Watch Queen’s ‘Bohemian Rhapsody’ Interpreted as a Four-Minute Crime Film
Queen's "Bohemian Rhapsody" has been interpreted as many things over the past 40 years, including a Broadway musical, a comedy centerpiece and a Muppet fantasy. Now someone has taken the song to its most literal level.
In a new four-minute short film titled "Literal Bohemian Rhapsody," the six-minute song plays out, scene by scene, chronicling every detail in the 1975 song written by Queen singer Freddie Mercury.
"Is this the real life? Is this just fantasy? Caught in a landslide, no escape from reality," begins a hard-boiled narrator as the film opens on the bleeding protagonist, gun in hand as police sirens blare in the distance.
For the next five minutes, "Bohemian Rhapsody"'s familiar story unspools in front of us: gunshots, confessions ("Mama, I just killed a man") and a showdown with the cops that incorporates the song's famous opera section. Spoiler alert: Brian May's awesome guitar solo figures into the short film's plot too, as the police open fire on the doomed suspect.
You can watch the video above.
"Bohemian Rhapsody" was the centerpiece of Queen's A Night at the Opera album and a No. 1 single in the U.K. The song originally hit No. 9 in the U.S., but when it was reissued in 1992 after its use in the Wayne's World soundtrack, it climbed to No. 2.
The video for the song has also become a pop-culture touchstone over the years, a widely parodied and honored clip that's been recreated as both Star Wars and Muppets tributes, among dozens of others. This new literal take is the first to really explore the song's dark theme.
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