“Bohemian Rhapsody” Will Rock You

Release Date：Nov/2/2018
Genre：Biography/Drama/Music
Director：Bryan Singer
Cast：Rami Malek、Aidan Gillen、Lucy Boynton

Viola's Rating：7.3

Back in 1970s, a British rock band called “Queen” was formed, which later became one of the most celebrated bands in the history around the world. Besides the performance at the closing ceremony of the 2012 Summer Olympics in London and recent Queen + Adam Lambert Tour, casual aficionados, diehard enthusiasts, general rock fans or even just average Joe can enjoy and witness the charisma of Queen and its eminent lead vocalist, Freddie Mercury as the biopic “Bohemian Rhapsody” was released on Nov. 2, 2018.

This biographic, musical drama depicts a chronicle of the years leading up to Queen's famous appearance at the Live Aid (1985) concert. Not a documentary, but “Bohemian Rhapsody” guides the audience through the legendary journey Queen took. Produced by Queen’s former manager Jim Beach and current members Brian May and Roger Taylor serving as creative and musical consultants, this feature film describes the most accurate details of the band and Mercury’s life while hanging on to the entertaining effect a film requires.

If you like the recent dramatic, musical romance “A Star Is Born”, “Bohemian Rhapsody” is even more of a blast since it’s the real story of how the star, Queen, was born, and the plot in the flick is too amazing to be believed as true.

“Bohemian Rhapsody” aptly paints a picture of how a band is formed, the arguments during production, how the creative process of songs is like, how strong and weak the bondage between members is and the fact that band members are sometimes outcasts in real life. These behind-the-stage scenes not only give moviegoers a chance to take a peek at superstars’ private life, but also expose the not so attractive side and how they cope with it.

Not only brings the band’s career to the audience’s attention, “Bohemian Rhapsody” also calls attention to Mercury’s identity. Being a Parsi decedent in India, whose family moves to England later in his teens, Mercury deals with identification dilemmas a lot growing up. Also, his sexual orientation, one of the biggest mysteries media at the time always tried to figure out, is a business discussed in the motion picture. Homosexuality had just been decriminalized when Mercury was 21, even if some people claim that he was “openly gay”, he can’t be generally open to the public on this issue back then.


However, in order to reproduce the noted Live Aid concert, the last part of “Bohemian Rhapsody” is portrayed touching but like an enormous version of music video instead of part of a movie.

All in all, no matter you’re a Queen lover or not, “Bohemian Rhapsody” will rock you, and “the show must go on” as a picture in commemoration of Mercury.

Picture Credit: IMDb