Rocketman?
14/06/19 07:14
Nancy and I went to see the movie "Rocketman" yesterday. It was a rainy windswept day and we barely got out of the door soon enough to get over to the theater where it was playing. I've always been a fan of Elton's music or maybe it's just the music I liked growing up and I remain a fan. I wish I had read a little more about the movie before going to see it because I might have been less enthused had I known that parts of the movies resembled more of a musical than a biography.
We decided in retrospect that that was best explained by the fact that Elton John's name appeared in the credits as an executive producer. There is little doubt in my mind that he looks back on much of his life as a tragic figure whose life was transformed by music and his expression of same. There is one scene in the movie, which seemed to be the most touching to me, where he embraces himself as a child signifying an integration of the two spheres of his life which had long ago been fractured, buried, but not entirely forgotten.
Both the positive and negative influences in his life were highlighted and magnified as though in a dream sequence. That is perhaps how everyone in hindsight views the totality of their life's experiences when all is said and done. Scenes from your life flash in and out like a slideshow of emotion and include if one is honest with themselves moments of depravity, acts of desperation, cascading moments of love and loss, pivotal twists and turns, and an enduring rhythm that is inescapably yours and yours alone.
It seemed to me that he barely survived those early years when drugs and alcohol nearly consumed him. He came closer to the brink than I might have imagined. One storyline after another in the movie told the story of that deadly spiraling out of control with schizophrenic scenes from Elton's formative years as a child and in the music industry providing the centrifugal force behind his personal and professional disintegration.
The musical drama started out with his joining a therapy group and ended unsurprisingly with his walking away from that very same group having seemingly conquered the demons that brought him to that place. Everything in between was and is his life. So it was surprising to read in the postscript that he hadn't had a drink in some twenty-eight years. Maybe it came off as a little self indulgent but even the harshest critic would admit that Elton John of all people deserves to tell his own story as he damn well pleases.
After seeing the movie I'm pleased to say that I don't like him any more or any less than I did before I saw the movie. As biographical flicks of rock stars go this one was maybe even a little predictable. But you're hard pressed to not enjoy those magical moments in the movie when and where the stars align and align they did for Elton John. His collaboration with Bernie Taupin (wrote the lyrics) was one of those magical moments and one without which the world might never have known the genius of Elton John.
I wouldn't say that "Rocketman" was a tour de force but it was a worthwhile show and one that I'm glad we went to see. It was, as they say in the business, worth the price of admission. I wondered after the fact if Elton John had rights of first refusal when it came to selecting the actor who would play him in this movie. Maybe my expectations for the actor playing Elton John were a little too high after watching a recent movie entitled "Queen" where Freddy Mercury was played exquisitely and with great acclaim by Rami Malek. This actor was no Rami Malek.
I also think the music score was incomplete having very few of the more notable songs in Elton John's discography. That was a disappointment. And for god's sake, why did he perform the song "Pinball Wizard" in the movie which is a song written and performed by The Who? I had to look that one up in Wikipedia just to satisfy myself that it was a song not written by Elton John. If the producers and directors had paid half as much attention to the music in the movie as they did the costumes I think they would have been better off.
Maybe a more appropriate title for the movie would have been " The Music Man Behind the Mask."
We decided in retrospect that that was best explained by the fact that Elton John's name appeared in the credits as an executive producer. There is little doubt in my mind that he looks back on much of his life as a tragic figure whose life was transformed by music and his expression of same. There is one scene in the movie, which seemed to be the most touching to me, where he embraces himself as a child signifying an integration of the two spheres of his life which had long ago been fractured, buried, but not entirely forgotten.
Both the positive and negative influences in his life were highlighted and magnified as though in a dream sequence. That is perhaps how everyone in hindsight views the totality of their life's experiences when all is said and done. Scenes from your life flash in and out like a slideshow of emotion and include if one is honest with themselves moments of depravity, acts of desperation, cascading moments of love and loss, pivotal twists and turns, and an enduring rhythm that is inescapably yours and yours alone.
It seemed to me that he barely survived those early years when drugs and alcohol nearly consumed him. He came closer to the brink than I might have imagined. One storyline after another in the movie told the story of that deadly spiraling out of control with schizophrenic scenes from Elton's formative years as a child and in the music industry providing the centrifugal force behind his personal and professional disintegration.
The musical drama started out with his joining a therapy group and ended unsurprisingly with his walking away from that very same group having seemingly conquered the demons that brought him to that place. Everything in between was and is his life. So it was surprising to read in the postscript that he hadn't had a drink in some twenty-eight years. Maybe it came off as a little self indulgent but even the harshest critic would admit that Elton John of all people deserves to tell his own story as he damn well pleases.
After seeing the movie I'm pleased to say that I don't like him any more or any less than I did before I saw the movie. As biographical flicks of rock stars go this one was maybe even a little predictable. But you're hard pressed to not enjoy those magical moments in the movie when and where the stars align and align they did for Elton John. His collaboration with Bernie Taupin (wrote the lyrics) was one of those magical moments and one without which the world might never have known the genius of Elton John.
I wouldn't say that "Rocketman" was a tour de force but it was a worthwhile show and one that I'm glad we went to see. It was, as they say in the business, worth the price of admission. I wondered after the fact if Elton John had rights of first refusal when it came to selecting the actor who would play him in this movie. Maybe my expectations for the actor playing Elton John were a little too high after watching a recent movie entitled "Queen" where Freddy Mercury was played exquisitely and with great acclaim by Rami Malek. This actor was no Rami Malek.
I also think the music score was incomplete having very few of the more notable songs in Elton John's discography. That was a disappointment. And for god's sake, why did he perform the song "Pinball Wizard" in the movie which is a song written and performed by The Who? I had to look that one up in Wikipedia just to satisfy myself that it was a song not written by Elton John. If the producers and directors had paid half as much attention to the music in the movie as they did the costumes I think they would have been better off.
Maybe a more appropriate title for the movie would have been " The Music Man Behind the Mask."