Freddie Mercury - Lover Of Life Singer Of Songs DVD > Reviews > Lover of Life, Singer Of Songs. Legend

Author's product rating:   

Did you enjoy it?	Loved it
Story	Good

Advantages:	Solo Videos, rare last Freddie interview, a lot of extras
Disadvantages:	Some of the extras are a bit long and boring

Recommend to potential buyers:

yes

Full review

Freddie Mercury-Lover Of Life, Singer Of Songs DVD

I had this DVD bought for me for my birthday in November 2006 when it had just come out. I also have the Freddie Mercury CD "Lover Of Life, Singer Of Songs, The Very Best Of Freddie Mercury Solo" being a big Queen and Freddie fan.

I love the name of the CD and DVD as I think it sums Freddie up perfectly, as it says on the back of the DVD booklet, it was Brian May's inscription for the Freddie Mercury statue in Montreux. The CD and DVD were released for what would've been Freddie's 60th birthday if he was still alive.

There are two DVD's included-

DVD 1- Lover Of Life...The Untold Story Documentary
Scene Selections

Extra features- Telling the Untold Story, behind the scenes in Zanzibar and India, the making of "The Untold Story" including an interview with the boy who played Freddie as a child in the documentary.
Subtitles

DVD 2- Singer Of Songs...The Solo Videos

1. Barcelona
2. The Great Pretender
3. I Was Born To Love You
4. Time
5. How Can I Go On
6. Made In Heaven
7. Living On My Own
8. The Golden Boy
9. In My Defence
Bonus Video's
10. Barcelona (live version)
11. The Great Pretender (Extended version)
12. Living On My Own (1993 Remix)

Extra feautures: Rare interviews-including the last ever filmed interview with Freddie Mercury
(This sees him discussing his collaboration with Montserrat Caballe and his solo single, the cover of the Platters' "The Great Pretender". I've seen parts of this interview before on various other videos/DVD's, but it is nice to see it in it's entirety. Freddie was famed for not giving many interviews and this is a great insight into his collaboration with Montserrat Caballe along with other things.

Video Directors' Audio Commentary- The story behind the Freddie Mercury statue in Montreux- Interactive Photo Gallery.
Scene Selections
Subtitles

The DVD booklet has a short introduction by Rudi Dolezal who knew Freddie and gives some insight into the man himself and what he taught him. The booklet also contains quite a few pictures. One of Freddie when he was a child, one as a baby and one when he was a teenager with his school friends. These are nice to see as not many people will have seen these pictures of when he was growing up in Zanzibar and India.
There are other pictures of him performing including a page of his duets with Montserrat which is a nice touch as they look really close.

The first disc which is mainly about "The Untold Story" goes from Freddie growing up in Zanzibar and going to school in India (there is quite a lot focusing on this which you don't usually get to see in many documentaries about him.) played out with a boy acting as Freddie, which really helps you to see what his life would've been like, as it shows his school where he went, and when he was in a band "The Hectics" playing infront of the school in assembly. The young boy (I forget his name) plays Freddie as a child well, and it was a really good idea to try and make what his life was like back then as realistic as possible. The documentary then takes us through all of his life and work in England up until his untimely death. I think a variation of this was shown on TV a while back, but don't quote me on that.

I like the second disc because it shows Freddie's solo videos, a lot of which I hadn't previously seen (or not in their entireity), even being a pretty big Queen fan, so there were lot of new things to see on this DVD.

Good Points-
Some rare photos in the booklet, rare solo videos. Good documentary. A lot of extras.

Bad Points-
Most of the documentary (I think) has already been shown on TV. Some of the extras drag on for too long- a bit boring in places.

Value For Money-
As my mum picked this up for my birthday, I'm not sure how much she paid for it, but I did a search on Amazon.co.uk and you can get it for £13.98 from Amazon, or from £6.52 from other sellers. It's great value for money I'd say as you get 2 discs plus a lot of extras.

Would I recommend it?

Overall I'd recommend this to any Queen fan, it has some good rare videos that a lot of people won't have previously seen and quite a lot of extra features (which I feel like I have to watch, but drag on for a while like the making of "The Untold Story". Nevertheless, it is interesting.) You might've seen some of the documentary before on TV, but it is nice to have it in DVD form and I think it has extra bits that weren't shown on TV.

I'd give it 4 stars because the documentary is good, and it's nice to have a collection of Freddie's solo videos, however I find them a bit boring compared to normal Queen videos to be honest. I'd like to give it 5 stars, but for some reason it's not one of my favourite Queen related DVD's, maybe it's just because I prefer the whole band. Either way, I'd definitely recommend this DVD, it should be in any Queen fans collection.