Bohemian Rhapsody

Release Date: November 2, 2018

Watch Date: March 29 – March 30, 2023

 

    Earlier this month, for fun, which is thing that we still somehow manage to do, Bob and I watched ‘Rocketman’ the biopic about Elton John. Now you may be wondering why I mention this, because ‘Rocketman’ is in no way owned by Disney, is not on Disney+ and the title of this particular post is ‘Bohemian Rhapsody’. But there’s usually a method to my madness, and today is no different.

    I bring up ‘Rocketman’ not just because I liked it more, which I did, but because both ‘Rocketman’ and ‘Bohemian Rhapsody’ came out in a very similar time frame about artists from similar periods in history, with similar histories. Closeted gay men. Drug usage. Alcohol abuse. Struggles with fame. A knowledge that they were meant for bigger things. Abuse by people that were some how managing them. Abandoning bandmates or lyricists. An eventual healthy romantic relationship and a reconciliation between their friends.

    You cannot discuss one of these films without the other, is what I’m saying. You are almost obliged to write a comparative essay out of pure necessity. And I was very good at comparative essays. But it’s late, so this one will probably be rubbish.

    ‘Rocketman’ is a better film because it tells the story of it’s subject in a unique and interesting way and can focus more on the internal emotions of subject, as Elton John is actually live to discuss his internal feelings about events and how he saw them with any writers, producers and actors. ‘Bohemian Rhapsody’ is more about Queen than it is Freddie Mercury, which isn’t a bad thing, and this is mostly because Freddie’s bandmates are alive to tell his story and he isn’t.

    Both of these men had exceedingly wild, and difficult lives, and both of them got out of it as best as they could. Of course, one didn’t survive and one did, but only by the skin of his teeth. They both make remarkable contributions to the world of music, and the world will never be the same because they existed.

    So yes, I enjoyed ‘Rocketman’ more. But, our daughter prefers ‘Bohemian Rhapsody’. Specifically, she prefers the Live Aid concert at the end of ‘Bohemian Rhapsody’ which is really the main event that the entire film was building to, recreating movement for movement, shot for shot, Queen’s ultimate concert. What this means is that some of the other parts of the film suffer because they clearly wanted to hit the creation of the song Bohemian Rhapsody and Live Aid, but also, that our daughter’s first concert was kind of Queen’s paramount performance at Live Aid and I mean…we could have done a lot worse by her.

    So there you go. If ‘Bohemian Rhapsody’ was just a short, accurate, recreation of Live Aid and that’s all I’d paid attention to, like our daughter, I probably would have enjoyed it more. But it wasn’t. So I’d suggest ‘Rocketman’.

    Also ‘Rocketman’ has the actors performing the songs and putting it’s own unique twists on Elton’s classic, and ‘Bohemian Rhapsody’ is just recordings of Mercury’s performances and no one could ever sound like Mercury so I get it.