Freddie Mercury Comics & Stories

Rating: 5/10 (12 December 2018)

Finally saw BOHEMIAN RHAPSODY. I didn't expect to like it and was not pleasantly surprised. It portrays Freddie Mercury as a selfish hedonist and his bandmates as uniformly upstanding, monogamous family men. It also implies that you can never be complete as a human being unless you find your soulmate--especially if you aren't strictly heterosexual.
Like all biopics, BOHEMIAN RHAPSODY was not about to let the facts get in the way of a good story (or even this one). Here is a (far from complete) list of its inaccuracies:

Freddie Mercury was not a shy, withdrawn youth. By all accounts, he was supremely confident at a very young age and always believed he was destined to become a star.

He never tossed a rock through the office window of a record executive. In point of fact, Ray Foster is a fictional character (played by Mike Myers) who may have been loosely based on EMI label chief Roy Featherstone. However, unlike the Ray Foster character, Featherstone was a passionate Queen fan (though he did express reservations about the six-minute playing time of "Bohemian Rhapsody").

There is no evidence that Mercury's relationship with Mary Austin went downhill as his partying spiraled out of control.

Paul Prenter's manipulative machinations did not lead to Queen's break up.

Queen also did not break up because Mercury accepted a $4 million solo deal behind their backs.

In point of fact, Queen never officially broke up. In 1983, the band members mutually decided to take a break. They had been recording and touring non-stop for ten years and were feeling worn out.

Mercury did not reveal his HIV diagnosis to his bandmates the day of the 1985 Live Aid concert. He was not even diagnosed until 1987.

I'm at a loss to explain why so many Queen fans think this is a wonderful film. To me, it was a self-serving attack on a highly talented musical figure. Freddie Mercury deserves better than this homophobic, paint-by-numbers BS story.