Brian May has blasted executives at Oman Air for "hacking" the in-flight version of Queen biopic Bohemian Rhapsody.
The musician recently travelled to Zanzibar, the birthplace of his late Queen bandmate Freddie Mercury, for a holiday, and on the trip home, realised the 2018 film was available to watch.
However, Brian was less than impressed with the edited storyline presented, especially the removal of references to Freddie's homosexuality and same-sex relationships.
"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," he began on Instagram. "Yep - they sure hacked away it - no kissing, no 'b**locks', and Freddie wasn't even allowed to quite get to the point of 'confessing' to Mary (Austin, Freddie's former fiancee) - 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."
It's not unusual for films to be censored in conservative nations, and several minutes of Bohemian Rhapsody were trimmed when the flick screened in China and Egypt.
Yet, Brian did go on to note that similar instances of censorship occurred in Western nations in the not-too-distant past.
"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," the 71-year-old noted.
Meanwhile, in a second post, Brian also responded to some critics of Bohemian Rhapsody who questioned the "accuracy" of the storyline.
Insisting that it is impossible to explore a person's entire journey in a film, he stated, "I can assure you all that not a single, word, action, emotion in Bohemian Rhapsody is there by accident, or for any other reason than to provide an insight, a clue to the big picture, a brush stroke in a coherent portrait of a man and his life and dreams."
