Bohemian Rhapsody//Yesterday

Bohemian Rhapsody is a film released in 2018 by director Bryan Singer. The film is based off a true story and follows Freddie Mercury (Raimi Malik) on his journey to stardom with his legendary band Queen. The genre of the film is biographical drama. This film allows us as an audience to watch Queen rise to fame with their revolutionary music, as well as witness Freddie’s fall when fame becomes overwhelming, only to finish on the band reuniting to perform for live aid, the biggest concert ever. Bohemian Rhapsody went on to win four oscars for best sound mixing, best film editing, best sound editing, and best actor. This film manages to do everything it should do. It educates us on the band itself and what they went through, whilst paying tribute to some of the most legendary songs in rock history, as well as adding the finishing touch at the end of the film of a shout out for the Mercury Phoenix Trust, a charitable organisation that works on fighting against HIV and AIDS in the name of Freddie Mercury.

The other film I will be comparing this with is the film Yesterday. Yesterday is a 2019 film directed by Danny Boyle and staring Himesh Patel as Jack Malik. The film starts with Jack as a struggling musician trying desperately to get his music out to the world. We see Jack is ready to give up on his music dreams, when he suddenly wakes up in a world where the only person who seems to remember the band The Beatles is himself. We then follow Jack as he makes his way to stardom by claiming these songs to be his own. The film is brilliantly funny, whilst also paying tribute to one of the most influential bands in music history. 

In the opening scene to Bohemian Rhapsody it becomes quickly evident that director Bryan Singer has made this film to pay tribute to Queen. This can be taken from the glorious cinematography that frames our protagonist as a rock legend. For example, the long shot where we are following behind Freddie as he makes his way to the stage at the live aid concert, he is always central to the camera so our focus as an audience is always directed towards him. The music in the entire opening sequence is also vital to the whole feel of the scene. The song playing is Somebody To Love, by Queen. This song is such a classic that the majority of any audience would know the song themselves, this would draw them into the film more because it shows them that they’re unknowingly fans of Queen. The song also reaches its peak as the shot swiftly moves from behind Freddie to in front of him so we can see what he sees. This happened because it shows the audience the enormous crowd that Freddie is about to face, it also shows their reaction to seeing the lead singer of Queen, before then cutting to the next scene. Comparing the opening of this scene to the opening of the film Yesterday, they are both completely opposite to each other. This is because in Bohemian Rhapsody we as an audience are shown how much of a rock legend Freddie Mercury is, where as in Yesterday’s opening sequence we see Jack Malik playing good music, but being ignored on the street as he attempts busking in a montage of different locations. We then see Jack finish this montage performing a very small gig in a bar. During this scene the sound is cleverly used to make the sound of people talking and murmuring in the background louder than Jacks song. They then proceed to not clap or even acknowledge that he has finished performing when he stops playing his song. Doing this shows us how under appreciated Jack currently is in his career. The direct contrast between the two films in their opening scenes is there for that we start the film Bohemian Rhapsody seeing our protagonist at the top of his career, and then in Yesterday we see our protagonist at the very bottom of his career, ready to give up on his dreams. 

The next scene of Bohemian Rhapsody takes us back to 1970 where we see our Protagonist looking very normal, and working throwing baggage from planes to trucks. This scene makes Freddie Mercury appear a lot more like Jack does in the beginning of Yesterday.  The costume in this scene is vital because of its direct contrast to his costume in the last scene. In the last scene he was wearing bright colours, along with sunglasses, and an arm band. All things that point towards him being a rock star, but then in this next scene we see a disturbing reality of Freddie with messy hair, wearing dim clothes covered by a high vis vest. We then hear one of his co workers rudely refer to him as “packi” when Freddie misses a suitcase. We then hear the song Yesterday by Smile start as we see our protagonist at the bus stop. This song is brilliantly chosen as the lyrics “yesterday, my life was in ruins” perfectly sums up the current plot of the film as we know it. It also shows to any audience that knows nothing about Queen, that what we just saw of Freddie wasn’t just his imagination, but rather reality, and hints at the fact that we are currently in a flashback. As this is a film about music, the songs chosen must be perfect for the setting the characters are in. This is because the main audience for this film will be music fanatics, and so in order to keep them interested it is vital for the film to come with an amazing playlist, mostly consisting of songs by Queen. Bryan Singer cleverly works Queens full songs into the film without simply just showing us a music video as if it were a documentary. For example, when we first hear the song Rock You by Queen, we start the song watching the lead guitarist of the band demonstrate his idea for the song to the rest of the band. This then transitions to the band performing the song in front of a live audience. Doing this gives the songs the amount of screen time they deserve, whilst also keeping the audience interested.

