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Rocketman - mishmash biography meets Hairspray the musical - meh

sean99

sean99

pfm Member
Just a warning to anyone else who enjoyed the recent Queen movie (Bohemian Rhapsody) that the Elton John film is completely different. It's more of a musical style fantasy take on his life, with brief interludes of realism. The songs are all covers and not in any kind of chronological order.

A great disappointment - he's had a very interesting life and there's a huge back catalog of great songs, but the film failed to capitalize on it. Dreary and self indulgent.
 
Produced a few hundred yards from our shack. Staggering number of people employed there for many months. No lack of money so no excuse.
 
Not saying it's a bad film - but it's not a pure biopic, and it doesn't use the original songs or concert footage. It's a semi-biopic Elton John themed musical, and as such, not my cup of tea (nor my wife's which is odd as she likes musicals).
 
I feared as much after listening to a radio 2 show a few days back which was mainly about the making of it and the choices made etc...
 
As he was executive producer and his husband also involved, it is was always going to offer a VERY uncritical view point on his life. Couple of friends have seen it and enjoyed it, but not a masterpiece is their view. One chap described as a bit of self-redemption by Sir Elton, 'look at me, how I survived!'
 
JensenHealey said:
As he was executive producer and his husband also involved, it is was always going to offer a VERY uncritical view point on his life.
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He/ they arrived by whirlybird and landed in the studio car park towards the end of filming. No doubt plenty of grovelling that day.

Very mixed reviews, some loved it.

The studio sent a hand delivered letter, asking if we were interested in providing a bedroom for filming, to be converted into an American hotel room, suitable fee to be paid. I guess my fee offer of £100K was a bit too much for them as we never heard anymore :)
 
JensenHealey said:
it is was always going to offer a VERY uncritical view point on his life.
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I don't think it was uncritical. It showed that he had significant issues with his parents but also that his alcohol and drug abuse were way out of control, during which time he treated his friends pretty terribly. My issue is solely with the format of the film, and with the lack of original music.
 
Yet another victim of “anti homosexual” censorship that Putin slapped on media in Russia. The same is destined for China where even the implication of homosexuality (when the censors can recognise historically significant and necessarily-coded gay culture words and actions in performances) is written out. So, apparently “the gays” have an agenda and we infiltrate culture with our gay propaganda, well congrats Putin etc, you just gave us angry fags a shit tonne more of reason to have an agenda.

https://pitchfork.com/news/elton-jo...ondemn-russian-censorship-of-same-sex-scenes/
 
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I’ve not seen the film, but found this article he wrote about the making of the film interesting...

https://www.theguardian.com/global/...-words-exclusive-my-life-and-making-rocketman

I love this paragraph...

Understandably, Bernie and I had no idea what the hell was going on – you know, I hadn’t even wanted to be a rock star in the first place, I just wanted to be a successful songwriter – but it just got bigger and bigger over the next few years. I kept a diary the whole time, and it’s inadvertently hilarious. I wrote everything down in this matter-of-fact way, which ends up making it seem even more preposterous: “Woke up, watched Grandstand. Wrote Candle in the Wind. Went to London, bought Rolls-Royce. Ringo Starr came for dinner.”
 
claire.foxx said:
Yet another victim of “anti homosexual” censorship that Putin slapped on media in Russia. The same is destined for China where even the implication of homosexuality (when the censors can recognise historically significant and necessarily-coded gay culture words and actions in performances) is written out. So, apparently “the gays” have an agenda and we infiltrate culture with our gay propaganda, well congrats Putin etc, you just gave us angry fags a shit tonne more of reason to have an agenda.

https://pitchfork.com/news/elton-jo...ondemn-russian-censorship-of-same-sex-scenes/
Click to expand...
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Interesting that Elton is against censorship when it suits him.

Not so much when it’s him doing the gagging.
 
I had no idea it was a musical. I’ve never been able to cope with the logical inconsistencies of musicals. When I was about nine, I was perplexed by how people might be talking normally one moment, walking down the street then suddenly they start singing with the public joining in then they all dance down the middle of the road stopping the traffic. Rocketman is a true musical in that sense.
The storytelling is remarkable though- it’s close in and dark. “Warts and all” is the common description but it’s beyond that. It’s a look inside someone with all of their vulnerabilities on show for the audience to pick over and I’d wager very few people could tolerate this level of exposure. It’s also psychodynamically well articulated if you’re interested. At the end you think “how the hell did someone survive that?” and I’ve personally known a few who I’m afraid didn’t.
The scene that’s burned into my retinas is his stage entrance in the chicken outfit, played brilliantly for all its unashamed ridiculousness by Taron Egerton.
<edit> I hadn’t made the connection before but it reminds me of ‘Birdman’ if you’ve seen it.
 
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