L'Adieu à Freddie Mercury

Queen were a massive pop band with a long string of catchy, distinctive hits, fronted by the extraordinary Freddie Mercury, who sadly died of AIDS. This documentary tells the story of his final years, and of the concert staged to honour his death. In small doses, I love a bit of Queen, but sometimes it seems that the surviving band members do nothing else in their lives these days but milk the nostalgia. Moreover, it seems that Freddie did his dying away from his working; although messars May and Taylor speak sensitively and sympathetically about their bandmate, it's also clear they had minor roles in his "final act." So I liked this documentary, but there's not a lot here that anyone interested won't have been before.

But when a documentary is titled "Final Act", then you'd expect revelatory insights into Freddie's final years & moments alive. Hardly. Instead, what we get are repeats of interviews & snippets that you already would have seen in other documentaries or Youtube. Most of what is portrayed doesn't offer us anything we don't already know.

Sadly, much this documentary also comes off as an apologist act for Freddie's life choices. While feeling sad for his demise, a better balance would be to recognise that he ultimately was a victim of his own decision to live hard and fast and ignore warning signs when HIV began taking off. Freddie lived in the fast lane - like many of his peers in the rock world. Unfortunately, it caught up to him.

This documentary ignores that, choosing instead to focus on the plight of Freddie & other AIDS victims & the negative portrayal of gays associated with the disease. I get that. After 30-40 years of fighting HIV infections and raising awareness, we get it - there are real victims in the cause. But how bout being honest and also admitting that many people - like Freddie - do get AIDS because they ignored the dangers?

In the words of George Michael during Freddie's tribute concert - "...please, for your own sake, be careful..." It appears this documentary ignores that message.

Wouldn't it have been of greater service to Freddie's memory if the documentary actually focused on that? So, if you want a more honest look at the man Freddie Bulsara - warts and all, then watch the movie. Or the BBC documentary "Who Wants To Live Forever".

I won't give any spoilers; just want to write I'm so thankful for this (and trying to find re-air in US) as it felt I learned more about Freddie's truth...

He seemed an angel for me as his music was so excellent; and I thought his bandmates and he were special relationships not many of us are lucky enough to have.

To share their deepest feelings in this doc was proof of the love Brian, Freddie, John, and Roger, and others felt. Truly a great tribute to those we've lost...

I want to add, in the early 90s when in the corp kitchen for morning coffee, the TV blasted that researchers found HIV and/or AIDS was NOT a "gay disease"; dishes clattered to tables and floors and gasps were heard... we all knew we all could fall to these diseases... and those who disparaged "gays" worried the most, I think...

I'll put the header as a warning !!

This whole documentary is an emotional journey . When we look back now at those years and our very blinkered views .

This was a heartwarming tribute to a wonderful singer songwriter that adored life and showed it . Taken far to early through nothing more than loving life

If it doesn't put a lump in your throat and a tear in your eye !!

Queen have been in a lot of documentaries, but this one, about the last years of their frontman, Freddie Mercury, is brilliant. Reports and interviews about the rise and devastation of AIDS are interspersed with Mercury's sad journey of having to hide his illness and homosexuality, then later coming to a degree of acceptance and peace. The interviewee list is illuminating - not just famous people but his sister, friends and house staff. George Michael's cousin gives an interesting insight into how Michael's singing at Mercury's memorial concert was personally significant for Michael. The belated appearance of Axl Rose to duet with Elton John on Bohemian Rhapsody is electrifying. It sounds obvious, but that concert showed just how great a musician Mercury was. And how much he was adored by fans. As a Def Leppard singer points out, though, the early 1990s was a strange time, because there was still a lot of homophobia around, but at the same time, people were starting to come out of the closet. Maybe the doco glosses over the downsides about Freddie's life a bit too much, but it does a decent job, and points out they millions still die of AIDS due to lack of access to drugs, and suffer persecution..