"Bohemian Rhapsody" (2018) is a biographical drama about Queen and Freddie Mercury, and while it's based on real people and real events, it is not a strictly accurate account — it takes significant creative liberties and compresses, reorders, or invents events for dramatic effect.
Some things the film gets broadly right: Queen's formation, their rise to fame, the recording of the actual "Bohemian Rhapsody" song and album, Freddie Mercury's flamboyant stage persona, his relationship with Mary Austin, and the band's legendary performance at Live Aid in 1985.
However, historians and band members themselves have pointed out numerous inaccuracies:
- Timeline compression/alteration: The film suggests the band broke up before Live Aid and reunited for it — this never happened; Queen never split up.
- HIV diagnosis timing: The movie implies Freddie was diagnosed with HIV/AIDS before Live Aid (1985) and told the band beforehand. In reality, he wasn't diagnosed until 1987, two years after that concert.
- Songwriting details: Some songs are shown being written in ways that don't match the actual creative process or timeline (e.g., "We Will Rock You" and "Another One Bites the Dust" are depicted out of chronological order or with altered creative origins).
- Character portrayals: Manager Paul Prenter and others are portrayed with dramatized, sometimes exaggerated negative traits. Freddie's solo career motivations and personal relationships are also simplified or altered.
- Combined characters: Some individuals in Freddie's life are composites or altered for narrative simplicity.
Brian May and Roger Taylor, surviving Queen members, were heavily involved as producers, which shaped the story to favor the band's legacy and Live Aid triumph as a narrative climax — a choice made for emotional impact rather than strict documentary accuracy.
In short: the broad strokes (the band, the music, Freddie's talent and struggles, Live Aid) are real, but many specific scenes, timelines, and personal details are dramatized or fictionalized for storytelling purposes.