Queen: Hungarian Rhapsody review

MJJLatvia;3724355 said:

So, I watched the Hungarian Rhapsody yesterday.

Few things to notice -

Running time: 2 hours and 10 minutes
Mini documentary before the concert movie: 30 minutes approximately

The mini documentary was something I was obviously looking forward to see. And although I knew all of the story anyway, it was pretty entertaining. It starts off from the Live Aid concert in 1985 and goes to the making of the album and Magic music videos partly as a soundtrack for movie called "Highlander". After that it gradually builds up to the tour and how it started. Included snippets from the huge crowd and We Are The Champions of Mannheim, Germany concert, few Wembley snippets, live in Budapest the Hungarian song snippet but from the front angle (jumbotron?), Hungarian people and city before concert, warmup band on stage before Queen (looked pretty hilarious), Knebworth footage - I think it was One Vision snippet in pro video, then few snippets from the (TV?) cam in the crowd which was HQ shooting stage from far distance and a snippet from the amateur video shooting jumbo screen (makes me think they have no jumbotron footage from this concert). Also there was a stage rehearsal footage (not the same as in the Wembley DVD bonus), I think Freddie had red shirt (possibly I'm wrong, it was such a mashup, I do my best to remember the details). It was pro video with changing angles and they seemed to set up the stage, Brian tuning guitar (?) and something like that. It was very very pixely and compressed though.
There was also footage of Freddie rehearsing the Hungarian song with Brian playing on acoustic guitar (home video?), that's not the rehearsal seen in the movie. + some nice footage of Roger Taylor's 37th birtday party with his cake and knife in hand.
It was all joined through and covered up with various interviews and Freddie telling some significant Mercury-style quotes which I loved.

The concert movie -

Video quality - 9,5/10 (as great as it can get, some shots are slightly more blurry but that is totally fine hence shot on film, overall it was stunning)

Audio seemed to be bassy, some might love that, some not. I liked the 5.1 effect in, for example, Now I'm Here. He sings "Now I'm here" it plays in cinemas right side, "Now I'm there" in left side. So that was nice. Can't comment more on the audio side, excuse my lack of knowledge in this field :/

The concert itself was great. Way better than the famous 2nd night Wembley concert. His voice was in good shape.

Downers -

The cuts -.- Cut verse in Crazy Little Thing Called Love, cut out Another One Bites The Dust and Impromptu. But you can blame this to hungarians who edited this back in 1986 and decided to destroy the rest of the unused footage..

Overdubs. I don't know this concert by heart, but I noticed 2 places which I am 100% sure of because those are what I use to analyse from various Queen concerts.

I was pleased to see a warning before the documentary that quality may vary and it indeed did vary from pretty good to very crappy.

1. The 2nd "The bell that rings" is replaced with same line from another concert, not sure which one as I am not that much of a Queen expert. But I can understand this since originally it sounded a bit sloppy similiar to the Wembley 2nd night's "the bell that rings". http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NLxN0wpFoP8&t=2m35s at 2:36

2. Under Pressure. The part "higher higher HIIIIIGHH" which was originally high and so powerful in Budapest! I was always looking forward to this part as he sings it the best in this concert compared it other Magic tour concerts where he does it with kinda lower voice. He does it originally higher than usual and more powerful. I can't possibly understand why it was replaced because IMO it was way better originally. I can understand sloppy bits are replaced, but this.. :/ I was very disappointed about this as I am picky on significant small bits. But this was really the only thing that disappointed me. Here is how it was originally - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=guyC7UtTPW4&t=1m47s at 1:48 . It was replaced with something sounding Wembley-like, like he usually did in the Works and Magic tour.

Overall - I was very pleased with this.

I am really happy for this release as I simply LOVE old footage in HD. I hope soon will be Michael Jackson's turn to get a cinematic and Blu-Ray release of pre-History tours.

The experience on big screen was best I could ever get to see Queen live since I didn't have such possibility.

I give this 9/10 because of the quality. Wasn't there a disappointing overdub and cut songs (which unfortunatly isn't possible and you can't blame Queen for that), I would give 10/10 although this is seen concert. But this release made me enjoy it even more.

P.S. Brian and Roger, please release some of 70s stuff next time. Something like Hammersmith 1975, Hammersmith 1979, Blu-Ray release of Live at Rainbow theater 1974 if possible (possibly it was on film since it was filmed specially for release. It was released on VHS) or some of Crazy tour. Thank you


It looks blurry because taken on phone. In reality it's not of course.

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