the right amount - they were important, but not the whole story. My understanding, borne out by the credits, is that it was authorized by Brian May and Roger Taylor, and so it deals primarily with the Freddie they knew: an artist, a performer, a taker of chances, a larger-than-life personality, a member of Queen, and a friend of theirs. And from what I understand, his relationship with Mary was fairly close to the one depicted, where she remained his truest friend even when it became apparent that could never be a couple.
I think they covered the gay angle well enough. Any more and it would have wound up with some scene where he's in bed shagging some dude. (Not necessary)
Yes, he left her much of his estate.Originally Posted by Baribrotzer
Saw it yesterday, it's very good, all the lead performances are very good, they got the balance between Freddies personal life and the band about right. Yes there are historical inaccuracies but they get the look and feel right. May & Taylor were heavily involved so if it's good enough for them its good enough for me.
Ian
Host of the Post-Avant Jazzcore Happy Hour on progrock.com
https://podcasts.progrock.com/post-a...re-happy-hour/
Gordon Haskell - "You've got to keep the groove in your head and play a load of bollocks instead"
I blame Wynton, what was the question?
There are only 10 types of people in the World, those who understand binary and those that don't.
As long as Brian May isn't wielding a Les Paul, I'm sure Guitargeek will be cool with it (I kid Chris, I kid)
I don't like country music, but I don't mean to denigrate those who do. And for the people who like country music, denigrate means 'put down.'- Bob Newhart
I think Queen warrants their own thread.
Great movie. Wouldn't hesitate to see it a second time.
Jon
i don't go to movies anymore. but as a long time fan who's seen all the documentaries over and over again- there's nothing new here for me. i'm also weary of watching it to find inconsistencies, inaccuracies and exploitation of Freddie's life. i can wait for the DVD. it will probably be cheaper too.
I saw it last Saturday. I think was ok, not bad but it deserves much more time to tell the story with more details. It deserves a Netflix series and not just 134 minutes.
Never really cared for Queen, but the trailers look very good, I might just go see it...
So, it must be good, then.
neil
Isn't that true of all biopics?
"It's such a fine line between stupid and... clever" -- David St. Hubbins & Derek Smalls, Spinal Tap
Saw it this evening, and I'll chime in with a big thumbs-up. The band members were very believable, and the "playing" was mostly very, very good (I'm usually very critical of actors miming instruments), which was brought home for me when watching the live (actual) Queen footage that ran with the credits. The rise of Queen really was a hell of a story, and I gotta admit, there were several scenes that brought a tear to my eye, including the whole Live Aid performance which was amazingly well done. There was enough recreation of the original shots to provide authenticity but then there were also new shots and camera angles to help focus on each member of the band in a way appropriate to the story. Timeline stuff? Sure, but nothing for me that took away from the flow of the film. And Rami Malek is a bona fide star; he absolutely inhabits this role.
David
Happy with what I have to be happy with.
I don't really plan on seeing it. I'm fine with albums. I've been going through my Queen albums. Right now I'm listening to ANATO. It is a brilliant pop, prog, Rock album. The brilliant guitar of Brian May on Lazing On A Sunday Afternoon is nothing short of genius. That Red Special was...........special.
And the guitars on The Millionaire Waltz are ridiculous. How did he do that? Don't answer that. Leave it be.
I started listening to Queen in earnest in 1975 and eagerly awaited each new release. For me, May's ability with guitar orchestration was and still is one of the many reasons behind my love for this band (along with great songwriting, Freddie's voice, those glorious vocal harmonies, Roger's drumming, etc.) For this reason, it continues to baffle me at how little his intricate guitar layering has been discussed. I can't think of any place in any song where it's used that it doesn't perfectly compliment what's going on. Up until "The Game" in 1980, it'd always been personally satisfying to open up a new Queen LP and find "No synthesizers" in the liner notes. While I can now see why continuing down that path would have produced diminishing returns - especially in the synth-soaked 80's - I can still clearly recall feeling hugely let down reading this on the inner sleeve: This album includes the first appearance of a Synthesizer ( an Oberheim OBX ) on a Queen album.
I thought that the overbite was excessively underplayed. He had a much larger one than was shown in the film. That being said, I enjoyed the movie, though the timeline liberties made me cringe.
Saw the movie today. This is the review I posted on Facebook.
I finally had the chance to see the movie “Bohemian Rhapsody” today, and decided I would jot down a few thoughts.
