As is the case with many biopics (since being hosed over by, what I believed to be, a movie based entirely on a true story in Remember the Titans), I like to read about what parts of the movie were truly true and which parts were fictional to tell a better story. A good biopic often becomes a great biopic when you learn that what you saw on screen happened in real life. A  good movie that bases its claim on being a true story or inspired by true events but one that you later find out has been predominantly fictionalized loses a lot of its original appeal. And, honestly, there is no bigger dagger to a movie that I love when I learn that what I thought was a true story turns out to be not nearly as much as I thought? Truthfully, how can you call a movie a biopic which, by definition, is a biographical movie when parts of the movie are either made up or sequenced in ways that weren’t truthful? Is the goal to honor the true story or to tell a better one and call it true? In the real world, that’s called fraud. So after learning that Freddie Mercury, the lead singer of Queen, one of the most influential rock bands of all time, wasn’t actually diagnosed with AIDS until 1987, two years AFTER Live Aid, despite telling his band members BEFORE Live Aid in the movie that he had contracted the virus, a lot of the movie’s credibility was shot out the window. However, despite many of its historical inaccuracies, I’m not going to trash a decent film that tried to do a lot right. If I did that, then I feel I would have to go back and scrutinize some of my other favorite biopics with the same fine comb. First of all, I have no desire to do that. Secondly, I don’t want to learn that some of my favorite movies I thought to be true 100% true was not (i.e., Remember the Titans). As you can see, this movie took a lot of liberties.
Continue reading Bohemian Rhapsody (2018) →