Brian May hits back at airline for ‘hacked’ version of ‘Bohemian Rhapsody’

Brian May has hit back at Oman Air for ‘hacking’ any reference of Freddie Mercury’s sexuality in Bohemian Rhapsody.

The Academy Award-winning movie starred Rami Malek as the Queen frontman and although the film faced accusations of ‘straight-washing’ the iconic bisexual singer, the film took home Best Picture at this year’s Oscars.

However, not everyone was happy with the portrayal of same-sex relationships in the movie and Queen guitarist Brian May took to Instagram to hit back at Oman Air who ‘hacked away’ and removed any reference to his sexuality.

Writing on social media, he said: “Great movies on this plane ! 😊 “Bohemian Rhapsody”, eh ?!

“I had to take a look at it – to check out how much our movie had been ‘expurgated’ for showing on Oman Air.

“Yep – they sure hacked away it – no kissing, no ‘bollocks’, and Freddie wasn’t even allowed to quite get to the point of ‘confessing’ to Mary – though it was pretty clear what the scene was about.

“By the end I really did feel that a lot of the film’s message was lost. Which made me sad.”

 

 

 

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Great movies on this plane ! 😊 “Bohemian Rhapsody”, eh ?! I had to take a look at it – to check out how much our movie had been ‘expurgated’ for showing on Oman Air. Yep – they sure hacked away it – no kissing, no ‘bollocks’, and Freddie wasn’t even allowed to quite get to the point of ‘confessing’ to Mary – though it was pretty clear what the scene was about. By the end I really did feel that a lot of the film’s message was lost. Which made me sad. But then again, a lot of the good stuff DID come across even in this version. And – you know – it’s easy to get all superior and disapproving about this stuff – but it wasn’t so long ago that The Rolling Stones were only allowed to perform on the USA’s Ed Sullivan Show if they changed “Let’s Spend the Night Together” to “Let’s Spend Some Time Together” !! Don’t believe me ? Check it out on YouTube ! Maybe we’re not so liberal and progressive as we think we are ! Or maybe, for every nation, it takes time and tolerance and … compromise ? To get to a good place. One of the things I’ve learned from animal campaigning is that shouting doesn’t always get you what you want. Bri 💥💥💥💥Thanks folks – I’ve enjoyed reading your comments. I don’t usually have time – but today I’m a captive audience and – I’ve learned a thing or two from this. Take care out there. We SHALL overcome. Bri

A post shared by Brian Harold May (@brianmayforreal) on Jun 12, 2019 at 6:49pm PDT

However, May went on to say that although some good stuff did come across in the hacked version, he said maybe ‘we’re not so liberal and progressive’.

He continued: “But then again, a lot of the good stuff DID come across even in this version.

“And – you know – it’s easy to get all superior and disapproving about this stuff – but it wasn’t so long ago that The Rolling Stones were only allowed to perform on the USA’s Ed Sullivan Show if they changed “Let’s Spend the Night Together” to “Let’s Spend Some Time Together” !! Don’t believe me ? Check it out on YouTube !

“Maybe we’re not so liberal and progressive as we think we are ! Or maybe, for every nation, it takes time and tolerance and … compromise ?

“To get to a good place. One of the things I’ve learned from animal campaigning is that shouting doesn’t always get you what you want. Bri”