Bohemian Rhapsody and its "factual inaccuracies"

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Bohemian Rhapsody is a groundbreaking tribute to the British rock band Queen through a celebration of their iconic music and lead singer Freddie Mercury, played by Rami Malek. This is done by tracing the band's journey to what made them one of the most powerful bands of all time. However, you shouldn't believe everything that you see in the movie.

The movie has been getting all sorts of accusations of showing imprecise occurrences from the band's rise to fame. One of the most mistaken parts is where the movie makes the viewers think that Mercury is the bad guy by wanting to make a solo album after his manager encourages him to do so. Tension arises between the band members when they find out, however, in reality Mercury was not the first band member to actually take on a solo album by himself but the drummer; Roger Taylor played by Ben Hardy who released 'Fun in Space' and 'Stranger Frontier' prior to this.  In the movie, Taylor is seen as the biggest rival against Mercury going solo which is ironic when considering what actually took place in real life.

The movie is also being criticised for altering the chronological order of events by how Mercury's HIV diagnosis is very carelessly dealt with. The biography shows Mercury discovering his HIV diagnosis not long before the band gets together to perform Live Aid where he utilises this to deliver the breathtaking performance and keep the band together after the concert. What happened in real life however, was quite different than this.  According to available sources, Mercury wasn't diagnosed with HIV up until 1987, but the Live Aid concert actually took place in 1985 meaning that what happens in the movie couldn't have actually happened in real life.
"Bohemian Rhapsody insinuates that it's this news and some sort of existential confrontation with his own mortality that motivates his triumphant Live Aid performance, a cruel and manipulative version of tragedy porn that is inaccurate and perpetuated the trope of AIDS as punishment for gay promiscuity"
Fans of the rock band also argue that the movie is excessively filtered down in order to appeal to more family friendly audiences. Whilst this is a very intelligent business decision, the band is characterised by hard-partying and sexuality, especially Mercury's homosexuality, and this is not very clearly shown in the movie itself other than a short scene of Freddie at a gay club.


"This jumbled take on the legend is squawky, sexless, and shallow, assaulting the senses as it offers little insight or real depth into Mercury or the band he fronted [...] But what’s most astonishing about this version of Mercury’s life is that it’s so utterly sexless. Malek does his best, but the material gets only a PG-13 rating for “suggestive material,” among other things, when there’s no reason to be so tame." 
It is quite unclear why real life events were altered in such a confusing way in the movie. Moreover, the movie production suffered quite some troubles along the way, including the dismissal of director Bryan Singer after his "lack of professionalism" Malek says, which could've contributed to the movie having all these major flaws .

Until next time,

T


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