At two hours and 15 minutes, Bohemian Rhapsody is certainly not a short movie, but there
are still a stack of amazing songs and scenes that were cut from the final film.
Yippee-ki-yay, movie lovers, it's Jan here and in this video I'm revealing and explaining
seven cool scenes and songs deleted from the new Queen biopic!
Keep watching to the end to find out why the filmmakers cut some of the epic Live Aid finale
and make sure you subscribe and also leave a comment about the movie for a chance to
win one of these cool Bohemian Rhapsody merch packs.
While early scenes in the movie show us how Freddie Mercury first met and formed a band
with guitarist Brian May and drummer Roger Taylor, there was another scene filmed that
we never got to see and that was how bass guitarist John Deacon became part of the group.
Tim Staffell was Smile's original lead singer and bassist, and in the film he quits the
band the same night that Freddie meets Brian and Roger.
There's a line where Brian asks Freddie if he also plays the bass, which he doesn't,
and then there was meant to be a follow-up scene showing how the band found their new
bassist, John Deacon.
Actor Joe Mazzello, who plays Deacon, says they shot a proper introduction for his character,
where he was approached by Queen to join the band while he was at work soldering.
I can see why the scene ended up getting scrapped in order to keep the story moving forward,
but Mazzello says he wished the scene had made it into the film as he feels it shows
what an "accidental rock star" Deacon was.
In real life, Queen had several bass guitarists before student of electronics John Deacon
met May and Taylor at a social event in early 1971 and shortly after successfully auditioned
for the band.
Throughout Queen's history, Deacon has been regarded as the quieter, more reserved bandmate,
and he retired from the music business in the late 1990s.
In the movie, when Queen first meet their new manager John Reid, he tells the band what
he can do for them, including getting them on the radio, then maybe the TV show Top of
the Pops, and if that goes well, a promotional tour of Japan.
Cut to the band singing Killer Queen on Top of the Pops, followed by a montage of stage
performances which includes a little bit of footage from the Japan tour.
But Ben Hardy, who plays Roger Taylor, has said there's an additional deleted scene set
in Japan which features the band playing the song '39, and it was actually one of Hardy's
favourite days on set.
'39, which appeared on Queen's fourth album A Night At The Opera, tells the story of a
space traveller who goes on a year-long journey but when he returns, discovers many more years
have actually passed and his loved ones have died.
The song was written and sung on the album by Brian May, but in live performances, Freddie
usually led the vocals.
After the charismatic frontman died, however, Brian has often sung it as part of a tribute
to Freddie, and I suspect in Bohemian Rhapsody the song was meant to foreshadow in some way
what would happen when Freddie passed away.
I imagine the song was eventually discarded from the film though as there was still so
much to cover in Queen's story at this point.
By the way, in reality, Queen had already toured Japan and appeared on Top of the Pops
before John Reid became their manager in late 1975, though they did tour Japan again in
1976, this time under Reid's management as part of their A Night At the Opera tour.
Indeed, as you might expect of a movie, much of Bohemian Rhapsody plays fast and loose
with Queen's real-life story and I talk more about that in my other video; I'll link at
the end and in the video description.
A famous bit of Queen history that was cut from the film was how Freddie Mercury composed
the catchy, Elvis tribute song Crazy Little Thing Called Love in just 10 minutes on the
guitar at the same time as he was in the bath!
Rami Malek did shoot that scene, which sounds like it would have been a fun little moment
in the movie, but it ended up getting the chop.
Based on the movie's soundtrack album, it looks like the scene was meant to appear between
the tour scene featuring the song 'Now I'm Here' and the scene where Freddie shows Mary
Austin video of the crowd singing 'Love Of My Life' on the band's recent tour.
Freddie Mercury's wilder side is alluded to in Bohemian Rhapsody with several scenes of
his partying, however, the movie keeps things strictly PG-13.
According to Allen Leech, who plays Paul Prenter, though, the snippets we see in the film of
Freddie visiting the Meatpacking district in New York, and specifically the gay bar
and sex club Mineshaft, were originally part of a longer, separate scene which also continued
outside the club.
In the final film, clips of the Mineshaft scene are intercut with scenes of the band
in the studio recording Another One Bites The Dust.
The filmmakers haven't said why they cut this scene, but Brian May and Roger Taylor were
producers on the film and have spoken previously about how they were keen for the movie in
general to really emphasise Freddie's musical talent over other aspects of his life which
have so often been the focus of tabloid gossip.
Lucy Boynton, who plays Mary Austin, has said that several of the scenes she shares with
Malek's Freddie Mercury were trimmed in the final film in order to keep the story moving
forward at a decent pace.
Also cut from the Mary and Freddie scenes is how Mercury came up with Queen's logo and
more on why he renamed the band from "Smile" to "Queen."
There's a remnant of this moment in the final film where Freddie and Mary talk about the
meaning of the new name "Queen", however, what was chopped out is how Freddie came up
with the band's famous emblem.
So we missed out on Freddie explaining that Queen's logo is made up of the band members'
zodiac signs.
There's 2 lions, one for Roger Taylor and another for John Deacon, who are both Leos;
a crab for Brian May's sign, Cancer; and two fairies for Freddie's sign, Virgo.
Freddie placed those together with the letter Q which contained a crown, and topped it all
off with a Phoenix.
While the need to keep up the pace of the movie means casual fans might not realise
the emblem's origins, hardcore fans at least will doubtless have noticed the brief glimpse
we got of Freddie's sketchbook with various potential designs he was working on.
Two of the movie's highlights are when the band records Bohemian Rhapsody together in
the studio and the film's climax when they perform an incredible set at Live Aid.
What we hear in the movie during that big on-stage sequence is Bohemian Rhapsody, Radio
Ga-Ga, an Ay-Oh crowd singalong, Hammer to Fall, and We Are The Champions.
Now, if you're a big Queen fan, you'll know that, in real life, the band also performed
another two songs at Wembley that day: Crazy Little Thing Called Love and We Will Rock
You.
And Rami Malek and his co-stars did actually film the whole of that roughly 20-minute Live
Aid set, including those two songs.
However, as the film was running long and We Will Rock You had already appeared earlier,
it didn't make the final cut.
I suspect Crazy Little Thing Called Love was cut from this part of the film for the same
reason, however, because the filmmakers also ended up cutting the scene where Mercury composes
that song, in the end, Crazy Little Thing Called Love was missing from the movie.
Interestingly, the Live Aid sequence was the first thing they shot, so Malek and his fellow
actors were really thrown in at the deep end, which makes it even more amazing that they
did such an outstanding job bringing that massive event to life.
And let's face it, Malek and co certainly had a lot to live up to as Queen's performance
that day has frequently been labelled one of the greatest live rock performances ever.
I don't know about you, but I'd have happily watched the cast perform both Crazy Little
Thing Called Love and We Will Rock You again during that final sequence, so fingers crossed
that we get to see the full version of the Live Aid gig on the Blu-ray.
Now, do you think any of these deleted scenes or songs should have been in the movie?
And what did you like best about the film?
Let me know what you think in the comments below and remember to subscribe for a chance
to win one of these cool Bohemian Rhapsody merch packs.
Tap left to learn about the biggest changes Bohemian Rhapsody made to the real story of
Queen or tap right for another video you're sure to like.
Let me know if you enjoyed this and a thumbs-up or a share is hugely appreciated.
Thanks for watching and see ya next time.
Yippee-ki-yay, movie lovers!