The line between fiction and reality
Bohemian Rhapsody has become one of the highest-grossing films of the year. It tells the story of one of the most important singers in the history of music: Freddie Mercury. But some of these facts are fiction, we show you
Bohemian Rhapsody refers to one of the best-known songs in the history of the British group Queen. In October 2018, the film bearing the name of this single, which was part of the album A Night at the Opera, was released and focuses on the story of its singer Freddie Mercury.
The liberties of fiction
Although the film has become a box office success that has managed to raise more than 250 million euros worldwide, it is not entirely faithful to reality as several members of the group acknowledged on the day of its premiere in the United Kingdom. Meanwhile, the producers stated that it is not a documentary and that it takes the band and its singer as a basis, so they allowed themselves some liberties with reality. What liberties were taken?
The formation of the band
The meeting between Mercury, Brian May, and Roger Taylor, according to the film, took place in 1970 as a true love at first sight. The group Smile, which included Brian May and Roger Taylor, had lost its singer. At that moment, Freddie gave an impromptu audition in the parking lot of a club after a concert. The guitarist and the drummer were captivated by him and decided he should join the band.
But the reality was different: May, Taylor, and Mercury had known each other for some time and formed the band Smile while studying their art and design degrees. It was there that Freddie became friends with Stafell (former bassist and singer of Smile). In 1970, he left the group and it was decided that Freddie would take his place.
The film also shows that Deacon, Queen’s bassist, was already part of the band when Mercury joined, something that did not happen until the following year, leaving the band composed of the members we now know.
Mary and Jim, the loves of his life
In the film, Mercury declares himself to Mary and becomes engaged to her telling her she is the love of his life. In the film, their love begins at the same time Freddie Mercury joins the band (1970), but the truth is, according to Rolling Stone, that the singer did not start to be interested in her until a few years later when Smile had become Queen.
The second great love of Freddie Mercury’s life was Jim Hutton. According to the film, after a wild night of partying in which the singer finds himself alone after his friends leave, he strikes up a conversation with one of the waiters serving at his house. The truth is that Mercury and Hutton met in a gay bar in 1984. Jim was a hairdresser at the Savoy Hotel in London; a year after their first meeting, when Hutton rejected him, they met again and stayed together until the day Freddie Mercury died.
The false producer
Ray Foster is one of the most foolish characters in the film. When the group presents their song Bohemian Rhapsody, he tells them they need something more commercial and that they would never succeed with it. This executive, who was part of the EMI record label, never existed, something confirmed by Rolling Stone magazine. It is speculated that he may be a collage of different characters who were critical of the work done by the band.
When he contracted AIDS
To add emotion to the end of the film, the producers decided to announce the moment when Freddie Mercury learns he has contracted AIDS, something he reveals to his bandmates a few days before one of the most important concerts the band took part in, the Live Aid. According to Jim Hutton, Mercury’s partner until he died, he did not know he had the disease until 1987 and the concert had taken place 2 years earlier. He officially announced it in November 1991, just one day before he died.
The Wembley concert and the band’s split
On the other hand, we find another dramatic liberty in the way the events of the Live Aid at Wembley are narrated. According to the film, the band members had split because Mercury wanted to accept a million-pound offer to pursue a solo career. After a few years of separation full of tension, they decide to reunite to give a great reconciliation concert which, together with the announcement of the singer’s illness, increased the drama of the film. But the truth is that Queen had recorded an album the previous year and had been on tour.
They never split up and much less did Freddie Mercury accept a million-pound contract without telling the rest of his bandmates. In fact, as the band members acknowledged in various media, in 1983 they decided to take a break after 10 years of almost nonstop touring to focus on their solo careers, something they all agreed on. During the time they were not playing together and each developed as a solo artist, they never stopped being in contact, so much so that, as Rolling Stone points out, that same year they began composing and making their album The Works, which includes one of the songs Queen sang in 1985 at Live Aid: Radio Ga Ga.
The film has not been free of controversy since these aspects do not correspond to reality, but the truth is that you can learn many details about Freddie Mercury that you might not have known, such as his real name, his relationship with his family, and how he pursued his dreams without giving up thanks to his overwhelming personality.
