‘I want to give the audience a song that they can perform,’ Brian May tells the band. They stamp their feet and clap their hands and in that moment they have it; one of their all-time greatest hits, We Will Rock You.

This is how the story goes for most of Bohemian Rhapsody. The film maps out Queen’s success via their series of greatest hits which they write with seeming ease – each song sort of lands in their lap and we never feel that the band is truly in trouble, despite the cut throat nature of the music industry (especially in the 1970s) being highlighted by Queen’s manager refusing to air Bohemian Rhapsody for fear of breaking the radio allocated three minute time slot for a song. Then again, Queen’s sustained buzz within popular culture today guarantees the film’s happy ending. The film starts and ends with their performance in front of 72,000 people at Live Aid at Wembley Stadium in 1985, in which my Dad informs me, ‘they really stole the show.’

Don’t let the title mislead you, this two and a quarter hour film does not just focus on that song. Whilst the messages the film projects are blatantly obvious, the film effectively transports us to the 1970s and the social issues that this period carried. Freddie Mercury’s (née Farrokh Bulsara) parents were Parsis from the Gujarat region of the then-province of Bombay Presidency in British India, and they were practitioners of the Zoroastrian faith. The film is littered with the same racist remarks made against Mercury time and time again, which happen to be factually incorrect; his critics opt for the offensive name for a Pakistani from their limited racist vocabulary. This punctuates the ignorance that underlay racism against British Asians which reached its peak in the 1970s and 80s. His father’s framed photograph of Queen Elizabeth on the wall in their family home foreshadows the birth of Queen as a band and Mercury’s surmountable success against the odds.

The shock appearance of Downton Abbey’s Allen Leech as Mercury’s ‘friend’ and manager reminds us that people will always be after your fame and money. Furthermore, Mercury’s eventual battle with AIDs reminds us of its increased awareness during Queen’s time – the first man to die of an AIDs related illness in the UK was in 1981.

Despite its flaws, that The Times have leeched onto, no one can deny the sheer talent of Remi Malik which radiates sensationally throughout the entire performance. Furthermore, we cannot forget his costume team; those teeth deserve an Oscar on their own.

Aimee Churchouse

Image Courtesy of Fox