Rocket Man: the movie

[Adan]

Do you know when the last time was I saw a movie on opening night? Neither do I!

 

Anyway, interesting flick. Feels like a broadway musical adapted to the screen. Very affecting, but in a different way than Bohemian Rhapsody. I found BoRap riveting and inspiring. Rocket Man is a different kettle of fish. More intriguing than inspiring. The absence of any real Elton singing or playing probably has a lot do with that. Rocket Man feels like Elton telling his own story. As much as he's given me over the years, the least I can do is watch and listen, and I was happy to do so.

 

 

 

 

[Mark Schmieder]

So it sounds almost like a similar approach as "Bohemian Rhapsody" then?

 

I haven't been in a commercial movie house in probably five years by now. I take my chance that something I really want to see will be shown at our private company theatre.

 

They tend to bias towards stuff I don't like, such as super-heroes and space opera (Star Wars and the like), but music-based movies get played as well as Pixar cartoons, and occasionally human interest stuff. I imagine this one will be chosen some month coming up, and of course I'll hear it in the best possible environment, just as with Bohemian Rhapsody, A Star Is Born, and Whiplash these past few months.

 

If you liked it enough to see it again, hit me up and I can invite you both as guests. But I don't know for certain it'll play; it's hard to predict.

 

I've been reading a bit about the movie all this while anyway, and saw an interview with Elton this week where he said it took years to finish because everyone wanted him to censor it instead of showing himself as he was at the time, living a rather unhealthy lifestyle.

 

I thought there might be some real footage overlaid with the actors/etc. As I found Bohemian Rhapsody immensely enjoyable though, I may end up not minding so much. It just feels a little weird when actors are hired to play/sing for those still alive and actively performing. :-)

[SteveCoscia]

I watched Rocket Man on opening night here in Philadelphia. I enjoyed it with a few caveats.

 

As a big fan of the 70s albums, I felt compelled to go. That being said, I went for the music.

 

First impressions vacillated between (1) the movie delves too deeply into Elton's personal, family & sexual life and (2) Elton's early-career & historical anecdotes were informatively fun - these movie scenes are the best. Regarding #1, there are some details about favorite performers that are better left as a secret IMHO. Discretion has value.

 

This surreal style of story-telling and film production did not suit me (perhaps I'm too old), but as I mentioned, I enjoyed it overall.

 

Since watching the film, I've been immersed in Elton's 70s albums again. He sure was a powerhouse of talent and he had a terrific band.

[Joe Muscara]

This surreal style of story-telling and film production did not suit me (perhaps I'm too old), but as I mentioned, I enjoyed it overall.

And some studios wanted us to lose the fantasy element and make a more straightforward biopic, but that was missing the point. Like I said, I lived in my own head a lot as a kid. And when my career took off, it took off in such a way that it almost didnt seem real to me. I wasnt an overnight success by any means Id been slogging around the clubs, making records, writing songs with Bernie and trying to sell them to people who werent interested for four or five years before anything big happened. But when it happened, it went off like a missile: theres a moment in Rocketman when Im playing onstage in the Troubadour club in LA and everything in the room starts levitating, me included, and honestly, thats what it felt like.

 

Elton John: 'They wanted to tone down the sex and drugs. But I havent led a PG-13 life'

[Threadslayer]

Feels like a broadway musical adapted to the screen.

 

Wow. Talk about damning with faint praise. Thanks for the heads up.

[Adan]

So it sounds almost like a similar approach as "Bohemian Rhapsody" then?

 

You may have written this tongue in cheek, but to be clear, no, it's quite different.

 

Bohemian Rhapsody reveals almost nothing about made Freddie Mercury tick. Rocket Man, by contrast, is almost exclusively about that for Elton. To me it felt like a 2-hour therapy session in which Elton tells his tale of trying to outgrow his painful relationships with his parents while we in the audience say "it's ok, Elton, your parents may not have loved you, but I do." And that's ok (staying in therapy mode). To me this psychological unpacking was genuinely interesting and touching.

 

The musical numbers, with a few exceptions, didn't do much for me. But even a severe broadwayization can't completely undo the pleasure of hearing an Elton John song.

[drawback]

Yikes! These kinds of movies make me want to run fast as I can in the other direction. Can't do it.

 

[TechEverlasting]

I'm looking forward to seeing "Rocket Man" - even if the surreal style doesn't aways work I think this is the only way to tell the story of Elton John.

