Overall Rating: 4.75/5

Bohemian Rhapsody is an inspiring film dedicated to the story of the band Queen and their sensational lead singer, Freddie Mercury. The movie was originally announced in 2010, however, after many casting and directing changes, the filming began in July 2017 in the United Kingdom and concluded in January 2018. With the help of Brian May and Roger Taylor who are members of the band, the movie is an incredibly accurate depiction of Queen and Mercury himself. The role of Freddie Mercury is portrayed by Rami Malek, who at the time had only a casual knowledge of the band, but after filming admits he now believes that Freddie Mercury is one of the most talented performers in history. Ben Hardy plays Roger Taylor, the drummer, while Joseph Mazzello stars as the bassist, John Deacon, and Gwilym Lee plays lead guitarist Brian May.

To put it simply, the movie was completely and utterly breathtaking. Every aspect of the film told the story of the hit band magnificently. With the introduction of iconic songs like, “We Will Rock You,” “Another One Bites the Dust,” and, of course, “Bohemian Rhapsody,” the audience is left speechless every time. We grow to love the characters and the relationships that they share. One key aspect is the amount of Freddie Mercury’s life revealed during the movie. The audience goes through both his hardships and his all-time highs.

The recreation of the “Live Aid” performance has recently left people stunned due to the insane similarities between the original performance by Freddie and the movie reenactment by Rami Malek. Videos have been made of the two performances side to side and the similarity is uncanny. Surprisingly, the first thing filmed for the movie was actually the “Live Aid” performance which ends up being the last scene of the film. Malek recalls constantly rehearsing his movements to mimic Mercury’s prior to filming.

However, another conversation piece about this movie are the historical inaccuracies. Some common examples are the way the band began, the fact that they temporarily split up, the idea that John Deacon was the original bass player (he was actually the fourth) and the general order in which the songs were introduced to the audience. Also, in the film Mercury confides in his bandmates about his AIDs diagnosis before Live Aid in 1985 when in reality, he may have suspected he had contracted the disease but, he wasn’t really diagnosed until 1987 and didn’t tell his bandmates until 1989. In the end however, these small inaccuracies don’t take much away from the overall experience of the movie and were just interesting things to compare.

The movie has received a 8.4/10 from IMDb, a 62% from Rotten Tomatoes, and a 49% from Metacritic. To get an idea of how Cherry Hill East students perceived the movie, here are some reactions. Hemma Boggi (‘21) said “…it was overall really good because it shows the unknown parts of Freddie Mercury’s life and the cinematic aspects of it were beautifully made.” Claire McFadden (‘19) said “I’ve always liked Queen’s music all my life, but I never really knew much about the band and the movie was really informational, it showed Freddie Mercury and who he was as a person because you can’t always tell that through music. I learned a lot.”

Overall, Bohemian Rhapsody is an awe-inspiring film that was beautifully put together and left the audience rushing to download Queens music. If you didn’t know of or like Queen before chances are you will after seeing this movie. Watching it in theaters is almost like being at the concerts, you can feel the excitement through the theatre. Bohemian Rhapsody is a definite must-watch and will continue to inspire and and uplift audiences worldwide.