New Freddie Mercury Documentary Out On DVD

Newly released is the groundbreaking new documentary on Freddie Mercury, called, The Great Pretender. The doc was produced with the full cooperation of the Mercury estate and Queen's Brian May and Roger Taylor, both of whom appear throughout the film. The Great Pretender focus primarily on Mercury's solo projects outside of Queen -- including his ill-fated early-'80s team-up with Michael Jackson and his solo albums -- 1985's Mr. Bad Guy and 1988's Barcelona with opera great Montserrat Caballe.

The doc features extensive archival footage of interviews with Mercury, clips from Queen concerts, video shoots, and personal material -- much of it previously unseen.

The film also sheds light into Mercury's personal life and his death of AIDS in 1991 at age 45. Close friend Elton John was among the few allowed to visit Mercury during his final days: "He was sick and he was dying. I used to go around and see him -- I was one of the few people to be there and I couldn't stay there for very long; I'd stay there for about an hour at a time, because I found it was so painful and traumatizing. And he was so brave. He was still spending money and buying things at auction right up to the point that he died -- which I thought was hilarious, and the kind of thing I probably would do. But at that Christmas, the Christmas shortly after he had died, I got a present delivered to me in a sheet and I collect Henry Scott Tuke paintings and it was a painting by Henry Scott Tuke from Freddie, saying 'Dear Sharon (laughs) -- hope you love this, love Molina.' It was. . . I just completely broke down. And to think of me as he was so ill, he wanted to give that to me for Christmas and he died about a month beforehand. And it was quite a choker. That was the kind of person he was."