 

Although "Bohemian Rhapsody" was fun to watch I it seemed ridiculous to me that the biography of such an innovative and unconventional artist as Freddy Mercury should be presented in such a conventional and predictable "bio-pic" format.

[Jazz+]

 

 

[video:youtube]

[Mark Schmieder]

Yes Adan, I was being ironic on account of what the producers (and apparently Steve of Philly, but his response came after mine so I didn't know :-)), wanted this film to be.

 

Joe helpfully provided the comment and link that I had read a few days ago but didn't have the patience to re-find. I agree with the sentiment, from Elton's point of view, but it doesn't guarantee I'll enjoy the film -- we shall see (I hope; whether it gets scheduled for viewing often has more to do with whether our gear was used in post-production, as it is for all Disney umbrella companies for instance).

[Bill H.]

It just feels too weird to me. This is the time of the year for Avengers, X-Men, and Godzilla. I'll probably wait till fall, when biopics usually come out.

[El Lobo]

Here's a review from the San Francisco Chronicle:

 

Showmans story fails to lift off

By Mick LaSalle

 

ROCKETMAN

 

Dramatic fantasia. Starring Taron Egerton and Bryce Dallas Howard. Directed by Dexter Fletcher. (R. 121 minutes.)

 

Taron Egerton plays Elton John in the new movie about the singer-songwriters life, addiction struggles and music.

 

In Rocketman, Taron Egerton portrays Elton John as a self-centered mope who never seems to enjoy his success or his musical brilliance. Egerton also is unable to sing Johns beloved hit songs very well.

 

Its hard to say who will be more disappointed by Rocketman: people who know a lot about Elton John or people who know nothing.

 

If you know a lot, you will recognize everything thats inaccurate here the order of events, the sequencing of the releases and major shows. But if you know nothing, you will come away with absolutely no idea as to why this guy was once the biggest star in the world. Though the film contains renditions of many of the big hits, theyre so badly performed youd have every right to wonder what the fuss was all about.

 

Elton John is so often thought of as a showman and a songwriter that his vocals get short shrift. Thats the biggest mistake (of many) made here. In the title role, Taron Egerton does his own singing, and instead of the crystalline voice and wide vocal range of Johns heyday, we get a mannered imitation that doesnt advance past weak karaoke. Egerton sounds vaguely like Elton in his 70s, and nothing like Elton in the 1970s, which is when the film mostly takes place.

 

Thats bad, and it gets worse.

 

The attempt was to do something different here. Unlike Johnny Cash and Ray Charles, Elton John never had a dead brother, so screenwriter Lee Hall throws out the usual biopic formula and creates a kind of fantasia. Elton goes to a 12-step meeting and starts telling stories from his childhood, whereupon we drop into a fantasy sequence, on a street in Britain in the 1950s, as a very young Elton bursts into a rendition of The Bitch Is Back.

 

So, thats the convention: a series of flashbacks, in which Elton Johns songbook is used to illustrate moments from his life. That could have been interesting, though a bit of a challenge, in that John and his lyricist Bernie Taupin (aside from one album) are two of the least autobiographical songwriters of the past 50 years. All the same, the potential was there for something like Pennies From Heaven, except with Elton John songs.

 

But for all the movies attempt to be different, it ends up running aground from yet another showbiz cliche the one about addiction and recovery.

 

Consider how ridiculous this is: Here we have this singular fellow, with a career and a talent unlike anyone elses, and the movie chooses to focus on the one aspect of his life in which he is as boring and typical as every other addict who has ever lived. You know the pattern. He starts drinking, then drinks more, then more. Oh, yes, and drugs. And lots of cocaine. Yes, this is what they chose to show of Elton Johns life.

 

Imagine if we were to find out Shakespeare had a weight problem. These screenwriters would skip lightly over the plays and center the story on the Bards visits to Overeaters Anonymous.

 

But why, you might ask, does John became an addict? Oh, but thats easy. His mother (Bryce Dallas Howard) and father were mean to him. Rocketman, without irony, presents a portrait in boo-hoo self-pity that is unrelenting, just scene after scene of woe is me, and Im so sensitive and misunderstood, and Daddys so weird, and Mommys so cold to the point where you just want to say, Man up, guy. Enough already.

 

Really, on the basis of Rocketman, youd think Elton John never had a moment of fun. He never had friends, never hung out with John Lennon, never enjoyed his success or his musical brilliance. Youd also think he never had a band his fellow musicians are barely in the story.

