Bohemian Rhapsody’s Bad Editing: A Breakdown

Bohemian Rhapsody may have won the Oscar for Best Editing. But video essayist Thomas Flight isn’t persuaded. In a 13-minute video, Flight deconstructs a 104-second clip from the biopic, revealing the excessive 60 cuts that make up the scene. That translates into a dizzying cut every 1.8 seconds on average.

For Thomas Flight, Bohemian Rhapsody is nothing short of a “masterclass in bad editing.” For you, Flight’s video offers a nice short crash course in film editing.

According to The Washington Post, the pub scene deconstructed in Flight’s video was actually edited by Dexter Fletcher–and not John Ottman, the film editor who helped salvage the film and then won top honors at the Oscars. Asked about the botched scene, Ottman told WaPo: “Whenever I see it, I want to put a bag over my head. Because that’s not my aesthetic. If there’s ever an extended version of the film where I can put a couple scenes back, I will recut that scene!”

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