The changes of 'Bohemian Rhapsody' in the true story of Freddie Mercury and Queen
Although there is no unanimity in the specialized critique of the value of the film Bohemian Rhapsody, some of us agree with moviegoers, who have been enthusiastically enthusiastic about the numbers that come out of their votes in the film files on the network , and we consider it one of the best biopics about musicians of the seventh art. And that, for reasons of narrative suitability and probably convenience of the remaining members of Queen, Anthony McCarten has changed in his script a few aspects of the real story of Freddie Mercury (Rami Malek) and the trajectory of his famous rock band. As Fax Farrow tells in Screen Rant, "the timelines have been altered" and, "occasionally, some details do not match" and "several events are rearranged to create a powerful dramatic effect".
The first difference can be found in how the group was formed: the young Farrokh Bulsara (Freddie) was a roommate of Brian May (Gwilym Lee), Roger Taylor (Ben Hardy) and Tim Staffell (Jack Roth), components of Smile, for a time, and they performed together in Liverpool with Ibex, the band that Mercury belonged to, in 1969; so that the singer did not replace Staffell in Smile with the spontaneity of the film. Likewise, Mary Austin (Lucy Boynton) had been dating May before Freddie met her during her working hours at the Biba store, and the latter asked permission from May to take an interest in her, who only started following Smile afterwards. . Mercury and Austin did not break up or move away so dramatically, and she was also her personal assistant one season. "All my lovers have asked me why I could not replace Mary, but it's just impossible," Freddie said in a 1985 interview.
It is obvious to anyone, on the other hand, that he has gone on tiptoe for the dissolute life of Mercury at parties and with drugs, and for his great sexual appetite: it is not that it was not suggested that it was like that, but that minimized its development in the film to adapt it to a larger audience, according to the wishes of producer Graham King. And the homosexuality of Freddie is implied, when the certain thing is that it had other feminine lovers, like the German actress Barbara Valentin (Berlin Alexanderplatz), and therefore, was bisexual in spite of not having wanted to label itself never. And he did not reveal to his parents, Bomi (Ace Bhatti) and Jer Bulsara (Meneka Das), what was his true relationship with Jim Hutton (Aaron McCusker), whom he said was his gardener when they asked him. Thus, the acceptance of their parents is nothing more than a pleasant emotional concession for the spectators.
While Brian May and Roger Taylor rated Paul Prenter (Allen Leech) as "a bad influence" for Mercury, the truth is that it did not get to the point of causing his break with the group. And they did not even go three times down two streets, but they jointly opted to reduce Queen's production and explore their music alone. Nor did Freddie throw the representative John Reid (Aidan Gillen) for a trap that Prenter tended, but cut ties as friends; nor the singer went alone to Munich, since the rest of the band members accompanied him; nor did he fire Prenter for not informing him of the Live Aid concerts at London's Wembley Stadium but a year later, in 1986, for selling juicy information to the tabloid The Sun, so that he did not betray him in any television interview as we see in the film. And Ray Foster (Mike Myers) does not exist: he represents different producers who did not understand or support Queen's ideas.
Mercury did not receive his diagnosis of AIDS until 1987, two years after Live Aid concert, it took two more to announce it to the other members of the band and the world ignored him until November 1991. And we could not hear the song "Who Wants To Live Forever "when Freddie faces the prospect of his illness or its composition is linked to it: in fact, it is the work of Brian May for the film Highlander (Russell Mulcahy, 1986), which premiered one year after Live Aid and another before the sad diagnosis. And finally, if international artists such as Sting, Phil Collins, U2, Bryan Adams, David Bowie, Madonna, Elton John, Led Zeppelin, Black Sabbath, The Who, Paul McCartney, Mick Jagger, Keith Richards were participating in the charity performances of Wembley. , Bob Dylan, Eric Clapton, Santana or Stevie Wonder, it seems very unlikely that there were no telephone donations until Queen stepped on stage. Although his music is so extraordinary.