Yesterday evening, Katherine and I watched Bohemian Rhapsody (2018), which I own on DVD. What a great movie! Let me begin by saying that I've been a fan of Queen since the band's first album in 1973. I saw the band in concert in Saginaw, Michigan, in 1974, and have all the band's albums on compact disc. When I was in high school, I spent time in shop class making a wooden plaque with each of the band members' names on it. (Hmm. I wonder where that plaque went.)
The four actors who played the band members were spittin' images of those they played: singer and pianist Freddie Mercury, guitarist Brian May, bass guitarist John Deacon, and drummer Roger Taylor. The acting was excellent. Rami Malek gave an incredible performance as Mercury, for which he won the Academy Award for Best Actor.
I didn't know for many years that Mercury was bisexual. I guess I figured it out eventually, what with his androgynous clothing and mannerisms. But it didn't matter to me. My friends and I loved Queen's music and thought highly of Mercury as a singer and frontman. We were cool with bisexuality before it was cool to be cool with bisexuality.
The movie was sad, because Mercury's life was far too short (45 years). He would be 75 years old now, and probably still making music (like so many of my musical heroes from the 1970s). I'm glad I got to see him—and the band—in concert, lo those many years ago. I was with my friend Keith Basherian, who had only recently been released from the hospital for an accidental gunshot wound to the stomach. I think I have the ticket stub somewhere, to prove that I was there.
Here is the trailer.
Keith Burgess-Jackson, J.D., Ph.D. 