 

Remember how Rami Malek made you think he was Freddie Mercury in the Bohemian Rhapsody stage scenes? Forget anything like that here. Egerton has no stage charisma, and in the offstage scenes, he has none of the terse wit that made Elton John appealing in interviews, and made his fans at the time feel like they knew him. Egertons Elton is instead a self-centered mope, and thats even when hes sober.

 

Still you might think, OK, fine, but at least well get the story of Elton Johns career. But no, we dont. The strategy here is that everything is a fantasy mishmash, not just the music sequences. Thus, we see Elton hawking songs in the 1960s to music publishers, and the songs hes offering are things hed write 15 years later.

 

When he plays the Troubadour in Los Angeles his breakthrough show from 1970 he opens with Crocodile Rock, which hadnt been written yet. The switch doesnt make for a better scene, because the actual song he did open with (Your Song) was better.

 

But hey, if they dont care, why should we? On the same street as the Troubadour, we see a marquee advertising Jimmy Carters victory party about six years too early. Also six years early, the single Dont Go Breaking My Heart. Oh, yeah, and 10 years too late? Dont Let the Sun Go Down on Me, which the movie seems to show him writing in 1984. Also, in 1984, Elton still looks the way he did in 1973. That is, not bald.

 

Obviously, none of this would matter if there were a shred of joy in Rocketman, but, no, we dont get that, not even a shred. Instead its two hours of laugh-clown-laugh misery.

 

Mick LaSalle is The San Francisco Chronicles film critic. Email: mlasalle@sfchronicle.com Twitter: @MickLaSalle

[MotiDave]

I cant wait to watch it. Just as soon as it hits Deltas in flight rotation. Im about to board, still have to finish the Bowie early years movie. Cant really take the kids to Rocketman, i still wont even tell them what I did in the 70s and 80s.

 

I watched The Runaways, BR, Star is Born and the John Jett movie on Delta in the last 6 months - its becoming my go-to rocumentary source lol. Spoiler alert - Joan dont give a damn about her bad reputation

[Adan]

I think the movie is intended as a sort of broadway fantasia meant to give you some insight into Elton's soul, not an accurate chronicling. Either approach it in that spirit or don't watch it at all.

 

But yeah, the whole thing is kind of painful in the way you imagine any 12-step session being painful. I understand that Elton needed to go through this, but does he have to put the rest of us through it as well? I guess the answer is yes.

 

I don't think it's quite as joyless as Mick LaSalle portrays. Many of the musical bits are joyful, the problem is that they're not very memorable or good.

[Threadslayer]

...Elton goes to a 12-step meeting and starts telling stories from his childhood, whereupon we drop into a fantasy sequence, on a street in Britain in the 1950s, as a very young Elton bursts into a rendition of The Bitch Is Back.

Oh dear...

[Bill H.]

When he plays the Troubadour in Los Angeles his breakthrough show from 1970 he opens with Crocodile Rock, which hadnt been written yet. The switch doesnt make for a better scene, because the actual song he did open with (Your Song) was better.

 

The film currently sits at 90% on Rotten Tomatoes, so it can't be all that bad. Still this is so wrong. 1970 was the era of James Taylor, Carole King, Cat Stevens - and Your Song fit right in. Crocodile Rock came out about the same time as American Graffiti and the 50s nostalgia movement of a few years later. I can't believe Elton would allow this in what's essentially his movie.

[Rustar]

The "Elton John: Goodbye Yellow Brick Road (Classic Albums)" documentary on Amazon Prime told me everything I want to know about Elton and nothing that I don't. I'm not a fan of Hollywood hagiography. GBYBR was, for me, his magnum opus. After that, not so much.

[Jazz+]

NY Times Review:

 

Rocketman Review: The Fantastical Tale of Elton John, Survivor, Rock God, Camp Icon

Taron Egerton brings understated flamboyance and flamboyant understatement to his portrayal of the former Reginald Dwight.

 

Taron Egerton in effect plays both the Lady Gaga and Bradley Cooper parts of A Star Is Born in the musical retelling of Elton Johns life.

 

Taron Egerton in effect plays both the Lady Gaga and Bradley Cooper parts of A Star Is Born in the musical retelling of Elton Johns life.

