Brian May slams 'vindictive' press for bad reviews of 'Bohemian Rhapsody'

Queen’s Brian May has slated the ‘vindictive sickness’ of the press and movie critics for the negative publicity given to Oscar-winning biopic Bohemian Rhapsody.

The film’s star Rami Malek won Best Actor for his role as Freddie Mercury in the film, and director Bryan Singer’s movie also won the Oscars for film editing, sound editing and sound mixing, making it the biggest winner of the night.

But many critics battered the film, branding it ‘embarrassing, trite and textbook‘, as well as accusing it of being ‘revisionist’ in its take on the band’s history, and sanitising Mercury’s life.

Despite the Oscars – and whatever his percentage may be of the vast $876 million it made at the box office – Brian still appears to be sore about those negative articles.

In a lengthy post to Instagram, the guitarist lets rip.

“I found the public activity behind the whole awards season, and the behaviour of the media writers surrounding it, deeply disturbing,” he writes.

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“If you look at the Press and Internet discussions that took place over the last few months, you can see that 90% of it is aimed at discrediting one or other, or all of the nominated films by innuendo and smears, rather than discussing their merits and admiring the skills that went into making them.

“Vitriol and dishonesty, and blatant attempts to shame and influence the members into voting the way they, in their arrogance required them to.

“It’s not the fault of the awards panels – they stood up well. It’s a kind of vindictive sickness that seems to have gripped public life.

“All through it, I’ve been biting my tongue, not wishing to influence the results of the ballots even by a hair.

“But, when the curtain came down, I was left with very mixed feelings.”

May is perhaps also alluding to the controversy surrounding director Bryan Singer, who was ultimately fired from the production by Fox, and which placed something of a dark cloud over the success of the film.

Last month Singer was accused by two more men of sexual misconduct, adding to a number of previous accusations facing him.

Singer, who was eventually replaced by Dexter Fletcher – but retained his full directing credit, thanks to union rules – has denied the allegations made against him.