The historical aspects of this film are vital as the film looks to educate the audience, whilst also entertaining them. They cleverly sum up all of Freddie Mercury’s past in the space of one scene where the band is having lunch with Freddie’s family, and his Mother and Father are educating the band and the audience on how Freddie Mercury ended up in London from India, and what his childhood was like. This is very different to the film yesterday, because in Yesterday Danny Boyle didn’t need to be historically accurate as this is a fictional film where history has been changed. Where as Brian Singer needed to keep Bohemian Rhapsody as historically accurate as he could, seeing as he wanted to educate his audience whilst also keeping them entertained. When directly comparing Bohemian Rhapsody to Yesterday, it is important to note that Yesterday is far more fictional than Bohemian Rhapsody. This is because Bohemian Rhapsody is for the most part Historically accurate, whilst Yesterday is a completely made up story with the only elements of truth stemming from the actual Beatles music we hear throughout the film.

Bryan Singers interpretation of this film is brilliantly done technologically speaking. This is because the editing of the film allows for a modern style of film with reference to how a music video would be filmed back in the 70s and 80s. For example, during the scene where we see small snippets of Queens tour of America, rather than just simply having it listed on screen where they are as we journey through America with them, we instead have the words fly towards us in this big bold neon writing. It is small touches like this with the editing of the film that brings a lot of nostalgia to its main audience. The primary audience for this film is people that grew up whilst Queen were first relevant. This doesn’t mean that a younger audience can’t still enjoy it though. For example, the amount of people listening to Queen went up massively after the films very successful release. This is because the film gained Queen more listeners, from the film having such a wide range of audiences. The reason this film was also able to attract a younger audience to watch it was because a lot of teens know who Queen are, and listen to them a occasionally, but they don’t truly know the history of what Freddie Mercury went through with his problems with drugs, being bisexual at a time when it’s frowned upon, and the issues that come with being as overly famous as he was. Not knowing about all of this makes for an intriguing plot line where a younger audience doesn’t know what to expect. The target audience for Yesterday would have been the exact same as the audience for Bohemian Rhapsody. This is because the film has so many Beatles songs in it which is what will have attracted the older audience, whilst also having an exciting fictional storyline, which is what will have attracted the younger members of the audience. 

Danny Boyle’s interpretation of this film was very different to how Brian Singer would have interpreted the film. This is evident in that when you watch Bohemian Rhapsody, the film is centred around the amazing music that Queen produced, where as when you watch Yesterday, you can see that the film is grounded by the relationship between Jack and his love interest Ellie; whilst the music is simply a perfect addition to this feel good film. In saying that, this doesn’t mean that this film isn’t also a beautiful tribute to The Beatles. During the scene where Jack first plays the song Yesterday to Ellie and his friends, we are sat in a perfect setting, it’s early evening on a summers day, there are kids playing together, and Jack has just been gifted a new guitar. We also have a genius piece of cinematography where we have a high angle wide shot of the full set, where we can see happy family’s, beautiful scenery, all the while listening to one of the Beatles most calming songs. All of this combined together makes it impossible fir you to not have an appreciation for the Beatles music. Bryan Singer similarly does this in Bohemian Rhapsody during the scene where we see the perfect recreation of the live aid concert. How he forces the audience to enjoy the music no matter what is done slightly differently. Rather than having a perfect calming scene that relaxes the audience, he instead had a build up prior to this scene where it made the audience unsure as to whether or not Freddie would be able to perform at his best. This means that when he actually started to perform and he sounded amazing, it took the audience by a wishful surprise, which in turn will have given them that sense of relief.

In conclusion Brian Singers interpretation of Bohemian Rhapsody, whilst it is trying to be more historically accurate than Dannie Boyle’s fictional film yesterday, does contain a lot of similarities to the film. This is simply because both films work so hard to try and give the songs the appreciation that they deserve. The way that the have the songs be introduced to the audience is so brilliantly done that it’s almost impossible to not enjoy the music that you listen to.