Bohemian Rhapsody #FilmReview #BriFri
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Last week, I updated the Brexit news. Tina reviewed The Moroccan Girl by Charles Cumming. Becky reviewed These Old Shades by Georgette Heyer. Jean reviewed The Riddle of the Sands by Erskine Childers and two middle-grade fantasies by Jasper Fforde. Gaele reviewed My Very 90s Romance by Jenny Colgan, New Starts and Cherry Tarts at the Cosy Kettle by Liz Eeles, and A Summer of New Beginnings by Lisa Hobman.
I was a casual fan of Queen. I never bought an album, but I knew all the words when the songs came on the radio. Bohemian Rhapsody, a bio-pic of the lead singer Freddie Mercury, was all a new story for me.
A bio-pic of Freddie Mercury
I had a vague memory that I first heard “Bohemian Rhapsody” at church camp — played on a boom box by the counselor that I (and every other girl in camp) had a crush on. The timing’s right. My last year at church camp would have been the summer of 1976, just before I started high school — “Bohemian Rhapsody” was released earlier that year. Church camp is a weird association to have with that song and to have it remain 43 years later.
I’m the right age to be one of the first kids to deafen a high school gymnasium by stomping on metal bleachers and singing the chorus of “We Will Rock You” as a basketball cheer.
“We are the Champions” remains on my playlist of most inspirational songs. I’m fighting to end suspensions of the youngest students in schools, in part because they are issued inequitably to students of color and students with disabilities. Of course, I foolishly thought that every one would immediately and intuitively accept the notion that suspending a six-year-old for two weeks was going to damage her ability to learn to read and to succeed in school. When I get discouraged, I sing “I consider it a challenge before the whole human race and I ain’t gonna lose.”
The film manages to cram in a lot of music while telling the story. I have songs stuck in my head days later, helped along by an incessant desire to listen to the music on Spotify and watch videos on You Tube.
What are your memories of the music of Queen?
I always liked Freddy, his strut his vocals and the fun of Queen. I always thought all the guys in the band were gay because of their band’s name! I enjoyed the movie more than I thought I would and seeing the surviving members at the Academy Awards was endearing.
Joy, my first memory is stomping on those same bleachers, I think. And on the jukebox at Angelo’s, We Will Rock You and We Are The Champions were separate songs requiring separate payment.
I associate Bohemian Rhapsody with ice skating on the slough, which is just as odd as church camp and a different time of year. It was on the boom box and also there was a discussion of the lyrics.
A few years later, I remember I was “riding around,” actually driving the family Plymouth, cheap factory radio blaring, with three friends and a fifth of black label. It was getting late, and hazy, but we continued when someone said “we might hear Another One Bites the Dust again.” And we did. Hear it again, I mean. We didn’t bite the dust despite our risky behavior. Obviously, we were invincible. It came as a shock when Freddy died a few short years later. And, one of those friends is gone already.
I’m old enough that I listened to a lot of radio play by Queen. Freddie has a great voice. Haven’t seen the movie though.
People suspend six-year-olds?? Surely, if a six-year-old is doing the kinds of things that merit suspension in older kids, some kind of serious intervention is needed? I have a good friend who was, until this year, a teacher in a program that took the most disruptive, troubled students (candidates for expulsion) into a very small and focused classroom environment. She did age 12+, but there was a teacher for little ones too. She was working with kids from extremely chaotic, difficult backgrounds and it seemed to work really well; the tiny class size, massive attention, and excellent teacher combo seemed to help them. I would like to see that kind of thing in more districts, but apparently it’s not that common. It’s not a wealthy district at all, quite the opposite.
Anyway, here’s some Yeats and Irish movies for you.
I always liked Queen – from getting their first (and not available in the US) album from a friend who was older and more tuned into music – to the chills from the Live Aid set… an interesting set of lyrics and musicality that hit it on the nose with the ‘lasting power’ of the music.
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I loved this movie. Grew up in the 80’s and remember playing this cassette over and over..lol