Eagle Vision
All Access Review: A
Striding slowly across the stage in 1986, draped in a royal
velvet robe with a gold crown on top of his head, Freddie Mercury, his head slightly
tilted back, certainly bore a regal countenance. Preening to a packed stadium
crowd, his arms spread wide in an ostentatious display of kingly arrogance,
Mercury addressed his subjects, numbering in the thousands. As the waves of
adulation began to subside at one of Queen’s final concerts, Mercury, laughing
and smiling as if he didn’t have a care in the world, playfully places the
crown on Roger Taylor’s head, as if abdicating his throne. To everyone, he
looked as healthy as a horse. In secret, Mercury was already battling AIDS, and
perhaps on some level, he knew then that he was inescapably doomed.
“I think he had an idea that he was not terribly well,” says
Taylor, in between shots of the exultant audience, their arms raised to heaven
in praise of Queen and the extravagant, theatrical rock and roll spectacle they
were about to witness. That bit of foreshadowing from Taylor sets the stage for
a moving narrative on Mercury’s last days and the touching elegy for this electric
performer that encompasses much of Episode 2 of “Days of Our Lives,” an
authoritative, engrossing and emotional two-part DVD documentary on Queen released
on the last day of 2011, the 40th anniversary of Queen’s birth. “Days
of Our Lives” originally aired in May on BBC in the U.K. over two nights. The
DVD release, also available on Blu-Ray with loads more (almost an hour’s worth
of interviews and additional scenes) bonus material, includes Episodes 1 and 2,
plus a clutch of seven newly created videos for some of Queen’s greatest hits
and deleted footage that make for absolutely essential viewing.
It’s a ripping yarn, this tale. Told chronologically by
longtime fans Rhys Thomas and Simon Lupton, with Matt Casey directing, “Days of
Our Lives” neatly cleaves Queen’s career in two parts, the first spanning
1970-1980 and the second picking right up where The Game leaves off, forging straight on through the inner turmoil
of Hot Space and Mercury’s tragic
death, and then arriving in the present, where Mercury’s shadow still looms over
the lives of the three remaining members. New interviews with Taylor and Brian
May, who are both refreshingly open and honest about the excesses and
infighting that threatened to destroy Queen, form the core of “Days of Our
Lives” – interestingly, bassist John Deacon, considered by many to be Queen’s
secret weapon, is conspicuous by his absence, his contributions limited to
found interview footage from long ago. Their commentary, so engaging and
revealing, is patched in smartly amongst seemingly hundreds of clips of blazing,
visceral concert video – including glorious Live Aid and Wembley Stadium
triumphs, and South American soccer arena blowouts, with May and Taylor, as
well as other Queen insiders, reliving the tension and fear arising from their
appearance in totalitarian Argentina – and an abundance of other archival footage,
much of it rare and unreleased. From the scandalous “Bicycle Race” promos
featuring nude women bikers pedaling their ten-speeds to scintillating TV
performances (starting with the band’s first-ever “Top Of The Pops” appearance
from 1974, which hasn’t been seen since then – remembered with mixed feelings
by May and Taylor), scrapbook black-and-white stills from their youth, piles of
interview material and vintage behind-the-scenes film culled from video shoots,
“Days of Our Lives” proves to be the ultimate Queen scrapbook, lovingly
compiled and artfully arranged to serve a captivating story.
“Days of Our Lives” would be an incredibly vital collection
for all that alone were it not for the wealth of colorful anecdotes strewn throughout
its well-ordered contents. By turns devilishly funny – as when former manager
John Reid recalls walking out on Mercury in a restaurant over an interview he
did without Reid’s consent, and Mercury responding by throwing a brick through
Reid’s window and telling Reid, in no uncertain terms, that nobody does that to
him – and crushingly sad, as when Taylor tears up remembering when he heard
that Mercury had died, the documentary is an illustrious history, not given to
hyperbole but ever conscious of Queen’s magnificent accomplishments. Rummaging
through the past, “Days of Our Lives” thoroughly vets all of Queen’s highs and
lows, from the controversial Sun City performance in a South Africa still
segregated by Apartheid to the gross financial mismanagement that nearly sunk
them early on and ultimately, winding up with the bittersweet catharsis that
was the tribute concert for Mercury. Fascinating stories abound, including the
revelation that Deacon forgot the memorable bass line he’d created for “Another
One Bites The Dust” when the band went out for pizza. And, of course, there are
the many remembrances of Mercury the man, courageous in the face of a terminal
disease and a wildly creative workaholic right up to the very end, as he tried
valiantly to squeeze in as many recordings as he could for Queen before passing
on.
Sharply edited so that every scene has an impact, “Days of
Our Lives” runs along at a pace that is quick but not hurried. The story of how
Smile morphed into Queen is fleshed out with just enough detail to whet
appetites for what’s to come, and from there, “Days of Our Lives” segues
seamlessly into the making of Queen I
and II, tracking Queen’s early stages
of growth and development with surprising candor, humor and historical truth.
On the cusp of a breakthrough, Queen kicked down the door with Sheer Heart Attack, and the
sophisticated artistry that designed “Killer Queen” is dissected with scientific
curiosity. The remainder of “Days of Our Lives” walks that fine line between
entertainment and information delivery with relaxed confidence and clarity of
vision, all while somehow controlling a gushing geyser of details related to
Queen’s recording sessions – particular attention being paid to the groundbreaking
multi-tracking techniques and choral-like blending of voices that sounded so
angelic on “Somebody to Love” and a bevy of signature Queen tracks – and other key
moments in the band’s tumultuous life.
Billed as “the definitive documentary of the world’s greatest rock
band,” “Days of Our Lives” is all that and more. And while it is slightly less
audacious than Mercury was onstage, it does capture all the pomp and circumstance
that made Queen a stadium-rock sensation – for proof, see the deft shuffling of
clips of “One Vision” brought to life through May’s cutting riffs and Mercury’s
spine-tingling vocals. At Live Aid, Mercury was in rare form, whipping the
masses into a writhing, joyous state of ecstasy that threatened to lift Wembley
off its foundations. He truly was rock royalty, and so was the classic Queen
lineup. Guaranteed to blow your mind, “Days of Our Lives” is that rare video
biography that’s both grounded in reality and a completely transcendent
experience. Somewhere, Freddie Mercury is smiling.
- Peter Lindblad
