Zoroastrianism in the Rock World

Rating: 9/10 (9 November 2018)

During my teenage years in the seventies and eighties, I was part of a group at my school which consciously embraced the values of Classical music, and of high culture in general, partly as a protest against what we perceived as the inanity and shallowness of contemporary youth culture. Despite this, I still have a soft spot for some of the rock bands of the era, including ELO, The Eagles and Queen, a group whose songs combined a thrilling sense of excitement with the recognition of the importance of melody to any musical composition in any genre. And how could any Classical lover not admire a band who called one of their albums "A Night at the Opera" and their best-known single "Bohemian Rhapsody". That could be a title straight out of Dvorak! (Although, of course, the adjective was chosen to reflect the group's bohemian lifestyle).
One of the strengths of Queen was that all four band members, Freddie Mercury, Brian May, Roger Taylor and John Deacon were creative talents who contributed to writing the group's music as well as performing it, but the best known of the four was undoubtedly Mercury, the flamboyant lead singer. He had an unusual background for British rock star, having been born with the name Farrokh Bulsara in Zanzibar, then a British protectorate, to a family of Indian Zoroastrian descent. The family were forced to flee Zanzibar when a revolution broke out in 1963. The film tells the story of the formation of Queen in the early seventies and of their rise to success, culminating with a re-creation of their "Live Aid" performance at Wembley Stadium in 1985., concentrating on Mercury and his personal life.
Mercury is today remembered as a gay icon, but in the seventies he was widely (although wrongly) assumed to be a heterosexual who adopted the camp and flamboyant dress and mannerisms associated with homosexuality as part of his stage persona, a pose to make him appear cool and rebellious; it was known that he had an attractive blonde girlfriend, Mary Austin. The truth, of course, was that he had a long struggle to come to terms with his sexuality; according to the film when he tried to tell Mary that he thought he was bisexual, she replied "No, Freddie, I think you're gay". Even after he had accepted his homosexuality, Mary remained an important figure in his life. The film also deals with two of Mercury's gay relationships, with his personal manager Paul Prenter and with Jim Hutton, his partner during the latter part of his life.
The film is dominated by Queen's music- May and Taylor served as executive music producers- and we get to hear all their classics, including the likes of "Radio Gaga", "Rocket Man", "We Will Rock you" and, of course, the title track itself. It is worth pointing out that when it was first recorded "Bohemian Rhapsody" was not popular with record executives, who regarded it as too long to release as a single, and with rock critics, most of whom regarded it as pretentious and incomprehensible and gave it negative or lukewarm reviews. It was, however, hugely popular with the record-buying public and became one of the band's biggest hits.
I suspect that the same thing is likely to happen to the film with which the song shares its name. Many critical reviews have been negative or lukewarm, especially over alleged biographical inaccuracies, yet I believe it has the potential to be a big hit. It has a superb central performance from Rami Malek in the central role, not only capturing the on-stage exuberance which made Mercury such a charismatic performer but also the turmoil and anguish which marked his life off stage. (His relationship with Prenter would appear to have been particularly fraught, and when it ended Prenter betrayed him by giving a "kiss-and-tell" interview). Some of the supporting cast have a similar ability to convey the essence of their characters, especially Gwilym Lee who has Brian May off to a T. May, a scientist by training, would appear from the film to have been the calm, rational one of the group, often acting as peacemaker between Mercury- just as mercurial as his stage name might imply- and the other members of the band and its entourage.
The rock trivia merchants may cavil at some of the details, but to me this was a fine film, even though it suffered from production difficulties. (Director Bryan Singer was sacked towards the end of filming and replaced by Dexter Fletcher although Singer retains sole director credit in line with DGA rules which only allow one director to be credited per film. A good thing Powell and Pressburger never heard of those). It captures all the raw excitement which so impressed me forty years ago and led to Queen providing some of the very few rock albums in my record collection. It also provides a moving portrait of Mercury, a man who faced his fatal illness and tragically early death with great courage. His may have been an unusual background for a rock star, but he lived his life in line with his family's Zoroastrian ideals of moral choices. 9/10