 

The first album I ever bought with my own allowance was Captain Fantastic and the Brown Dirt Cowboy, one of two studio LPs Elton John released in 1975. Nestled inside the sleeve was a graphic-novel-style booklet about the singers life, a source of great fascination to me at the time. I spent many hours that summer on the beanbag chair in the green-carpeted den, listening to Someone Saved My Life Tonight and poring over the tale of how a shy, bespectacled piano prodigy named Reginald Dwight blossomed into the internationally renowned song stylist dominating my turntable and millions of others.

 

Rocketman, directed by Dexter Fletcher from a screenplay by Lee Hall, recounts a slightly updated, substantially more candid version of the same story. Back in the 70s, the fact that John was gay counted as an official secret, as did the extent of his devotion to alcohol, cocaine and other substances. But like that booklet, the movie a testament to self-realization and a chronicle of recovery is very much an authorized life. John, now 72, married and many years sober, serves as an executive producer and the author (with his lyricist Bernie Taupin, of course) of most of the soundtrack. (The instrumental score, threaded with echoes and allusions to his hits, with special attention to Goodbye Yellow Brick Road, is by Matthew Margeson.)

 

But the point of Rocketman isnt self-aggrandizement. Its fan service of an especially and characteristically generous kind. Its certain that Elton John has nothing left to prove, but its also possible that hes underappreciated. He has been part of the pop-music mainstream for so long more than 50 years! that the scope of his genius and the scale of his accomplishments risk being taken for granted. Nearly all the dozen or so songs you hear in this movie were originally recorded within the span of about seven years, and they represent the tip of a musical iceberg with few rivals.

 

Still, I doubt Im the only listener of my generation who has at times succumbed to the lure of rock-snob dogmatism and worshiped false idols of authenticity, as if Sir Eltons splendid artifice were something to be outgrown or outsmarted. And Im sure Im not the only one who will be grateful to be reminded of how much I loved him, and why.

 

As Rocketman tells it, that affection mine and everyone elses stands in painful contrast to the absence of love in Reg Dwights childhood. (Hes played as a boy by Matthew Illesley and in adolescence by Kit Connor; the adult Elton is Taron Egerton). Dad (Steven Mackintosh) withholds all affection and approval from his firstborn son, in spite of a shared interest in music. Mum (Bryce Dallas Howard) runs hot and cold, her warmth always contingent on her own needs. After they split up, theres a harmless, useless stepfather (Tom Bennett).

 

Luckily, there is also a grandmother around the wonderful Gemma Jones to notice the lads talents and to make sure he cultivates them, with lessons at the Royal Academy of Music. Its also lucky that Fletcher and Hall, rather than making a standard biopic, infuse this one with anti-literalist elements of jukebox-musical spectacle. Grown-up Elton sings duets with his younger self. Young Reg dances his way to adulthood to the sounds of Saturday Nights Alright for Fighting.

 

As a result, the chronology is almost as baroque as the melodies. Sometimes the songs are embedded in the plot, as when Elton, early in his partnership with Taupin (Jamie Bell), unfurls Your Song, apparently off the top of his head, on the piano in his mothers parlor. Or, a bit later, when he takes the stage at the Troubadour in Los Angeles and levitates the crowd with Crocodile Rock. Other songs Dont Let the Sun Go Down on Me and the title track, among others function more as musical numbers, giving theatrical vividness and metaphorical voice to Eltons emotions. Those are heard when they suit the mood, rather than the historical record.

 

The film shrewdly resists the biographical cliché of supposing that the songs originate in or refer to specific moments of feeling. That isnt really how art works, especially an art as collaborative as Elton and Bernies. Their creative alliance is the films core, the quiet, non-dysfunctional love story woven through the glitter, excess and heartbreak. Your Song becomes the emblem of this relationship. Bernie writes it for Elton, who sings it for Bernie, and thanks to the flexible magic of the second-person pronoun, it becomes a message that each one is sending to the other, and then to everyone else in the world.

 

Its hard to think of a portrayal of artists at work less invested in the myth of creative struggle. Bernie produces lyrics by the bushel, Elton has tunes by the bucketful, and the resulting hits make both men insanely rich before either turns 30. The trouble, for Elton, is what follows from that success, as his fame exacerbates the unhealed wounds of childhood.

 

The main plot of Rocketman follows a familiar therapeutic loop. We start in rehab, where Elton has arrived in full stage regalia, a bright orange jumpsuit adorned with angel wings and devil horns. (Most of the clothes Egerton is shown wearing are replicas of costumes Elton John actually wore, a feat of costume design by Julian Day that is ostentatious and humble at the same time.) We cycle through early striving and midcareer misery.

