"Bohemian Rhapsody" began to be released in the mainland today. Before watching the movie, you first need to know two pieces of information.
First, be sure to choose a theater with better sound such as IMAX or Dolby. Because this is a musical biopic.
Second, this film needs to see the end of the last second, please don't leave after the character screen is over, you will miss the last song.
The final song, titled "The Show Must Go On", was recorded by Freddie at the end of his life, and Freddie died 40 days after the song was released as a single. The lyrics describe a performer who is full of pride in the face of death and laughs at life and death. Therefore, it is often considered to represent Freddie's attitude towards death at that time. As the end of this film, it is the most suitable Ending.
Once you have prepared these two points, you can start enjoying the movie to the fullest.
Biographical films are not documentaries, so some events in the film are not sequenced according to the actual time of occurrence, but are disrupted according to the requirements of the script effect to form a relatively complete story.
Some plots in the film differ from the true story, but the presentation of the film has been recognized by the members of QUEEN and other archetypal characters in the film. Some people may ask questions after seeing the movie: Is this a biopic of the lead singer Freddie, or a biopic of QUEEN? Needless to say, this movie is about Freddie, and the band members want to honor Freddie in this loving way.
QUEEN's archivist Greg Brooks, QUEEN members Brian May and Roger Taylor, Freddie's ex-girlfriend Mary Austin and other people who are most familiar with QUEEN and Freddie, escorted the whole process and provided a lot of help for the film to restore QUEEN and Freddie.
The name of the movie comes from the song of the same name released by QUEEN in 1975. This song is widely known in Europe and the United States. Although it is complicated, it is widely sung.
The film was planned and completed in 2010, which lasted 8 years, with twists and turns in the middle, and finally overcame various difficulties before it was completed. With less than three weeks left in the official shooting, director Bryan Singer was terminated due to negligence, and Dexter Fletcher took over as director. But Singer is still the film's named director, and Fletcher is the executive producer.
The acapella part of Freddie in the film is sung by Canadian singer Marc Martel, who is considered to be the most similar singer to model Freddie. Most of the other singing clips are Freddie's original sound, and there are some clips that he never sang in his life. Rami, Marc and Freddie's voices are synthesized.
Rami made a lot of effort to play Freddie well. He and the body coach went to study all Freddie's small movement habits and stage style. He also has an accent coach, learning to sing and piano lessons. He was practicing Freddie's moves all the time and studying Freddie's inner world.
It is extremely difficult to play Freddie well. He is a well-known musician all over the world. He has a distinctive style. He is shy and introverted off the stage, and he is unrestrained and enthusiastic on the stage. His inner world is rich, sensitive and full of enthusiasm. Not far away, the audience is no stranger to him now, so if Rami's performance is inappropriate or even slightly inappropriate, it will be pointed out by the audience. Luckily Rami did it. He also became the first Arab actor to win the Oscar for Best Actor.
By the way, he and Lucy Boynton, who played Mary Austin, also became lovers because of the play.
The three actors who played Brian May, Roger Taylor and John Deacon, Gwilym Lee, Ben Hardy, and Joseph Mazzello, also put in a huge effort. They all practiced all the performances by themselves under the guidance and help of Brian May and Roger Taylor. The crew prepared hand substitutes for them, but all of them were useless and completed the performance by themselves.
The last LIVE AID part is the most quintessential part of the whole movie. It's an epic reenactment of modern technology and actor performance. The crew made sufficient preparations in the early stage. In order to accurately reproduce this event, the production team copied the entire stage and brought it to a nearby airport. The construction team was the original crew of that year. The audience consisted of 100 group performers, which were scanned and copied by technical means to create a large scene of tens of thousands of people. The costumes and props inside were provided by band members or copied by the crew through memory.
The whole live includes "Bohemian Rhapsody", "Radio GaGa", "Hammer To Fall", "Crazy Little Thing Called Love", "We Will Rock You" and "We Are The Champion", but "CLTCL" and "We Are The Champion" are officially released. WWRY" was cut, so the release version has only four songs.
There are several side-by-side comparison videos of the previous year's video and the movie on the YouTube. You can intuitively see the god-level restoration level of this Live - whether it is the actor's performance or the reproduction of the props, the audience's reaction is meticulous. Modern technology also complements this Live with a full range of camera shots and unparalleled stunning sound effects.
The Live Aid show means a lot to QUEEN. At that time, the band encountered some small difficulties, and Freddie's voice was not in good condition. The doctor advised him not to go on stage. They were also the last to confirm the band participating in the Live Aid charity concert. At that time, the tickets were sold out, which means that there were no fans who came specifically to QUEEN. But they conquered everyone with a god-level live, the right time and place, which made this live famous in the history of rock and roll, and became the most talked about scene by QUEEN fans.
