Freddie Mercury, the Untold Story

This is not the untold story. It's the story that should NEVER have been told.

I love Mercury and Queen. This doc is a piece of crap.

So boring it will put you to sleep.

Not one iota of insight.

And the background music is simply dreadful. Garbage.

This is by far one of the best documentaries of Freddie Mercury I have ever seen. It takes you through a detailed account of his life, from his birth in Zanzibar, through his time in boarding school, finding a love for Performing Arts, Art, Music as well as a whole host of things he was interested in. You are taken through his whole life, with comments from his close long-term friends, lovers, family, and band members as well as old school friends and colleagues. The story takes you through the last days and moments of his life. There is plenty of footage of Queen and plenty of Queen tunes played throughout the documentary. It is a great rock documentary dedicated to the one and only Freddie Mercury and I highly recommend it.

Yours Sincerely,

Neville Cawas Bardoliwalla OBE

Let me begin by saying, I am a huge fan of Queen and Freddie Mercury, so I enjoyed "FM, the Untold Story". This rule applies to all fans. I don't want to spoil things, and say much about the content of the documentary, because I'll let you discover it for yourself.

For those of you who aren't huge fans, you may need some convincing. There's no question that this is probably the most up to date documentary that details Freddie Mercury,- right from the beginning of his life in Africa, to growing up in India, to manhood in England, and from there on then, ultimately the champion of the rock world.

If you want a documentary on Queen, then watch Magical Years volumes I, II, and III. If you want to learn and understand more about Freddie Mercury, then this is a great place to start. He was a man with artistic visions, who fitted the times, who had ideas, and was most of all, able to articulate this to the world. He entertained, and did an excellent job of it.

The problem I found with this documentary was, that it kept jumping back and forward. One minute they were discussing life in India, the next minute you had clips of Freddie performing Opera. That in some way, lost it's flow. On top of that, there's not many full length clips of Freddie performing, and nor is there many clips of Freddie actually talking.

At moments the documentary gets a little lengthy, yet there are some touching moments nonetheless.

This is a review of 'Freddy Mercury The Untold Story,' theatrical release, Chicago Int. Film Festival, 2007 One of the phoniest, uninspired and most tedious biographical documentaries I have seen. If the film I saw in a movie theater was originally released on TV, I would plead with its producers and distributors to not fool a paying audience with the false promise of a cinematically worthy documentary feature. Even as a made-for-TV documentary, the sentimental piano solos accompanying interviewees sitting in front of flower arrangements in hotel rooms and the pompous, pseudo-literary narration rang more true of a sleepapedic bed Infomercial. The only redeeming aspects of this "The Untold Story of Freddy Mercury" -- or, uhm, was it "The Untold Story of Princess Diana" are the original concert, video and TV footage -- unabridged Freddy Mercury and Queen. Testimonial interviews with irrelevant eye witnesses with insights, such as: "He was a free spirit," (really.. I thought Freddy Mercury was a company man...) belittle those Freddy testimonials, by Brian May or Montserrat Caballe that shed new and affectionate light into Mercury's complex life and character. And... what up with the Harry Potter-like boarding school segments? How did the interview with the first girl-crush ("...who now works in a travel agency") and members of Freddy's first school band contribute to what I really want to know about Mercury? Vital milestones of his personal life, his sexuality, his artistic style and growth, Queen, the band remain unexplored. These filmmakers don't ask a single, provocative question, nor do they engage in independent or visionary research of their subject, instead delivering a tedious montage of politely clean and vastly empty comments about an enigmatic and brilliant rock legend, who doesn't deserve to be remembered by this History Channel biography your grandparents can doze off to on a Sunday night.

Freddie Mercury The Untold Story is by far one of the best documentaries on the singer I have ever seen, if not THE best. It takes you through a detailed account of his life, from his birth in Zanzibar, through his time in boarding school, finding a love for Performing Arts, Art, Music as well as a whole host of things he was interested in. You are taken through his whole life, with comments from his close long-term friends, lovers, family, and band members as well as old school friends and colleagues. The story takes you through the last days and moments of his life, and shows his strength and determination, as well as love of everything around him. Have the tissues ready, as you're almost guaranteed to shed a tear at the end of it!