First a little history of myself and the band Queen……. In 1974 I was in junior high school. I have a very vivid memory of being in shop class and hearing the song “Killer Queen” on the radio for the first time. It immediately grabbed my attention. It was completely different and unique from anything else on the radio at the time. Shortly after that they released the “A Night At The Opera” album, and Queen became my favorite band. They were, and still are, one of the most unique rock bands of all time. In late 1978 they released the “Jazz” album, which was the first one that I thought was a bit of a letdown. It was not a bad album, but not up to the level of what they had released before IMO. Then, in the summer of 1979, it was announced that Queen were coming to tiny Wings Stadium in my hometown. Back then they used to sell rock concerts all general admission. We got there about 3:00PM in the afternoon, with a case of beer and partied in the parking lot all afternoon until the doors opened. This was only my 3rd rock concert, I had just graduated from high school, and it was the highlight of a magical summer. The band put on a fantastic, spectacular performance, and was the one and only time I ever saw them. Fast forward to 1980. I was living and going to school in Albion Michigan working part time on a radio station. A new Queen album was announced and we got an advanced copy. The album was “The Game” and it was a disappointment to me. The band had moved in a different direction embracing disco and R& B influences with songs like “Another One Bites The Dust”. The album was their biggest seller but, although I didn’t hate it, it was not what I expected from Queen. A series of mediocre albums followed that were not very well received in the U.S. and eventually the band stopped touring here altogether. Fast forward to 1985. By this time Queen was off of my radar. I did not care for the albums they had put out in the 80’s (“Hot Space” was horrible IMO), and I had moved on to other bands. We started hearing about this huge charity concert that was going to be held in the U.K. and the U.S. on the same day that was going to be televised world wide. The Live Aid concerts were going to be a huge deal, with just about everyone who was anyone at the time performing on a globally telecast event. I remember several of us getting together at a friend’s house to watch it. With all of the incredible talent on those stages including a Led Zeppelin re-union, the band that blew everyone away was Queen. The performance and crowd reaction was the highlight of the event. It really was an amazing thing to witness, as Queen slayed all of their competition. Later in the 80’s and early 90’s after Freddie was diagnosed with Aids the band had a creative comeback, in fact I think their final album while Freddie was alive, “Innuendo” ranked up with the best the band had ever done. The song “The Show Must Go On” perfectly summed up Freddie’s struggle and acceptance of his impending death. It can still make the hairs on my arm stand up when I listen to it. As for the film…….it has been in the works for several years and I have been looking forward to it. The fact that two of the 3 remaining members of Queen, Roger Taylor and Brian May, have been involved from the beginning gave me hope that the film would be good…………spoilers ahead if you have not seen it……
Let’s get this out of the way right from the beginning. There are several pretty major historical inaccuracies in the movie. The biggest one is that Freddie had not been diagnosed with Aids at the time of Live Aid. That came several years later, but I understand why they added it to the film the way they did. The other pretty big contradiction from history is that the band never broke up before Live Aid. In fact they had finished a world tour for “The Works” album and although there were tensions within the band, the tour had ended only 2 months before Live Aid, so they had played with each other fairly recently. Also, Freddie was not the first band member to release a solo album. Drummer Roger Taylor released a solo album before Mercury, so Fred’s solo venture was not really the factor it is played up to be in the film. There are several more minor inaccuracies as well. All that aside, I thought the movie was outstanding. Bio pics can often be cheesy affairs, but I thought “Bohemian Rhapsody” captured the spirt of the band, and the times very well. The casting was just about perfect. The four guys playing the band members could not have gotten them much closer than they actually were. They looked and talked exactly like the real guys did. Some critics seem to not like that the film focuses on the whole band and not just Freddie. To me that is one of the great things about the film. Queen was a band. All of them wrote songs, contributed instrumentally, and 3 of the 4 of them sang. They were a perfect example of the sum being greater than it’s parts. Freddie’s relationship with Mary Austin was very well done. In real life they remained close throughout his whole life. She was there when he died and Freddie left her half of his estate. The re-creation of the Live Aid concert was mind bogglingly accurate. The real footage is easy to find on YouTube, and the movie stayed true to the performance. Queen really did slay that audience and the crowd reaction was not an exaggeration. As I mentioned earlier I still have a very vivid memory of watching it live on TV and it was a stunning performance. All in all I loved the movie. If not totally accurate, it was a fantastic rendering of the times, and the band. It is emotional, humorous at times, and just an all-around good film. I can’t say enough about the acting all of whom were outstanding. If you are at all a Queen fan, go see it in a theater. I think you will enjoy it.
Thanks for that! Your Queen experience growing up and my own are very similar. Throughout their entire recording career, I continued to get all of their albums as each was released, but yeah, things did get just a touch stale on "Jazz" and then went on to change in a much bigger way on "The Game." I still regard almost all of what they did throughout the 70's as some of my most cherished music. There was magic in those LP grooves!
I'll definitely see the movie when it comes to town here.
Watching a Queen documentary on Youtube called Queen The Magic Years, from 1987. The 70s performance footage is pretty awesome. Brian May is just a genius.
The only album that they did that I completely don't like is "Hot Space", but their 80's stuff was definitely a step down for me in quality compared to the 70's albums. The film portrayed the writing of "Another One Bites The Dust", with Deacon coming up with the base line and Freddie looking more towards music that was being played in clubs at the time. I thought it was well done.
At the end of the film as the credits start to roll they show footage of "Don't Stop Me Now" that was filmed on the "Jazz" tour, which is when I saw them, and it is pretty cool. They really were one of a kind.
You have to see the movie. I don't think anyone could have played Freddie better than Malek. I really don't think Sacha Baron would have been better. IF Hollywood was fair, this should be an Oscar nomination.
Totally agree. Malek owned that role. I don't think Cohen could have done it better.
Very lightweight, that- if you want the 'real' story look to 2011's Days Of Our Lives. Doesn't shy away from any of the 'difficult' topics.
Believe it or not it's only been in recent years that their 70s footage has started to be released on DVD, little of it was even released on VHS. Not that there's that much in the way of full shows anyway, sadly. (There are other shows beyond the Rainbow and Odeon releases, like Hyde Park 1976, Houston/Earls Court 1977 but I'm not sure how much exists or what quality it's in.)
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