The Boy From Zanzibar

Rating: Null/10 (18 February 2019)

"Bohemian Rhapsody" is a curious film biography, which chronicles the life of Farrokh Bulsara, who was born in Stone Town in the British protectorate of Zanzibar on September 5, 1946. He was transplanted to Middlesex, England in his teens and joined the rock group Queen in 1970. Farrrokh took the stage name of Freddie Mercury. The film chronicles his turbulent life that culminated in his death in 1991 at age forty-five.
The main problem with the film is that Mercury is simply an unlikable character. He treats his proud father with disrespect. He takes advantage of his girl friend Mary, who he calls the love of his life, yet shuns her and make outrageous demands on her. Why, for example, was she never invited to accompany him on tour? And why must she wear her wedding ring even after the couple has split? Additionally, Mercury appears to have utter contempt for his collaborators in the Queen band, three musicians who gave the kid his first break as their lead singer.
In any film biopic, there is the challenge of balancing the story of the artist's life with the music. Oliver Stone made an earnest attempt at a film biography of Jim Morrison in "The Doors." But a problem with Stone's film was that too much emphasis was placed on the concerts and recording sessions, and there was not enough depth of understanding of Morrison's life. The exact reverse was true of "Bohemian Rhapsody," wherein the focus was on the unpleasant personal life of a deeply troubled singer without commensurate attention given to the music.
Mercury was quite the showman in his concerts, and the appeal was not evident in this motion picture. Instead, the focus was the tawdry elements of his personal life. At one point, Mercury feels betrayed when Mary has found a new boyfriend and has become pregnant. The dialogue goes as follows:
MARY: "I'm pregnant."
FREDDIE: "How could you!?"
The melodrama often resembled a made-for-television film on the Lifetime Channel. Indeed, one of the visual images for Mercury's home life was a large framed poster of Gloria Swanson from "Sunset Boulevard." In that regard, Freddie always seemed to be "on stage" and primping for his "close up." The film was unsuccessful in portraying a tortured artist, only a fragile Little Lord Fauntleroy who never grew up.
There is a revealing moment in the film when Jim Hutton, working in catering at one of Mercury's decadent parties, tells Mercury candidly that he might like to become his friend if and when "you start to like yourself." In the closing stretch of this long film, there was lame attempt to reveal a repentant Mercury, attempting to atone for the sins he committed against his friends and colleagues. But it was too little, too late to redeem this sleazy, self-loathing character in the eyes of the audience.