7.9 | / 10 |
Users | 0.0 | |
Reviewer | 4.0 | |
Overall | 4.0 |
The Great Pretender offers a music-filled documentary of the late co-founder and lead singer of the rock band Queen.
Starring: Freddie Mercury, Peter Freestone, Roger Taylor (I), David Arnold (I), John ReidMusic | 100% |
Documentary | 54% |
Biography | 6% |
Video codec: MPEG-4 AVC
Video resolution: 1080p
Aspect ratio: 1.78:1, 1.33:1
Original aspect ratio: 1.78:1, 1.33:1
English: LPCM 2.0
English
25GB Blu-ray Disc
Single disc (1 BD)
Slipcover in original pressing
Region A (B, C untested)
Movie | 4.0 | |
Video | 3.5 | |
Audio | 4.0 | |
Extras | 2.0 | |
Overall | 4.0 |
There’s a killer biopic waiting to made about Freddie Mercury. Born Farrokh Bulsara in Zanzibar, Mercury went to proper British boarding prep schools but knew he never really fit in with the Ruling Class. Though he initially thought he would pursue a career in art, once he became more aware of how much he enjoyed making music, he set his sights on a music career and never looked back. One of the paradigmatic artists of the hedonistic eighties, Mercury also became one of the first faces of celebrity AIDS related deaths. Somewhat masked behind the legend is an obviously vulnerable but tough soul who covered any latent insecurities in a rather convincing show of bravado, a tendency which frequently alienated him from his Queen bandmates, as Freddie Mercury: The Great Pretender makes all too clear. Mercury was also his own worst enemy a lot of the time, not heeding advice about either his career or especially his personal life, a proclivity which at least helped lead to his early demise. Mercury’s flamboyant stage persona and apparent bisexuality weren't seen as overly sensational when Queen first broke through into mainstream consciousness, and in fact were regarded as nothing more than "camp", but by the time Mercury passed in 1991, he was appropriately recognized as a trailblazer, albeit a controversial one, a man who had forged a clear path of personal expression that all sorts of artists have been able to emulate in his rather formidable wake. Never shy about self aggrandizement, Mercury not only agreed that he was a legend, he did everything in his power to foment tales of that legend himself. That makes Freddie Mercury: The Great Pretender an absolutely fascinating exposé of a man who managed to change music and the public perception toward cultural outliers almost despite himself.
Freddie Mercury: The Great Pretender is presented on Blu-ray courtesy of Eagle Rock Entertainment with an AVC encoded 1080i transfer in 1.78:1 and 1.33:1. Most of the archival interview and performance footage is in 1.33:1, and while the main interview segment that is utilized throughout the documentary (see screencap 1) is in remarkably good shape, some of the other footage, like the Live Aid concert, is pretty ragged looking, at least by comparison. Contemporary interview segments look quite good, with excellent clarity, contrast and fine object detail. Some of the concert footage with Montserrat Caballé has some slight contrast issues, perhaps because it appears that at least some of it was shot outside in less than ideal weather conditions.
Freddie Mercury: The Great Pretender features an uncompressed LPCM 2.0 mix that offers the many talking heads segments as well as the copious musical segments with excellent fidelity, if sometimes frustrating narrowness. Mercury's multilayered approach was so hyperbolic that a surround mix certainly would have been preferable for the musical moments at least, but this stereo track does present everything with clarity and precision. There really aren't any uninterrupted musical segments anyway, as the bulk of this documentary consists of snippets of Mercury interviews and contemporary interview segments featuring those who worked with or knew Mercury, and those all sound just fine.
Freddie Mercury: The Great Pretender is one of the most interesting music star documentaries to come down the pike in quite a while, and not just because Mercury was such a flamboyant personality. In fact what comes across the most clearly in this piece is how uneasy Mercury was about himself, hence his love of "The Great Pretender" as one of the rare cover tunes he wanted to attempt. But Mercury was nothing if not complex, and that unease is just buried at times under what he himself describes as what is perceived to be arrogance, even if it's an arrogance born as a defense mechanism. Filled with fantastic archival interviews and performance footage, Freddie Mercury: The Great Pretender might have done better to have spent at least a little more time on Mercury's hedonistic lifestyle and how that dovetailed into the general zeitgeist of the eighties, and some may wonder why so much time is spent on his collaboration with Montserrat Caballé, but otherwise this is a riveting piece that any Queen or Mercury fan should find extremely compelling. Recommended.
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