DVD Review: Queen - Greatest Video Hits
Eagle Vision
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| Queen - Greatest Video Hits 2012 |
Donning a studded, black leather jacket in the video to
Queen’s “Crazy Little Thing Called Love,” Freddie Mercury vamped around the
air-brushed set like a cabaret version of Marlon Brando from “The Wild One,”
strutting down a runway with a smoldering quartet of sexy male and female
dancers in tow. In paying homage to rock ‘n’ roll’s envelope-pushing past, the
always dramatic Mercury cut a very Elvis-like figure, coyly straddling that
line between innocent, fun romanticism and explicit sexuality – much as Elvis
did.
Where the King was only filmed from the waist up in certain
TV performances, Mercury and his “Crazy Little Thing Called Love” playmates
only hinted at the lascivious desires boiling up inside of them. Two years
later, when Queen needed a visual accompaniment to “Body Language,” Mercury –
largely responsible for the video’s steamy content – held nothing back, letting
all of his deepest, darkest sexual impulses loose in a writhing orgy of sweaty
skin and nubile bodies . As Roger Taylor and Brian May reveal in the
surprisingly candid commentary included with “Greatest Video Hits,” the engrossing
new compilation of Queen videos from Eagle Vision, the racy imagery was reflective
of Mercury’s extreme nature and his increasingly reckless immersion in a
homosexual subculture that laughed at prudish convention. And while that side
of Mercury’s life may have provided titillating fodder for tabloid
exploitation, there was more – much more, in fact – to Queen’s ever-evolving marriage
of musical and visual artistry than stylized carnal fantasies, as “Greatest
Video Hits” so magnificently illustrates.
Spread across two discs, this collection gathers 33 of
Queen’s most inspired cinematic adventures – “Flash” and “A Kind of Magic,”
influenced by the movie “Highlander,” being two of the most brilliant – vividly
restored and fit into a widescreen format with remixed sound. There’s the
lighthearted comedic romp “I Want To Break Free,” an infamous cross-dressing
parody of the British soap opera “Coronation Street” directed by David Mallet
that was banned by MTV, and the highly conceptual “Under Pressure” and “Radio
Ga Ga,” which mixed vintage shots of Queen’s past and scenes from the visionary
1927 science-fiction film “Metropolis.” Evidence of Queen’s cheeky nature is
found in “Bicycle Race,” featuring clips of comely naked lasses riding
10-speeds around a track without a care in the world, while the simple,
straight-forward performance video of Queen playing “Hammer To Fall,” “Killer
Queen,””Friends Will Be Friends” and “Another One Bites the Dust” – in all its
grainy 16mm glory – remind one and all of the power and majesty of Queen’s
prowess as a captivating, dynamic live band.
And we’re just scratching the surface here. Iconic videos of
“We Will Rock You,” “We Are the Champions,” “Bohemian Rhapsody” and, of course,
the aforementioned “Crazy Little Thing Called Love” are included, as well as
later works from when Queen tried to hold it together through May’s marital
problems and Mercury’s disintegrating health, such “Breakthru,” which sees the
foursome enduring a rather dangerous ride atop a train, and the joyously
adorable “The Miracle,” with young children enthusiastically mimicking the
roles of May, Mercury, Taylor and John Deacon.
These treasures alone would make “Greatest Video Hits”
essential viewing, although what renders it priceless is that savagely honest
and witty commentary track. So full of great anecdotes, unflinching opinions
and rare insights, it goads May and Taylor into discussing the unvarnished
truth behind every single video and song in the collection. Taking viewers
behind the curtain, they are brutal when assessing “Scandal,” with Taylor
admitting he was bored silly while making both the song and the video and May
wishing it would have been more substantive considering how emotionally
invested he was in the subject matter – namely, how gossip and rumor can damage
not only reputations, but lives as well, as his was by the English press. Even
more scathing when the subject turns to the staging of the ridiculously decadent
“It’s a Hard Life,” May and Taylor can’t help chuckling at how “stupid” they
look in ostentatious costuming that made a horse of Taylor and a colorful bird
of paradise of Mercury. Even Queen, evidently, knew when things had gone too
far.
Providing the perfect coda to “Greatest Video Hits” is the
rousing anthem “One Vision.” Directed by Austrians Rudi Dolezal and Hannes
Rossacher, the video is memorable for its innovative morphing of Queen’s famed 1975
pose from “Bohemian Rhapsody” into an updated portrait of the band in 1985, but,
in “fly on the wall” fashion, it also peeks in on recording sessions for the
track at Musicland Studios. While May remembers the sort of bunker atmosphere
of the place being rather drab and depressing, the guitarist points out how
galvanizing the song was for the band and what a unifying message it had for
fans, as well. Even if it’s not entirely thorough – the videos for “Innuendo”
and “The Show Must Go On” are missing – “Greatest Video Hits” is, in a sense, a
similar vehicle for that communal vibe May found so appealing. Watch them all
and bask in the warm Queen-related nostalgia that, chances are, someone else is
also experiencing in a place that, suddenly, doesn’t feel so far, far away.
-
Peter Lindblad