The interaction between 10,000 people in Live is famous. Also because of this Live, a "singing version" was released in some areas after the movie was released for a period of time, so that the audience could experience the effect of the concert chorus in the cinema.
How awesome is the re-engraving? Once you experience it in the cinema, you will know that it is a shocking effect that no household device can surpass.
For many young fans who can only look at that era from afar, they know that they will not have the opportunity to watch the four-person QUEEN scene once in their life, so in the last twenty minutes of this movie, they can see such a Live Aid on the big screen, It's a wish.
After the end of the Live Aid part, the film followed QUEEN's "Don't Stop Me Now", which means that although the film stopped abruptly at Live Aid, QUEEN did not stop their steps, they still moved forward at full speed, and then The following "The Show Must Go On", as mentioned above, is not only the best conclusion, but also the courage to never stop.
The influence of QUEEN's songs is too wide, just to list a few examples:
Everyone knows "We Will Rock You" and "We Are The Champion", which are famous songs dedicated to sports events;
Lady GaGa's name comes from "Radio GaGa";
Hikaru Utada's first large-scale tour, named BOHEMIAN SUMMER 2000, was influenced by "Bohemian Rhapsody";
Celine Dion's 2008 world tour, Taking Chances Tour, paid tribute to Queen by singing "The Show Must Go On" every time;
Lin Zhixuan once sang "Somebody to love" in "Singer", and the cover is also a masterpiece;
Zhan Yimei once said that she hoped that "Don't Stop Me Now" would be played at her funeral;
There are also many QUEEN songs used in film and television works: "Love of my life" was used as an episode in the Taiwan version of "Meteor Garden"; the Japanese drama "Pride" starring Kimura Takuya used "I Was Born to Love You" as the theme song.
...
Too much.
A considerable number of musicians participated in the promotion of the film. Some are completely self-organized. Many people are fans of QUEEN.
The film itself is as inspiring as QUEEN's experience. No one knew before its release that it would become the highest-grossing music biopic in history. Contrary to the reactions of the critics, the box office counterattacked, the audience's word of mouth was overwhelming, and it also shined in the awards season, winning the Golden Globe Award for Best Movie in the Drama Series and The best actor, the Oscar-winning 4 statuettes, not including the box office that will soon be released in mainland China, the film's global box office has exceeded 870 million US dollars, ranking 6th in the global box office in 2018, setting records again and again. And its largest overseas ticket warehouse is in East Asia. When it was released in South Korea, it went retrograde again and again, reached the top in the fourth week, and reached the top again in the seventh week, with nearly 10 million viewers.
When I watched it in Hong Kong in November last year, I thought it would not be released in mainland China because of the LGBT elements in it, but it was finally introduced.
After the introduction of the news is confirmed, the most concern is the issue of deletion. About 4 minutes have been omitted from the mainland release version, mainly LGBT-related content. Specifically, the bloggers who have seen the movie have sorted them out.
I would like to say a few words on this issue.
The original release version of the film was 134 minutes long, rated PG13, and can be viewed by anyone over the age of 12. The description of Freddie's homosexual identity and experience in the film has been criticized by some critics for "not touching enough" and "consciously disengaging". To put it bluntly, it is too obscure about his emotional life and sexual experience who identify with his own sexuality. In fact, it has no restricted level, and it depicts the "sex" part very vaguely. The band members also don't want to focus on depicting Freddie's private life. The LGBT part of the film is actually to show Freddie's confusion and pain, to help the audience touch his heart. In other words, to create characters. Originally the band members wanted it to be a PG movie.
The mainland release version deleted this matter, so that the LGBT elements of the film were magnified and discussed here. The focus of the film is on the music and the experience of the band and Freddie, so there's no way and there's no way to get around Freddie's sexuality. It's impossible to understand Freddie without talking about it. The editing of this part will cause some unavoidable problems. For example, the emotions of the characters are treated roughly, the emotions cannot be connected, and the plot is forcibly separated. Frankly speaking, this is a very contradictory thing. The deletions made by any film (excluding LGBT themes) when it is released in China will not be more unbearable than this film, which directly affects the core of the film's protagonist. But the focal point and the most watchable part of the film is really the self-identity and the music.
Despite the cuts, the film is still worth going to the cinema to experience. There are many reasons, the most direct one is the last 20 minutes of Live AID I mentioned above. This part really can't be replaced by home equipment computer speakers or the most expensive headphones. And I sincerely hope that more people can learn about QUEEN and their music through this film, which is one of the most beautiful things in the world.
So I don't agree with any "boycott going to the cinema to see the abridged version".
I think the point of this movie is to show the magic of music, the magic of QUEEN, the magic of Freddie. The movie does it, and it does it well.
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