Bohemian Rhapsody
I'm not clear on what's going on, but it seems I'm pretty much no longer allowed to use moviepass. Or anyone else, judging from the internet. So I streamed this movie from Russia, with love.
This movie is the story of Freddie Mercury, the married / bisexual / gay singer for Queen. We all already knew he lived a troubled life and the fame and fortune were scant payback for his confusion. This movie goes into some detail. I must admit to you I'm not a huge fan of Queen - I appreciate they did some interesting songs, and Freddie had a simply insane vocal range. I personally have a pretty good singing range, about one note less than McCartney or the guy who sings Take on Me, but Freddie was in a class of his own, he had a couple notes on all of us. Plus he had some kind of vocal cord control that's very rare, he could simply sing things that mere mortals mostly can't even attempt. There have been studies done and papers written about how he sang and what he could do.
A lot of the movie is about Freddie's confused sexuality, and much of the rest is about his youthful narcissism. I found the movie was unengaging, it just never really gripped my attention. I like Elton John's music a bunch better, but I'm personally not interested in his sexuality either. I don't understand this thing were everyone's sexual habits are suddenly their defining characteristics and we have to be personally aware of every sordid detail.
The movie hints at Freddie getting aids, but never explores this at all. He died of aids complications in 1991. Had he lived a few years longer he could have bought the cure for something like $250,000. Timing is everything
Freddie, curiously enough, was a persian (Iranian) whose family were zoroastrians (2001 theme, "Also sprach Zarathustra," "Also Spoke Zoroaster"
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Szdziw4tI9o). He was born in India, raised on Zanzibar in Tanzania, then moved to England. His sexuality would have gotten him quickly killed in India or Tanzania, I think. Actually, his religion would have gotten him killed in Iran, Iraq, Afghanistan, Pakistan, Lebanon or Syria, which is mostly where the Zoroastrians live today. Zoroaster (or Zarathrustra) lived roughly the same time as the Buddha, Confucius and Lao Tsu. It's entirely possible all four of these major religions were created at the same time. Zoroaster was perhaps the first to formally ask, "If God is good, why is there evil in the world?" His answers were highly influential on Greek thought and Judaism, and therefore on Christian and Islamic thought. Some scholars think the book of Job was Zoroastrian in origin. Zoroaster taught we have choices to make, the choices and consequences are ours alone, and the evil in our lives comes from evil choices of ourselves and others near us. Needless to say, none of this made the cut for this movie, as it would require a self-aware and thinking audience.
