BOHEMIAN RHAPSODY: AN ANALYSIS

DARYLLE HANNAH U. BUENDIA

STEM 11- 7, Senior High School Department
Polytechnic University of the Philippines

I. PLOT SUMMARY

Bohemian Rhapsody tells the story of the iconic British rock band Queen, their music, with a
remarkable and extraordinary lead vocalist, Freddie Mercury that is greatly portrayed by Rami Malek.
The film follows the fleeting ascent of the band through their famous melodies and progressive sound and
songs such as ‘Killer Queen’, ‘We Will Rock You’, ‘I Want To Break Free’, ‘Radio Gaga’, ‘Hammer To
Fall’, ‘We Are The Champions’, and their six-minute smash hit song, ‘Bohemian Rhapsody’. The band's
revolutionary sound and popular songs lead to Queen's meteoric rise in the 1970s and achieved a huge
success. Before Mercury joined the group, he has a girlfriend that he met, named Mary Austin. They
began dating and move in together.

Being one of the popular rock bands that time, Mercury defies stereotypes; over generalize belief
and having an idea or image to become one of the world’s best performers. He became surrounded by
bad-influence people, encompassed by darker impacts, also he met Paul Prenter, and Mary breaks up with
Freddie when he comes out to her as bisexual, although she assures him that he is gay. Despite this, they
remain friends and she moves next door after he purchases an extravagant house and after that, Freddie
changed his attitude and left the group to pursue his solo career. Without the help of his band mates, Brian
May, Roger Taylor, and John Deacon he suffered with many things. Freddie becomes increasingly
debauched from drugs and alcohol, and begins to become seriously ill. He left Peter and returns to
London to ask for forgiveness from his band mates and manages to reunite for the Live Aid concert. But
with the outbreak of HIV/AIDS spreading worldwide, Freddie discovers that he is infected with the
disease. Despite of being diagnose with AIDS, he lead the band in one of the greatest performances in the
history of rock music with a massive success, having an increase rate of donations during the event. The
film ends, that Mercury would remain friends with Mary and Jim for the rest of his life. It also clarifies
that he died on November 24, 1991 from AIDS-related pneumonia.

II. BLANK ANALYSIS

In telling Freddie Mercury's authentic story, Bohemian Rhapsody had a difficult task. The Queen
Singer was notoriously private about many aspects of his life, but one particular aspect has remained a
point of interest among fans even today, 27 years after his passing: his sexuality. However, the film leaves
out many details about relationships, tweaking and glossing over precious facts. But the two people who
entered Mercury’s life at crucial times and remained close to him until his death are Mary Austin and Jim
Hutton. The first person that he fell in love is Mary. They met in a bar; both of them adore each other
that’s why the pair quickly began dating and he called her the love of his life. Freddie confessed his true
identity to Mary. During one emotionally fraught scene, Mercury cautiously looks up at his fiancée and
soon-to-be-friend Mary and says, “I think I’m bisexual” that he is sexually attracted not exclusively to
people of one particular gender; simply, that he is attracted to both men and women. His lover looks down
at him, almost pityingly, and retorts. “No, Freddie. You’re gay.”

For some of us, these specific moments nearly rang too true to life. Bisexual people face the truth
of bi-deletion on a near daily basis being informed that they're either "excessively gay" or "not gay
enough," with little to no attention paid or consideration to their actual sexual identity. Because of being
different from others, people who are bisexual or those who are having a hard time to find their true
selves and identities, they face discrimination and judgement from other people. This can cause feelings
of isolation and marginalization, which prior research has shown leads to higher substance
use, depression and risky sexual behaviour that can lead to have viruses such as HIV/AIDS. Even though
it is not said that Mercury has been discriminated, he then chose to be quiet and hid his own identity to his
family because he don’t want his family to disgrace him especially his father and he don’t want people to
know about him being different from them.

