Hail to the Queen. Finally, a live film of the legendary British band that will blow out the LEDs in your high-def flat screen. You won’t believe this was shot 26 years ago, although there’s definitely something to be said for János Zsombolyai’s direction and use of 35mm film. Applying the technology of today (specifically, high-definition video and 5.1 surround sound audio), your eyes and ears will never be the same as Queen — Freddie Mercury, Brian May, John Deacon and Roger Taylor — come crashing through your home entertainment center on the Blu-ray and DVD of Hungarian Rhapsody: Queen Live In Budapest.
As big of a live attraction Queen became the world over during the 70s, their concerts throughout Europe in the mid 80s hold a special significance in the band’s history. Their appearance at Live Aid in London on July 13th, 1985 remains one of their most stand-out performances. So why not Budapest the very next year? Hungary was still within the Eastern Bloc, but the practice of Goulash Communism loosened things up enough apparently to allow Queen in for a show on July 27th, 1986 at the Népstadion before a crowd of 80,000. At the time, it was the largest stadium show behind the Iron Curtain.
Received like royalty, Queen arrived by hydrofoil on the Danube and proceeded to take over the town. Cutaways to diplomatic receptions, interaction with fans, balloon rides and walks through the streets demonstrate how the band anxiously slurped up the culture. Mercury and May even took time to learn and perform at the concert a traditional Jewish Hungarian folk song, “Tavaszi szél vizet áraszt.” You can guess that the rest of the film is the very best of Queen.
After the crew sets up and the stadium fills in, Queen explodes onto the stage with the energetic “One Vision.” Mercury is appropriately dressed as the master of ceremonies as he works the wings and May dive-bombs one histrionic lead after another. When you follow that up with “Tie Your Mother Down,” there’s no way you can lose. Actually, going back even further to Queen II for “In The Lap Of The Gods…Revisited,” “The Seven Seas Of Rhye,” and “Now I’m Here,” the band are just as ferocious and biting as the day these tunes first hatched.
This being the Magic Tour and this being the 80s, tracks like “A Kind Of Magic,” “Under Pressure” and “Another One Bites The Dust” are trotted out to dilute the hard rock edge. “Who Wants To Live Forever” is a unique departure and very much of the time, while the playfulness of “I Want To Be Free” almost makes you forget the dismal music video Queen made to accompany the single. The audience in Budapest, of course, loves every minute of it — even the extended Brian May guitar sol segment. Fortunately, the numerous cameras employed stay mostly on the band with only rare shots of the audience.
The concert begins its climax with “Bohemian Rhapsody,” despite the recorded middle section they never tried to replicate live. Spike Edney comes out from the shadows on guitar and piano, respectively, for “Hammer To Fall” and “Crazy Little Thing Called Love,” while towing the backline on the ever so beguiling “Radio Ga Ga.” Mercury emerges bare-chested, draped in both the British and Hungarian flag for “We Will Rock You” before “We Are The Champions” brings the whole spectacle to a glorious close.
Hungarian Rhapsody: Queen Live In Budapest, which includes a deluxe edition with Blu-ray or a DVD and two CDs for the car, features a new 25-minute documentary called A Magic Year that follows Queen from their Live Aid appearance over the course of the year leading up to the concert in Budapest. While Queen DVDs and Blu-rays have seen a surge in 2012, this one may be the one to have — especially if you never saw the band in concert. And if you did, you’ll probably want to have a look too.
~ Shawn Perry