 

Some of that is brought about by John Reid (Richard Madden), a sharp-dressed music-industry sharpie who notices Eltons talent, appraises his sexual insecurity and finds a way to take advantage of both. His ruthlessness and Eltons appetites combine to push the singer to the brink of self-destruction, a precondition for the redemption that follows.

 

Egerton, with what can only be called flamboyant understatement and also, I suppose, understated flamboyance in effect plays both the Lady Gaga and the Bradley Cooper parts in a fresh iteration of A Star Is Born. His Elton is the hard-living road warrior and the preternaturally gifted ingénue, the sacrificial hero and the plucky survivor, the rock god and the camp icon. The actor delivers a tour de force of self-effacement, a bravura demonstration of borrowed charisma.

 

Fletcher sometimes overreaches, with respect to both spectacle and storytelling the choreography can be as confusing as the timeline but when its working Rocketman has the earnest, extravagant energy of a Baz Luhrmann movie. That description is, in this context, very much a compliment, since Luhrmann-esque showmanship is just what you want in a movie about Elton John.

 

The other thing you want is Elton Johns music, a desire that Rocketman by turns satisfies, sharpens and frustrates. The songs arent quite the way you remember them, and in most cases the new versions are put to effective dramatic use. But they dont quite stand alone, and theyre unlikely to displace the originals on anyones streaming playlist. Thats just fine of course: The point is to spark renewed fondness for those old records, and for the incandescent meteor of a man who made them.

[Adan]

NY Times Review:

 

the new versions are . . . unlikely to displace the originals on anyones streaming playlist.

 

I just wanted to highlight this masterpiece of understatement.

[Docbop]

Do they use the original The Bitch is Back in the movie I worked on that back in my recording days. Gus Dudgeon Elton's producer had book a week or so at Record Plant to do overdubs, but Record Plant screwed up and one of the date was already taken. Tower of Power horns were already on their way. I worked at Sound City and we were the only place that had a Ampex 24 track and the room available so they came over for the day and most the night. We were busy preparing for Gus and I was told setup for the horns and when asked what the engineer wanted he told me to choose what I thought would work.

 

Long story short Greg Adams of TOP came in and wanted to use a piano he had a cassette deck and was still writing horn parts. Gus and rest of TOP showed up and we started working on The Bitch is Back. Gus wasn't accepting the horns kept complaining about notes a quarter tone off. TOP was getting ticked so Gus had them come into the booth to listen back. TOP was blown away Gus was right his ears were that good. Gus told everyone this is the hit single on the album and I want it perfect. So it took the rest of the day to get perfect horns on one track.

 

After that took a dinner break and finished the horns for the rest of the tunes and put some organ overdubs on. Gus Dudgeon was my hero of producers back then so it was great to hang in at the session and what and hear all the stories he told. He showed us one of Bernie Taupin's original lyric sheets the way he delivers them to Elton. Peter Ascher and Linda Ronstadt showed up to hang out. Linda tried to be too cute and flirty with TOP, but Doc the bari player called her bluff and Linda went back to sitting next to Peter Ascher. It was cool hearing rhythm tracks and Elton's work vocal and piano. Gus said Elton trusted him so Elton would only be at the first sessions to lay down the rhythm tracks and a work vocal, then Gus put all the overdubs on and Elton would come back at the end to put the final vocal and piano track on.

 

The next day Gus returned to Record Plant so we had Elton for one day. IT was great getting to watch Gus and TOP work.

[Bill H.]

Cool story! I for one am in awe

[drawback]

One of my all time favourite tracks on any Elton record is Davey Johnstones on The Bitch Is Back, of course the intro/hook, but more the background stuff. Superb.

[SteveCoscia]

Thanks DocBop, for the Gus Dudgeon anecdote.

 

His production skill enabled ET's albums to differentiate with a noticeable difference. The audio quality possessed such a special vibe.

[MotiDave]

The amount of music that he and Bernie put out between 70 and 75 was astounding. Who else put out 2+ albums a year? GBYBR was absolutely the peak and basically end for me, my interest in his material decreased each successive release until he got to Kiki Dee and I hated it. Hed squeeze a hit or two out of each, good songs alone but the overall albums had no appeal to me anymore.

