A lot of people have a lot of opinions about Freddie Mercury biopic Bohemian Rhapsody, but the most important opinion is one we'll unfortunately never get. We'll never know for sure what Freddie Mercury himself would think of Bohemian Rhapsody, the film that tells the story of Queen and his own personal rise and fall. The best we can do is ask those that knew him well what they think. Queen guitarist Brian May is one of those people, and for what it's worth, he thinks Mercury would appreciate the film, for being honest, and showing his flaws as well as his greatness. According to May...
I think he would have felt it was a fair cop. It shows all his greatness and all his fallibility and insecurity -- the whole bit. I think it shows him very truthfully and not sycophantically, but in a way that appreciates his talent. Because he was sure was unique. I've never met anybody like Freddie in my life, before or since, and it's probably not going to happen again.
It's certainly true that Bohemian Rhapsody shows Freddie Mercury's fallibility as well as what made him so incredibly special in the world of music. It's clear from the outset that the man, played in the film, by Rami Malek, has a natural talent that is unparalleled. The film shows the title track of the film, "Bohemian Rhapsody" is his brainchild, and he becomes obsessive in getting every element of it just right. He's a magnetic stage presence who helps bring every one of Queen's hits to life.
At the same time, we see Mercury go down a path of self-destruction. Excessive parties and indulgence, along with the manipulation of a manager that Mercury falls victim to, end up separating him from the rest of the band and nearly causing its end, until he finally sees the light and comes back around.
There's a reason that we frequently don't see biographical stories about people until after they're dead. People usually don't want to face their flaws and their bad decisions, which makes it difficult to tell an accurate story, because everybody has flaws and makes bad decisions.
Brian May tells Louder that he thinks that Freddie Mercury would appreciate that the film doesn't simply make him look perfect, perhaps that's true.
Of course, the same can't be said for the members of Queen that are still alive. The three of them end up looking pretty close to perfect, with Mercury drawn as the "bad guy" at nearly every turn. A lot has been made of the fact that Bohemian Rhapsody makes some pretty significant changes to the real story of Queen, and one certainly has to wonder how Freddie Mercury would respond to that.
We'll never really know how the Queen frontman would feel about the new film, in the end, that's probably a good thing.
