UHD BLU-RAY

‘Daaaaaaaaa-yo!’ Check out Freddie, Hugh and Jenny in our in-depth disc reviews.

Around 48 minutes into Bohemian Rhapsody, Freddie Mercury (played by Rami Malik) and Kenny Everett (Dickie Beau) are chatting in the latter’s radio studio. Everett has just started the title song to this movie spinning on the turntable, sowing the seed of a demand that would soon bring the record company to release it as a single — a single that would eventually spend nine weeks at the top of the British charts from the closing weeks of 1975.

As the music rolls, selected quotes from the music press appear on the screen. “Wannabe Led Zeppelin” says one. “A song that should be sunk to the bottom of the sea,” says another. “Pompous and overlong”... “A dull pastiche”. Rolling Stone magazine continued its long tradition of getting things completely wrong, calling it ‘a brazen hodgepodge’.

It’s nothing new. Carl Maria Von Weber wanted Beethoven committed to the asylum for his Seventh Symphony. Tchaikovsky wanted Mussorgsky’s Pictures at an Exhibition sent to the devil. It is often not obvious which works of art are great at the time of release, but way too many people think that they can tell. Who

knows how many astonishing works have been lost to the hubris of the gatekeepers?

But this one wasn’t lost. And despite the astonishing number of brilliant songs Queen produced, Bohemian Rhapsody remains its most famous. Which is why this Freddie Mercury/ Queen biopic is so titled.

Fact vs fiction

This movie was a project near to director Bryan Singer’s heart, and spent many years in development before finally scoring a US$50 million production budget. Singer seemed to have had some problems of his own, eventually being fired, but it remains informed largely by his aesthetic, and he got the official credit.

The movie takes us from Mercury joining a band called Smile (which, with the addition of John Deacon, would become Queen), through to the band’s 1985 ‘Live Aid’ Wembley Stadium performance. And considerable liberties have been taken with the facts. I would not recommend choosing ‘Queen’ as your special game-show topic if your knowledge is based on this movie. It has been put together for dramatic effect, and as a kind of character study of Mercury. For what it’s worth, I lodged my factual reservations at the back of my mind and went with the flow. The Freddie Mercury of this movie is something of a lost soul, eventually coming to find himself with the help of his ‘family’ — his band.

Modern Times Rock ‘n’ Roll

So the facts may be iffy, but the visual and acoustic recreation is truly wonderful. Let’s start with the sound. I’ve owned versions of ‘Sheer Heart Attack’, ‘A Night at the Opera’ and ‘A Day at the Races’ since the 1970s, originally on vinyl, of course, but my current ‘A Night at the Opera’ is on DVD Audio. Regardless of the format, I’ve never been entirely satisfied with the tonal balance. It has always struck me as too strong in the treble.

The sound mix on this disc, though, is just about perfect. All the Queen songs are real Queen performances, with the actors lip and instrument syncing to the original sound. But it all sounds fresh and modern. Hollywood sound engineers seem able to give the tracks of yesteryear gloriously up-to-date refreshes. I have been unable to find if they had access to the original

multitracks, or whether they used technology to pull out elements of a final mix so that they could be used independently. But whether final studio performances or live performances, the sound — delivered in Dolby Atmos (founded on Dolby TrueHD) and two-channel DTS-HD Master Audio — is absolutely convincing.

And that applies especially to the ‘Live Aid’ climax. The concert is cut down, of course, though it’s edited impressively sensitively in musical terms. But don’t worry, the full movie reproduction of that concert is provided as a special extra. It’s 22 minutes long and enjoys the same audio and picture standards as the main program.

Also convincing is the work of the actors playing the band members, especially Malek. I guess he looks a little like Mercury, but to my eye, he seemed to lack Mercury’s physical presence. Except, that is, during the performances. When singing, dancing, striding across the stage, punching the air, pointing to the crowd, all points of difference disappear. He becomes Mercury. If acting is impersonation, he certainly deserved the Best Actor Oscar he was awarded.

No Vision/The Miracle

The picture is delivered as UltraHD with BT.2020 colour. And with HDR10 rather than Dolby Vision. I guess that’s a lost opportunity, since the movie credits say it was prepared with Dolby Vision, whatever that may be in the cinema.

It is pure and perfect in quality. And again there’s some excellent effects. Soon after the movie opens, the camera flies in from above Wembley Stadium, at the opposite end to the stage. It swoops down over the crowd of one hundred thousand, flies up onto the stage, slows as it nears the piano and swings around for a close-up of the seated Mercury’s face. How did they create that one hundred thousand? Were they entirely CGI’d like the hordes in the LoTR movies? To my eye, they looked very real, but in a slightly diminished picture quality compared to other elements of the picture. I suspect that original footage at least formed the basis of digital creations.

But however it was done, it works.

[The Editor adds: An extra on the standard Blu-ray shows the Wembley crowd being ‘comped’ together from thousands of individual shots of extras in 1980s gear. So it’s CGI, but from real source images. Astonishing. JF]