 

His early work was and still is timeless. Tiny Dance is a song I selected and presented to my now 11yo daughter a few years go, as she is an avid dancer - she absolutely loves it. Its a special our song thing between us, thanks to Sir Elton. We literally have a special thing thanks to him. She also love the movies titular song Rocket Man and opened up to a lot of his epic work.

 

I dont care how good or bad the movie is or isnt. No one here has status to sit in judgment of Sir Elton imo. If you dont like it - suck it and go home quiety. Not everything is for you. Theres another couple thousand movies out there you also dont like so sharpen that pencil and start cataloging. Mad props to EJ - you earned the crown, you do whatever you damn well please.

[Adan]

Just because you adore the music someone made in the early 70's (and I do!) doesn't mean you're obligated to withhold objective judgement about a movie made BY OTHER PEOPLE ABOUT THAT PERSON in 2019. I'm not judging Elton, I'm judging all the folks who were involved in making this movie. Not sure how actively involved Elton was, but I know he didn't write the musical score.

 

It's because I love Elton so much that I really wanted this movie to be better. Even so, I'm not advising people to stay away from it, I'm just warning folks to temper their expectations. Especially on the heels of a great biopic like BohRhap, this movie is a bit of disappointment.

[MotiDave]

I think if he didnt want this movie, we wouldnt have this movie. Maybe Im wrong but Ill go with that until I hear him say otherwise.

[MotiDave]

I just dropped my princess off at dance. We were listening to some rock song and I got her to sing along. I said maybe this could be our song and she said no dad, tiny dancer is our song.

 

Then she said your song cant be our song because its your song. Clever lil thing lol. Teach em well .. csn

[grndthftzamboni]

I walked out of Rocketman after having greatly enjoyed it. I got to see it a few weeks before it opened and there wasn't too much conversation flowing at the time about it for obvious reasons. I've had a few weeks to let it all digest after initially walking out thinking to myself I really enjoyed it "but"...Once I realized that I was directly comparing it to the experience of Bohemian Rhapsody, which I absolutely loved, my appreciation for Rocketman has increased.

 

They are technically both biopics but in some ways the films couldn't be more opposite. Bohemian Rhapsody told the story of Freddie Mercury (and Queen) choosing to do so in a way that tried to reflect the events with some sense of historical and chronological accuracy in terms of events. The music heard is actually Queen's performances of it. If I am recalling correctly the music appears in chronological order that it was originally release in reference to the band's historical storyline.

 

Freddie was obviously not available to contribute or verify accuracy of portrayals but other members of the band were. There is certainly a sense that at least some of the events have been cleansed, some probably due to keeping the flow of the film on track and some probably due to contributions of those members that are still available influencing the story to make events more positively represent their personal interests. Ultimately, I walked out of the theater on a pretty good high after witnessing a pretty epic cinematic representation of Queen, their music and some interesting backstories about them regardless of whether they might have been fictionalized or embellished for theatrical reasons.

 

Rocketman feels to me like someone turned on the Baz Luhrman machine (Moulin Rouge, Great Gatsby, Romeo and Juliet) and configured it to use only Elton John songs for the soundtrack and then ran Elton's life through it. Elton John WAS involved with the creation of the movie and has made very specific and adamant demands insisting on keeping in the bugs and warts aspects of his life making sure that the film didn't overly cleanse his image which is very much adverse to what others involved in the making of the film would have chosen to do.

 

The music heard is comprised of reinterpretations of Elton's songs sung by various members of the film's cast. The overall story follows Elton's life chronologically but the music does not appear in the order it was released. Compared to what I had originally anticipated, which was an Elton John version of the movie Bohemian Rhapsody, it certainly was not. Having said that, I enjoyed it thoroughly as well! I learned a lot of things about Elton I might otherwise not have known (and will continue to fact check as opportunities and resources appear). Ironically, and I certainly don't know this for a fact, but after factoring in the cleansing and fictional liberties that will happen with pretty much all movies based on actual persons and events , I actually feel like I got a better sense of who Elton John is/was from watching the more sensationalized presentation versus Bohemian Rhapsody, where I also learned a lot about Freddie and the members of Queen but, after time to reflect, felt like that movie holds back on the dark and gritty but real moments in comparison. At the end of the day though, for me, both movies are great!

[Mark Schmieder]

https://datebook.sfchronicle.com/music/in-the-1970s-elton-john-was-not-just-big-he-was-enormous

[Mark Schmieder]

Great double-review from a new member above; thanks for sharing that.