Rating summary

Movie		3.5
Video		5.0
Audio		5.0
Extras		2.5
Overall		3.5

Bohemian Rhapsody Blu-ray Movie Review

Reviewed by Jeffrey Kauffman February 11, 2019

One of the more enjoyable writing assignments for this unabashed music nerd has been the typically very enjoyable concert videos or other music related fare released by such labels as Eagle Rock Entertainment that I’ve had the pleasure of reviewing through the years. These releases have included quite a bit of Queen and/or Freddie Mercury material, including Freddie Mercury The Great Pretender , Queen: Days of Our Lives, The Freddie Mercury Tribute Concert , Queen: A Night at the Odeon, and Queen: Live at the Rainbow '74, and I’ve tended to find all of these releases generally entertaining even if at times archival video and audio elements weren’t always totally up to snuff. As is documented in Bohemian Rhapsody, Freddie Mercury (Rami Malek) had a number of hurdles to overcome on his way to success, some accruing from external forces and some others frankly self created, but perhaps ironically, Bohemian Rhapsody itself had a rather extended and problem filled gestation, at one point prominently advertising Sacha Baron Cohen as the actor chosen to play Mercury. The film’s trials and tribulations continued even after the production crew was set, with a now infamous firing of director Bryan Singer as the shoot was just getting ready to wrap. Things have arguably not gotten any better, at least in some ways, even after the film’s largely rapturous reception and a glut of industry awards and/or nominations, with some ongoing controversies swirling around Singer (which won’t be repeated here) continuing to generate some “extracurricular” reporting about the film, which may color some folks’ perceptions of it, rightly or wrongly. Even Malek himself has contributed to the furor, discussing at a press junket some of the allegations lobbed at Singer and stating overtly that his own relationship with the director was, in Malek’s words, “not pleasant” (you can read about the fracas here). In some ways, then, some viewers may need to approach Bohemian Rhapsody in the same way they’ve had to approach films involving other controversial figures (Woody Allen springs instantly to mind, though there are of course others).

Okay, before I get to the things of this film that work, and in the case of Rami Malek's lead performance work spectacularly well, I’m going to take just a moment to invite the umbrage of fans of the film and/or Rami Malek by mentioning one of things that drove me a little batty throughout the film. In an analog to a “symptom” I mentioned in my Murder on the Orient Express Blu-ray review, where I found that the almost absurdly baroque mustache Poirot was given in that version proved to be a distraction, I found the prosthetic buck teeth Malek wears as Mercury throughout the film to be almost comically outlandish a lot of the time. Now admittedly the teeth even make it into the plot mechanics of the film, and were evidently a major embarrassment to the real life Mercury, but the ones Malek was supplied with just don't look like Mercury’s actual bite (to me, anyway), and were so protrusive that I kind of jokingly thought I was watching a live action Bugs Bunny cartoon a couple of times. I personally think things would have looked a bit better had the teeth simply been "pared down", even a bit.

Mercury’s dental issues are only one reason he feels like an outsider, as is documented throughout the film, with the early part of the story quickly eliding roiling issues at Mercury’s family home, where his birth name of Farrokh Bulsara has already been at least partially jettisoned in Mercury’s quest for “normalcy”. And in fact great swaths of Bohemian Rhapsody can be seen as Mercury’s quest to fit in somehow, even as his outsized talent, towering ego and amorphous sexuality tend to repeatedly make things difficult for him. For an artist of such provocative and often forward thinking proclivities, though, Bohemian Rhapsody is kind of surprisingly old fashioned in its “biopic” approach, giving what amounts to a Reader’s Digest account of many elements of Mercury's life, including Mercury meeting two guys from a band named Smile, guitarist Brian May (Gwilym Lee) and drummer Roger Taylor (Ben Hardy), with whom Mercury would forge Queen. The segues in this film are almost hilariously shorthanded at times, with little vignettes like what sparked the idea behind "We Will Rock You" almost playing like a (not all that) modern day update of hoary showbiz movie cliches like "hey, we have a barn, let's put on a show".

And in fact for such a hip band and frontman, Bohemian Rhapsody is surprisingly “square” a lot of the time, including really old fashioned devices like animated titles of locations or reproductions of reviews springing out at the audience like those veritable spinning newspaper headlines in films from Hollywood’s Golden Era. Bohemian Rhapsody attempts to inject a more modernist aspect with regard to Mercury coming to terms with his sexuality, and in a way one of this film's most commendable aspects is how it doesn't attempt to shoehorn Mercury's sexuality into any single category, though his girlfriend Mary Austin (Lucy Boynton) understandably thinks he's gay (and in denial) when he comes to her as "at least" bisexual. This particular part of the film exploring Mercury's own questioning approach toward his understanding of his own sexual preferences struck me as some of the film's most provocative content, with what to me was a commendable lack of "categorizing".

