Bohemian Rhapsody (2018)
The start of the movie begins with a clip of the Live Aid concert. What comes after this clip are Flashbacks starting with Freddie’s life at 24 years old. With a loving mother and disapproving father. Early in the movie Freddie and Mary get engaged, but broke up, and later in the movie Mary starting dating David. The movie didn’t just explore Freddie’s and Mary’s relationship, but the relationship between Freddie and his band: Roger, Brian, and John. There has been a lot of ups and downs between the band members. Especially the band breaking up and Freddie going solo with CBS Records. Before the band broke up they went touring all around the globe and this is where Freddie discovered he is gay. One of the guys he dates is Paul, who tries to control Freddie's career, but was fired near the end of the film. The movie explores the developments of the songs: Bohemian Rhapsody, Love of my Life (made for Mary), We Will Rock You, and Another One Bites the Dust, which was cool to see.
The music in the movie was great, maybe better than the music in Rocketman. The only issue that I had with the movie is that it wasn’t historically accurate. Another cool thing the movie did was show the passing of time, Freddie’s hair gets shorter when he gets older. There was a touching moment when Mary tells Freddie that he is gay, which was a nice and genuine scene. The movie also explores the spiraling of Freddie mentally and physically around 1980 to 1984 during the time he got aids, again this might not be accurate but it’s what the movie presented. The movie had great cinematography as well. One thing that will always stick with me is what Freddie’s father always says, ”Good thoughts, good words, good deeds”. The film ends with the Live Aid concert. This brings the movie full circle starting with the Live Aid concert and ending with it. Overall, although the movie is not historically accurate it was a great film.
Rocketman (2019)
Rocketman might be the better biopic compared to Bohemian Rhapsody. The reason being is that Rocketman explores Elton John's childhood and family life before he became a well-known musician and this allowed me to empathise with Elton. I empathised less with Freddie in the Bohemian Rhapsody as you see him as an adult at the start of the film with his band and maybe for me Freddie's life before he became a musician was boring, so it didn't make an interesting story at the start of the movie. Elton was musically talented from a young age. I am not saying that Bohemian Rhapsody is a bad movie, I’m just saying that Rocketman was a better one.
The movie explores not only Elton’s childhood but his struggle with coming to terms with being a gay man in a world where it wasn’t accepted. I read before the movie came out; that either the fans or producers didn’t want to see or make an Elton John movie where it explores his gay life. However, I’m glad they did because the biopic wouldn’t have stayed true otherwise.
What was great in the movie as well, is the relationship and chemistry between Jamie Bell and Taron Egerton. Jamie Bell plays Elton’s best friend: Bernie. I think without their relationship in the movie, the movie would have fallen flat. Bernie was a kind of sideline in the movie for a while; because Elton was expanding his friendships and relationships. But Bernie comes back at the end to be a friend to Elton once again.
Overall the movie was great and I think it would be interesting to see a sequel.
