I’m not sure I’ve got the preferred approach for Cafe society spoilers is, but I’ll add a few lines and hope that does it.
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I went and saw this today, and I really liked it. (I’m a massive fan of Queen FYI).
What I find interesting is that I read a review beforehand suggesting that the movie was likeable but a bit mealymouthed, as key issues like band disharmony and Freddie’s homosexuality was whitewashed. I couldn’t disagree more. Sure it wasn’t a masterpiece of cinema, but I think some sort of hard hitting down in the gutter drama is the only thing that would have kept some of the critics happy.
I personally thought it was a well-made movie and Rami Malek was scarily good as Freddie. I highly recommend anyone go see it, and if you’re a Queen fan it’s a definite must see.
I’m excited to see this and am glad to hear it wasn’t given the heavy-handed Hollywood overly dramatic treatment. Not every bio-pic about musicians has to be a journey from humble beginnings to a meteoric rise to fame to a dramatic crash from excess.
A more realistic light handed approach is appreciated.
I also am looking forward to seeing this movie. My husband and I were teenagers when Queen became popular. After seeing the trailer the other night, my husband and I discussed how we had no idea Freddie Mercury was gay when we were kids! We were oblivious to it - even the name of the group wasn’t a clue for us. We all thought it had something to do with the Queen of England since that’s where they were from! It makes me laugh to think of that now…how naive :o
Then we thought none of them were, and the name was just just a rock n roll FU name. Like, “I dare ya to call us gay!”
And Elton John was definitely NOT gay. He had a wife and everything!
Adam Ant was certainly gay, and Rob Halford was most certainly not. It was not even a rumor. No way a top-tier heavy metal band would have a gay singer!
Life was different without the internet to look things up.
When I was 10 years old in 1980 my older sister had bought the new Queen- The Game album right when it came out. She played it a lot and I would listen and read along to the lyrics on the album sleeve.
I went to a Catholic grade school and was pretty shy and one day on the playground I heard a couple of older 7th graders talking about this cool new song they heard called “Another One Bites the Dust”. For whatever reason I blurted out “I know all the words to that one!”
The older 7th grader then called a bunch of his friends around and said “Can you sing the whole song for us?”
So my 10 year-old self meagerly sang Another One Bites the Dust word-for-word to a bunch of older kids on the playground of St. Mary’s Catholic School in 1980.
I felt pretty cool that day.
I have read in some reviews that the remaining members of the band basically dump all the band’s problems on Freddie since he is no longer alive to say it isn’t true and present themselves as saints since they has final say on the music rights so they had leverage. I don’t know how true that is but I had seen it in several places.
Given that Brian and Roger are still very active publicly and musically, and have been so for the 27 years since Freddie’s death – if they had an axe to grind with Freddie, I think they would have already done so long before now. But, they have largely been tremendously respectful of him, and complimentary to him, all along. Yes, Freddie could be difficult, but all of them could, and they always managed to remain good friends. (John has been entirely removed from public life for decades, so his POV on any of this is unknown.)
I’m a big Queen fan, but I have no illusions about any of them being saints. I’m going to see the film next Friday, so now I’m curious to see if there is anything to what you’re saying. (Do you have any links to reviews saying this?)
I was a high school senior, on the newspaper staff, and our football team had a zero-wins record so far that season when the sports writer used that phrase as a headline for a story about them.
Not long afterwards, “Weird Al” Yankovic released his debut single, “Another One Rides The Bus.” Who could have guessed that he was more than just a one-hit novelty act?
In the trailer I saw, it looks like the movie attempts to recreate Queen’s '85 Live Aid set. Talk about big shoes to fill. I hope the actor portraying Freddie has pipes!
And yet if you look at old Judas Priest pictures, Halford looks like he came straight from the Village People. Yet the thought never crossed my mind, either.
Some of the reviews I read said it’s not a Hollywood heavy-handed movie, but instead it’s a Hollywood paint by numbers movie, very much in the vein of the parody movie Walk Hard (which is a hilarious movie, I do recommend it.) One review:
I’ve read a few other reviews that mention Walk Hard, one that said it does do the Hollywood formula so much that it goes back around to being funny, which honestly gets me a little more interested.
I haven’t read that Freddie is the cause of all the problems, but I have read multiple times that their manager/Freddie’s lover Paul Prenter is the villain of the movie, and he is someone who is dead and can’t sue the movie.
I don’t think Brian and Roger have an axe to grind against Freddie, I’m sure they were all truly friends and they miss him and hold him in high esteem. But I do think that they think they don’t get enough acclaim because Freddie overshadows them. Sacha Baron Cohen was originally going to play Freddie, and he said that the band’s idea was that Freddie would die halfway through the movie and the rest of the movie would be about how the band managed after he was gone. That’s not necessarily a bad movie, but I’m pretty sure it’s not the movie that most people would want to see.
I am interested to see what everyone thinks of it. The trailer got me very interested in seeing it, but biopic movies can be a mess in so many ways, and the behind the scenes drama made me think the movie might not be good, but I do enjoy Queen’s music and love Rami Malek.
Tonight, I’m gonna have myself a real good time. I feel ali-i-i-ive.
Looking forward to this movie. Queen is great. But I have a Halloween party tonight, and another movie I’ve been looking forward to for longer than this one. I’ll see this one, too. Looking forward to hearing the music and seeing the story. Freddie had a fantastic voice.
Don’t stop me now! Because I’m havin’ a good time, I don’t want to stop at all.
Let’s just say that the Daily Mail is sensationalist – I’m guessing that’s its their use of “recluse” to describe Deacon in the headline of that article that you’re objecting to.
And, yes, he’s chosen to live a comfortable – and extremely quiet – retirement. Even when he was active with the group, he was always very quiet, and I always suspected that he wasn’t terribly comfortable in the spotlight.
He is still, in fact, a member of / co-owner of the band. Whenever Brian and Roger embark on any new activities using the band’s name or music, they get John’s approval (and John reviews the band’s finances). Brian and Roger also always extend an invitation to John to rejoin the group when they go on tour or produce new music, offers which he’s consistently turned down for the past 20 years.
It also sounds like Brian and Rogers have very little actual contact with John these days (other than business dealings), as Roger has said that John has “completely retired from any kind of social contact.”
So, recluse? Maybe not. The man may well be a regular at the local pub, having a pint with his neighbors (though he also might well never leave the house). But, very private? Definitely.
In the Motley Crue bio “The Dirt”, they talk about meeting Rob Halford before touring with Judas Priest as their opening act, and all of them first thought, “‘Man, this dude must get all the chicks.’ Little did we know.” If you look at old pictures of Styx, it’s also really obvious that their bassist, Chuck Panozzo, is also gay, but we weren’t looking for that kind of thing back then, I guess. His autobiography is on recommended reading lists for LGBT teenagers and those who care about them.
His discussion about Styx itself is minimal, mainly just because it’s the reason the book exists in the first place. It’s mostly about what it was like for him growing up gay in an Italian Catholic family in the 50s and 60s, and later being that way in the world of 1970s arena rock, and after that his diagnosis with AIDS in the early 1990s.
p.s. I heard that Sasha Baron Cohen was originally cast as Freddie Mercury. Is that true?
