Bohemian Rhapsody (Post-release)

ZeroSum said:

Re: Bohemian Rhapsody

Looks good. Looks like it's going to be very flattering to Queen. Not surprising since Brian May and Roger Taylor are among the producers. No John Deacon though? I know he's out of the "Queen business" now but I thought they'd consult him and then give him a credit as a seal of approval.

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mkstewartesq said:

Re: Bohemian Rhapsody

And I'll add (sorry to go on, but it's so rare I get to talk Queen ) - let's not forget hat Freddie was the first major rock start to contract HIV, in a time when there was great misunderstanding and intolerance of the disease. And he was a closeted gay/bi man, again at a time when not only was homophobia more rampant but, speaking frankly, it was anathema to the hard rock/macho world. (Remember, fans threw razor blades on stage when he grew his mustache in emulation of the "San Francisco gay clone" look, and his cross-dressing in the "I Want To Break Free" video effectively ended their career in America for the reminder of his lifetime.) All of those things contributed to his decision to hide his illness, and to his bandmates decision to do so as well to guard his privacy.

That's a rich tapestry for both drama and commentary to just skip - maybe another film in the future will address it. How I wish someone a bit more daring like a David Fincher had decided to take the reins on this film. The film may have ended up being less literal perhaps, but likely more meaty.

M

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SenorChang said:

Not sure how closeted Freddie was, considering his antics with waiters etc, was well known and reported for years.

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mkstewartesq said:

Well, let's distinguish between "closeted" and "outed". While Freddie's behavior (in addition to his general demeanor, which certainly tended to indicate his preferences) may have been detected and outed, he never willingly came out of the closet of his own choosing. Instead he usually dodged the question or, at most, made comments that he immediately walked back as merely jokes to be outrageous ("I'm as gay as a daffodil, darling!"). He kept his private life private, both out of deference to his family and because those were very different times where an open admission of homosexuality by a rock star would kill a career. See also, for example, Rob Halford, whose sexuality was apparently an open secret in the music community - but not publicly acknowledged by Rob until the late 1990s/early 2000s after he had left Judas Priest to form his own band.

M

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SenorChang said:

He was widely known to be homosexual, whether he said the exact words or not, it'd be splitting hairs for me to argue the point further.

It could be classed as one of life's what if moments, as nobody came out and saw what would happen to their careers.

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mkstewartesq said:

Thanks. I appreciate your points. But Queen themselves cite Freddie's appearance in drag in the "I Want To Break Free" video as the thing that "killed us in America". Freddie "let his freak flag fly'", so to speak, and Queen found firsthand that even the implication of being gay was too much for their American fan base in 1984. So, not so much a "what-if". (The U.K. and other countries, of course, got the joke better and understood the video was referencing a British TV show, and it didn't affect their careers elsewhere. But here in the U.S., it was the end for them until after Freddie had died and Wayne's World resurrected interest in them in 1992.)

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