The singing and playing recreations here are also incredibly impressive, with Malek strutting and preening on the stage in an almost eerie recreation of Mercury. (That said, in a couple of scenes, Malek's mannerisms and even those dreaded buck teeth actually reminded me a bit of Jagger as well.) Bohemian Rhapsody utilizes the Live Aid concert as a kind of bookending device, which in one way makes sense, but in another, actually seems to conflate Mercury coming to terms with some of his own personal issues (not necessarily limited solely to sexual identity) with the success of Queen. In that regard, I kind of curiously wondered at times if Bohemian Rhapsody might have been better served to have actually shunted Queen off even more to the sidelines, and concentrated solely on Mercury's personal life. It's here that Bohemian Rhapsody finds some of its most distinctive material, and it's also here where the less hyperbolic aspects of Malek's performance get a chance to really shine.

Note: My colleague Brian Orndorf liked Bohemian Rhapsody quite a bit less than I did, though ironically, Brian mentions he would have liked more Queen in the film, so there ya go. You can read Brian's thoughts here.

Bohemian Rhapsody Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality 

Bohemian Rhapsody is presented on Blu-ray courtesy of 20th Century Fox Home Entertainment with an AVC encoded 1080p transfer in 2.39:1. Aside from a recreation of archival footage which was evidently shot on film, this was digitally captured with Arri Alexa cameras, though I haven't been able to find one word anywhere as to whether this was finished at a 4K or 2K DI. That said, I found a really fascinating interview with cinematographer Newton Thomas Sigel, where he addresses all sorts of technical data about the shoot, here. This is a nicely detailed looking presentation that offers an excellent reproduction of the changing palette "structure" that Sigel mentions in the linked interview, and the warmth and pop of quite a bit of the film is very evocative and nicely saturated in this presentation. That said, while often quite enjoyably colorful, a lot of the film actually plays out in relatively drab "everyday" environments. Detail levels are consistently commendable, and despite some arguably overly "arty" framings at times, fine detail levels also pop surprisingly well even in weirdly skewed midrange shots. I noticed one brief flirtation with banding during one of the production company mastheads at the opening of the film, but nothing in the film itself.

Bohemian Rhapsody Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality 

I've been what I call "cheating" a bit on some recent reviews which feature 7.1 audio on the 1080p Blu-ray release and Atmos audio on the 4K UHD release, but in this case, I simply can't give the DTS-HD Master Audio 7.1 track anything less than a perfect score, since it's so consistently impressive. I was repeatedly struck by the strength of low end response when the band moments kicked in, but there's excellent surround activity throughout this presentation, as might be intuitively understood from a film that offers lots of group settings and music being rehearsed and/or performed. The wash of sounds in the live performance snippets are lifelike and really help to convey the energy of the venues and audience support for the band, and the actual performances (evidently a "combo platter" of archival recordings and newly recorded material) resonate with excellent force and remarkable fidelity. Quieter dialogue moments obviously don't have the same "wow" factor, but there is consistent attention paid to the difference in ambient effects in different environments and directionality is frequently noticeable.

Bohemian Rhapsody Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras 

• The Complete Live Aid Movie Performance (1080p; 21:55) offers the film's full recreation of the iconic concert by Queen.


• Rami Malek: Becoming Freddie (1080p; 16:13) documents some of the challenges Malek faced in assuming the identity of one of the most legendary rock stars of his era.


• The Look and Sound of Queen (1080p; 21:44) features more interviews with the principal cast, discussing the band's unique presentational style.


• Recreating Live Aid (1080p; 19:55), like some of the other supplements included on this disc, offers interviews with the real life May and Taylor, who reminisce about the concert, along with other interviews and behind the scenes footage.


• Theatrical Trailers

  Teaser Trailer (1080p; 1:31)

  
  

  Theatrical Trailer (1080p; 2:25)

  
  

  Final Trailer (1080p; 2:08)

Bohemian Rhapsody Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation 

There's a lot to like and even admire in Bohemian Rhapsody, with Malek's performance being chief among the pleasures. The film has some hit or miss qualities, and is probably too vignette driven to ever provide much of a "history" of Queen, though that doesn't seem to have been the primary focus from the get go. If the ostensible band history here is pretty questionable, on a personal level this film seems to get a lot right about Mercury. I'd highly recommend those interested to check out any or all of the discs I linked to above that document various facets of the real life Mercury and Queen, but for a dramatized version of events, while awfully formulaic, Bohemian Rhapsody manages to hit a lot of the right notes. Technical merits are first rate, and with caveats (including buck teeth) noted, Bohemian Rhapsody comes Recommended.