The movie was great, I loved the not so humble beginnings of the band, and it was awesome to know that this was a band of smart people. The guitarist was studying astrophysics, the drummer was almost a dentist, and even the bass player which they got after Freddy joined the band had an electric engineer's degree.
The movie, of course, focused on the dynamic Freddie Mercury who I had no idea was of middle eastern descent, not that it matters. According to the movie, he talked to the guys from his eventual band at the right time, as their lead singer had just quit. The movie gives us this view that the relationship between him and his father was strained because his father expected him to be a more regular person working a regular job and being a good member of society. It is never shown that the parents have a problem with his sexuality, but he did come from a very conservative home.
I loved seeing the band working through their songs and being open to experimenting by swinging speakers and putting stuff on top of the piano wires to see what effect that would do to the noise. This experimenting gave them a new sound and honestly their music holds up to this day. If you catch Bohemian Rhapsody on the radio, you're going to listen to it until the end, it is such a great and unique song. Then there are the thinly veiled "dirty" songs like Fat Bottomed Girls which are just perfect for driving and singing out loud.
I had no idea there was a woman in his life, I had figured out he was gay at an early age by the fact that AIDS killed him. We had a real good conversation with Javalina about all that, as Wife and I lived through that time period and it affected us all, for a time. We don't hear much about AIDS/HIV nowadays, but in the late 80's, just as we were becoming sexually active, there was a fear for a few years that just having sex could lead to AIDS. The conservatives/ bible thumping idiots must have been in heaven because they had the perfect fear tool for what they are always trying to prevent, people having sex for fun. Nowadays, we know AIDS is a virus that can be transmitted by an exchange of bodily fluids, mostly blood, but I imagine there is some in the male ejaculate. It is rare for people not in the gay community to contract AIDS, it happened on a few cases early in blood transfusions, but now they test for it.
It was a shame to lose a bright star like Freddie Mercury who was creative with the music they made. He loved being the center of attention, but he worked hard to create the music that got him and his band there. I am glad he had people like Mary in his life that truly loved him and the guys in the band were also pretty laid back and put up with a lot of his "diva" behavior, showing up late to rehearsals and stuff. Why are the leeches always so hard to identify for people like this? The Paul Prenter character just seemed to skulk around the band, waiting to isolate and keep Mercury to himself. I guess it was easy for him to "trick" Mercury because he was the one bringing the gay out of him by bringing the strange men over. It was painful to see him leaving the band that made him famous because we could tell it was quietly orchestrated by this snake so he would remove the positive people from his life. That Mary forced herself back into his life to break Prenter's hold on him was worthy of an act of someone who truly loved him, even if she couldn't love him in the traditional sense. Prenter reminded me of a Wormtongue from LOTR, whispering bullshit to keep the king, er Queen from shining as brightly as he should.
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