It is said that for most of Mercury's life, the wider world didn't accept gays and bisexuals. He
grew up at a time when same-sex attraction was considered a mental illness, a tragedy, a joke, or some
combination of the three. LGBT people were barely represented in the media, and the message society
had to offer was that not being heterosexual was unacceptable. Many gay men felt pressured to hide their
sexuality, including from their families. Mercury's parents has a religion that saw being gay as a type of
demon worship. While Mercury remained close to his family throughout his life, he never discussed his
sexuality with them.

Mercury was also seeing men, both while he was with Austin and after ending their sexual
relationship including Jim Hutton who was with him until Mercury's death. The singer spent most of his
life battling the public, the press and even some in his personal life about how he chose to identify
himself. Many labelled him as gay, some denied his queerness, and very few chose to validate his
inherent bisexuality. Despite with his condition, he continued to create good melodies and express himself
through music.
 Mercury didn't label his sexuality even after his AIDS diagnosis maybe because he was worried about
how his public image and legacy would change with this revelation, which at the time would have been
enough to confirm him as bisexual; he maintained his policy of not commenting on the matter to the very
end.

III. MORAL AND ETHICAL ISSUES

When Queen became successful, Mercury defies stereotypes; over generalize belief and having
an idea or image to become one of the world’s best performers. He was not satisfied with the things he
had even though he forms a deep friendship with the other members of Queen he chose to forget their
friendship and he separate from them to make his own career. He then surrounded by bad people who
tried to ruin his life like Peter. He became increasingly debauched from drugs and alcohol, that every day
he’s drinking lots of alcohol. Being a star, he pushes some boundaries that are not the right thing to do.
Mercury didn't limit himself to steady relationships. He never became loyal and passionate to someone he
truly love. Aside from Mary and Jim he also dated his executive, Paul Prenter, David Minns, Chef Joe
Fanelli, DHL courier Tony Bastin, German restaurateur Winfried "Winnie" Kirchberger, and also a
German actress Barbara Valentin.

We all seek of the things that can make us better, but it is not right to forget where we started.
Especially for those people who help you. We should not let bad and evil people to ruin our lives. And
with our relationship with other people, we should be loyal to only one person, we should not use our
power and authority and do not exceed any boundaries just to get what we want.

But the film overall, teaches us some life lessons. One is that we she be confident with the talents
we have. If you have talents, do not afraid to show it to everyone. Freddie truly believes that he is born to
do great things. This belief is what pushes him and his band to take more risks, work harder and
eventually succeed. “If you expect your team members to agree with you all the time, there is no room for
growth, there is no room for creativity.” He breaks off from the Queen to go solo. He finds a new
manager, new crew and four million dollars. Things don’t work out and soon he requests to return to the
original band. The Queen team plays tough and ask why he want to come back. Here he says something
amazing "I was in Munich. The new band members did exactly what I asked them to do. I hate that. You
guys do not agree with me easily and we get better because of that.

He also becomes rudderless right after finding his right life partner, right band mates and his
band's success. He wrecks his life with unrestrained compulsive behaviors. “Nothing fails like success.” It
also teaches us that we can mend our broken relationships by taking the first step. Like when he realized
his mistake, Freddie quickly returns to the band. His apologies profusely, make amendments and fits right
back in the family. In doing so, he rescues the band and secures his legacy. Also, “You can never build
selfless relationships until you have taken care of yourselves first.” This is when Jim Hutton asks him to
love himself first, before he looks for relationships. Last is that even though he is already diagnose with
HIV, he still continued to produce great music. It simply tells us that no matter how hard a certain thing
is, if that’s what you want, and then continue to do it.

Kettler, S. (2019, February 26). The Complicated Nature of Freddie Mercury's Sexuality.
Retrieved from https://www.biography.com/news/freddie-mercury-sexuality

Bohemian Rhapsody. (n.d.). Retrieved from https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/8-invaluable-life-

lessons-from-bohemian-rhapsody/