Bohemian Rhapsody (2018) (1 Viewer)

[Colin Jacobson]

As far as I know, no one in this thread has attempted to justify the fiction.

Sure, they have. Comments like "I don't care that it's inaccurate because I enjoyed the movie" are "justification"...

 

[WillG]

Though the father/Freddie stuff felt awfully "Jazz Singer" to me, I can easily accept that aspects of that relationship were true. The idea that they

Spoiler

reconciled as Freddie was on the way to Live Aid - and that Daddy was cool that Freddie brought his new boyfriend (who he hardly knew) - was inane and eye-rolling

but the notion of parental resistance to Freddie's lifestyle and his decision to go into music doesn't bug me....



Of course, the scenes

Spoiler

in which Freddie learns of his AIDS diagnosis in 1985 are fiction. He may well have had AIDS at that point but he didn't know yet.

I think the movie's interjection of Freddie's AIDS diagnosis is yet another maudlin aspect of a maudlin movie. Again: he didn't know in 1985, so the scenes that involve AIDS are fictional and exist just to tug heartstrings.

Spoiler

The movie should've ignored Freddie's AIDS diagnosis until the end card that said what happened to him after 1985. Its inclusion in the narrative - which ends in 1985 - was a cheesy choice...

I’ve read a couple of books Freddie and I don’t distinctly recall them talking about him butting heads with his father. Certainly could have happened, evenone butts heads with their parents over something. But, to me, the scenes with the family were executed in a contrived manner and I might have lost them in favor of other topics. Freddie’s family didn’t seem to figure much into his persona anyway.

As for the AIDS diagnosis thing. Year was fictionalized, but I can understand this. Obviously, you can’t tell the story of Freddie without acknowledging his Illness and since they decided to end with Live Aid it had to be addressed sooner.

Spoiler

I don’t think simply the card at the end would have been enough Ironically, other than the year, the scene with Freddie’s revealation to the rest of the band may have been one of the more accurate events. I’ve believe the revealation was pretty much as depicted with Freddie’s attitude being “I don’t want to dwell on this, I don’t want you to feel bad for me, I just want to keep working”.

I can justify some of the liberties but I have trouble understanding why they felt like had to go so far with it. I guess a Singer commentary would be waayyyy too much to hope for on the disc release.

 

[WillG]

I do agree there won't be a sequel - where to go? Freddie's sad decline and death?

Audiences like the movie because it focuses on the band's hits and related drama - and it ends on a high note. A "prequel" that focuses on Freddie's early life wouldn't have any of that, and a sequel that views 1986--1991 would lack hits casual fans know AND be depressing.

I can't see that film being made...

Probably not, just speculation on my part, but you have to think that Fox may see some potential in finishing the story. Sure it would be a very different film but could be potentially interesting as sort of a companion piece. And the story wouldn’t be impossible to end on a high note. The tribute concert after Freddie died comes to mind.

 

[WillG]

Accuracy has never been a strong point with movies. My wife and I really enjoyed the movie “Argo” a few years ago, for instance, even though as Canadians we could probably been really offended, because the removal of the hostages was a Canadian operation, with only partial involvement of the US — a fact barely mentioned in the screen play.

Aside from the film essentially disavowing Canada in the story, did Argo mostly stick to facts. I know they had to create false tension at the end as IRL I believe getting through the airport was essentially uneventful, but anything else that was very much on the false side.

 

[Tino]

Sure, they have. Comments like "I don't care that it's inaccurate because I enjoyed the movie" are "justification"...

I think there’s a distinction between the two.

 

[Tommy R]

I have no knowledge yet on BR's accuracies or lack thereof as I haven't seen it yet, and I really don't know the real story anyways. But as far as intentions of the filmmakers who make these biopics and "based on a true story" type movies, I like to think they only change things that are necessary for timing/pace/drama etc. And when there's more of moving such-and-such real event here, and such-and-such real event there, combining certain real life people into one "movie"-character, I typically "understand" rather than "justify". I don't revel in the changes thinking "YEAH! That's how it should've happened in real life! WHY OH WHY didn't they just do it like this in the real story?!?!?" while pumping my fist at Hollywood making things right. Yeah, sometimes they change things/re-arrange things/make things up that I don't think were necessary, but I find it easy enough to not dwell on it past maybe an initial "I wonder why they did that?"

 

[Jeff Adkins]

Audiences like the movie because it focuses on the band's hits and related drama - and it ends on a high note. A "prequel" that focuses on Freddie's early life wouldn't have any of that,

I'd like to see how they'd handle a "prequel" considering the false way they portrayed him joining the band. Would they show him living in a flat with those guys and knowing them long before he ever joined the band (which is what really happened)? That would confuse the hell out of people who saw BR and assumed he showed up backstage, introduced himself and sang acapella for them and they said "You're hired!"

