Looking at the last year in film, some of the most popular movies at the box office are all biopics (biographical movies)–Beautiful Boy, Green Book, BlacKkKlansman, and Mary Queen of Scots. Don’t forget Bohemian Rhapsody, the story of rock band Queen and lead singer Freddie Mercury. While all of these movies have received wide recognition, awards nominations, and a fair amount of profit, Bohemian Rhapsody did exceptionally well at the 76th Annual Golden Globes on Jan. 6, 2019.
The award for Best Performance by an Actor in a Motion Picture Drama was taken by Bohemian Rhapsody’s lead actor Rami Malek for his role as Freddie Mercury, to which he mentioned the late performer, saying “Thank you…for giving me the joy of the lifetime. I love you, you beautiful man. This is for and because of you, gorgeous.”
Graham King, a producer on the film, accepted the night’s biggest award, Best Motion Picture Drama, on behalf of the film. However, the absence of initial director Bryan Singer, who was fired mid-production, was one of the most noticeable aspects of this win. Singer himself said he left the production during filming to take care of an ailing family member–however, The Hollywood Reporter reported that this decision came shortly after Singer missed multiple days of work and instigated verbal altercations with Malek and production team members. Singer has been the subject of multiple sexual abuse lawsuits filed in 1997, 2014 and 2017. It appears that all of these lawsuits involved minors. Many of the cases were dropped, either for insufficient evidence or withdrawn by the accuser. The most recent lawsuit was filed just days after Singer left Bohemian Rhapsody. He is still officially credited as the director of the film.
So what is it about a biopic that we love so much that we can ignore someone’s involvement? Do we watch biopics because we are so invested in other people’s lives and their own adversity? I’d like to think that it’s a human fascination and investment in the real lives of other people. We want people to do well, to succeed and to be happy. And a biopic can reveal those stories in a way that’s both truthful and maybe even hopeful.
Chilean director Pablo Larraín is well-known for his work on the 2016 films Neruda and Jackie, both biopics. In a 2016 interview with Rolling Stone, Larraín describes making a biopic as an art form that is almost “dangerous” because it’s main goal is to capture the life of a real person, whether living or dead. “You need to create a poetic mood rather than just having actors recite somebody’s words in a film. You need to feel life in them. Because, otherwise, you risk being everything from tacky to stupid to irrelevant…to all those other words you want to avoid being called,” Larraín said.
Bohemian Rhapsody did indeed capture Freddie Mercury as a real person; one with struggles and dynamic emotions and all of the drama that a viewer watches for. I personally saw the film multiple times and each time I couldn’t help but think about Singer’s involvement. I wanted to fully enjoy the movie, as I had grown up listening to Queen and felt a genuine investment in the project for some of the cast members and producers, but I couldn’t shake the feeling that I was supporting a director who I couldn’t understand. Maybe it’s the same human characteristics that make us watch biopics. We want people to do their very best, and when they stumble, we feel disappoint both for and with them.
At the end of the day, people will watch the movies they want to, just as people will consume news from biased sources or listen and support problematic rappers (XXXTentacion). It comes as no surprise that there’s plenty of room to debate Bohemian Rhapsody and its inclusion in the current awards season. As consumers, we have a responsibility to think about what we’re paying attention to and who we’re supporting through that. Viewers may want to consider whether Singer’s involvement was a hindrance to the telling of Queen’s story. For the purposes of the biopic, maybe an inspiring or uplifting story can distract from the outside world in a way that feels almost fundamental. But in regards to our societal support, I encourage people to do their own research.
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