Would they include the fact that Mary Austin dated Brian May before she met Freddie?

 

[Colin Jacobson]

I'd like to see how they'd handle a "prequel" considering the false way they portrayed him joining the band. Would they show him living in a flat with those guys and knowing them long before he ever joined the band (which is what really happened)? That would confuse the hell out of people who saw BR and assumed he showed up backstage, introduced himself and sang acapella for them and they said "You're hired!"

Would they include the fact that Mary Austin dated Brian May before she met Freddie?

Pretty sure the prequel would focus on his time on Tatooine and his mother Shmi...

 

[SamT]

Just saw the movie. I absolutely loved it. Normally I avoid these kind of movies. They are dark, bleak and extremely sad. In general I don't want to see that about an artist's life. But this movie had the perfect mix. Not too much melodrama. It had enough drama and more importantly it had music and it was entertaining and musical. It was uplifting and truly celebrating an artist. Instead of being sad at the end, it made me feel happy. I really cannot think of another biopic like this of the top of my head.

 

[SamT]

Have not read all the posts but this is the guy that sings in some parts of the movie.

 

[TravisR]

Instead of being sad at the end, it made me feel happy.

And while I'm certainly no authority, I think that's what a great showman like Freddie Mercury would have wanted.

 

[SamT]

For comparison, Richard Attenborough's Chaplin (1992) which is excellent and I like is very depressing. Makes me feel sad from start to end. This is what I'm dreading about the upcoming Stan & Ollie. I think it will be like that. In these movies too often they dwell and focus too much on the pain and the difficult times instead of celebrating the artistic life of the person.

 

[Kevin Hewell]

So if Paul McCartney signed off on a biopic in which Linda leaves him in 1977 and they reunited in 1980, you'd be fine with that, even though it never happened?

I don't really care about the nitpicky stuff in "BR", but the massive fictionalization is a problem - and the fact the surviving band members said "go for it" doesn't excuse it.

I honestly don't understand why so many people justify the massive lies in the story - just because other movies do it, too?

You really need to let it go.

 

[Colin Jacobson]

You really need to let it go.

You responded to a post that I made almost 3 months ago and I'm the one who needs to let it go???

 

[Sam Favate]

I finally saw this last night, through the magic of blu-ray. I enjoyed it, and have long been a fan of Queen. And while my appreciation for the band certainly heightened the movie's appeal for me, it also hampered my enjoyment of it, since such liberties were taken with the story. Ultimately though that's not the biggest problem; where the movie fails for me is that it doesn't give me a better sense of Freddie Mercury. By the end of the movie, I don't feel I know him much better. That's the movie's biggest sin.

Also, I recall being thrilled by Queen's appearance at Live Aid - it was legitimately one of the very best performances that day (U2 and The Who were two of the others) and it was historic. I saw it as it happened (on TV), but I felt that the movie was using the liberties it took with the story to make Mercury's performance of the songs played at Live Aid more personal to him. Here is where having knowledge of the band's history made that (admittedly incredible) sequence ring a tad false for me. If all that sounds too negative, it isn't totally, and overall I did enjoy the movie. Rami Malek gave an outstanding performance. The rest of the cast was very good too. I just felt that greats like Mercury and Queen deserved better than the writers gave them. So, ultimately, I'm troubled by this one. I liked it, but it could have and should have been much more than it was.

 

[Edwin-S]

A friend of mine, who is a big fan of Queen, felt that the story in the film was too compressed. He said he felt like the film was revolving around six songs and ignored all of the other material done by the band, Queen has at least 19 albums of songs that they released. Other than that, he thought the film was good. I would watch it if I had any interest in bio-pics of Rock band members, but I couldn't care less about the lives of the people behind the music that I listen to.

 

[Robert Crawford]

Today, I watched it on 4K/UHD for my third viewing. IMO, it's a very entertaining film and one of the best from 2018.

 

[WillG]

@Robert Crawford
@Colin Jacobson

https://pagesix.com/2019/03/11/quee...HIz1Bw3Uo1C4asSNan-Z6-fFoiNUcQrLOVA7Trab-g9PV

 

[Robert Crawford]

@Robert Crawford
@Colin Jacobson

https://pagesix.com/2019/03/11/quee...HIz1Bw3Uo1C4asSNan-Z6-fFoiNUcQrLOVA7Trab-g9PV

Anything to make more money.

 

[Colin Jacobson]

@Robert Crawford
@Colin Jacobson

https://pagesix.com/2019/03/11/quee...HIz1Bw3Uo1C4asSNan-Z6-fFoiNUcQrLOVA7Trab-g9PV

A Queen movie from an era with no songs general fans will know that ends with death - smells like a hit to me!