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Rocket Man: the movie


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Not only did Elton put out two albums a year, but a few of them (in two-album years no less), were double-length.

 

"Goodbye Yellow Brick Road" sent shivers down my spine from the opening onwards; it was a concept album, almost prog-rock at times, yet it also sort of set the boundaries for what is glam-rock. Some of the most beautiful melodies and harmonies in pop music are within that album's covers.

 

And then there's the rockers. Having an incredible band helps (and I've seen them live -- just amazing and tight tight tight), but who would have thought the piano man would give up the spotlight for guitar here and there, and yet deviously still be chopping away at the same time? "Saturday Night's Alright" has to be one of the greatest rock anthems of all time! And then there's the stutter song ("Bennie and the Jets").

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I think it was a pre-requesite to know the Elton John and Billy Joel songbooks when I was performing in the 80's.

 

Now I just say "I don't remember any of their stuff" if I am requested to play it. It's not really my thing and hasn't been for decades. He was probably the best concert I went to in 1985.

 

He was probably the worst concert I went to in 2011 and haven't listened to him since.

 

Still strikes me as odd that so many people think "I bet you would love to see 'Rocket Man' at the movie theater" when I have zero interest.

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'Rocketman,' the new Elton John biopic, is a sparkly, musical and magical ride

 

NBC Review

 

Excerpts:

 

" In Bohemian Rhapsody, which director Dexter Fletcher took over partway through, the story is straightforward and seemingly more interested in replicating iconic moments than exploring its protagonist. Rocketman, also directed by Fletcher, is in a completely different league. Perhaps because Elton John is alive and credited as the films main executive producer, this film is far more willing to dig into what makes John tick. Its also not as obsessed with the recreations. "

_______________

"Egerton is excellent throughout. The kids who play young Reggie and teen Reggie are perfectly fine, but theres no denying the energy that Egerton brings to his scenes. Here too, one can feel the effect of John as an executive producer. Unlike other biopics, Egerton was cast because he could passably perform the songs. Theres no lip-syncing to the original tracks, no digital blending of the actor and the original vocalist. Egerton may not always hit the notes perfectly, and one or two songs feel a bit its Elton John night on American Idol, but he throws himself into every number. The result, often, is magical."

 Find 660 of my jazz piano arrangements of standards for educational purposes and tutorials at www.Patreon.com/HarryLikas Harry was the Technical Editor of Mark Levine's "The Jazz Theory Book" and helped develop "The Jazz Piano Book."

 

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The difference in audience numbers is probably simple math: Bohemian Rhapsody was rated PG-13, whilst Rocket Man is rated R -- the kiss of death for most films, severely limiting distribution range and the likelihood of people seeing it together in groups or families vs. alone or on dates.

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I enjoyed it. I did not mind the reinterpretations of the music at all, nor the fantasy type elements. In fact, I think they did not go far enough in that direction.

 

Beginning of the movie almost had the feel of a rock opera: not much dialogue, music used to advance the story, different characters singing, etc. This was very entertaining, especially the intermixing of the young and old Elton.

 

I think the movie was less successful when it became more conventional. And I wish we could have spent a little less time watching Elton binge on drugs and booze - simply because it's depressing - but guess that's his life.

 

I never really get what I truly want from biopics about musicians. What I realize I want is an explanation of two things: (1) how did the musician really progress from one plateau to the next (commercially); and (2) how did the musician develop musically, and impact others musically. But the truth is that this would amount to a documentary, and not something possible in a 2 hour Hollywood movie.

 

Incidentally, I came away from this movie with all its fantasy elements as having a better sense of Elton the person than I had about Freddie Mercury upon seeing Bohemian Rhapsody,

 

 

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I knew the chances were slim, but I was hoping for scenes in which Elton would meet some band members, especially for the GBYBR era. Magical album. I would have loved to see some time devoted to the making of that recording.

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I knew the chances were slim, but I was hoping for scenes in which Elton would meet some band members, especially for the GBYBR era. Magical album. I would have loved to see some time devoted to the making of that recording.

"Oh yeah, I've got two hands here." (Viv Savage)

"Mr. Blu... Mr. Blutarsky: Zero POINT zero." (Dean Vernon Wormer)

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I knew the chances were slim, but I was hoping for scenes in which Elton would meet some band members, especially for the GBYBR era. Magical album. I would have loved to see some time devoted to the making of that recording.

"Oh yeah, I've got two hands here." (Viv Savage)

"Mr. Blu... Mr. Blutarsky: Zero POINT zero." (Dean Vernon Wormer)

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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 :)

 

Just like me, I do all my movie watching on planes now with 15 hours to kill on monthly flights to/from Hong Kong. This will probably pop up on the planes in the fall. Based on the reviews I'm reading here, looks like this will be a good one to watch as I'm getting ready to snooze and won't care if I finish it.

 

BoRap didn't thrill me either, maybe because I've seen Mr. Robot before and just saw Rami Malek playing Freddie Mercury as Mr. Robot.

Mills Dude -- Lefty Hack
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I'm gathering that the movie tries to provide insight into Elton's personal life and issues. To those who have seen it... is there much insight into his creative processes? Writing, recording, bandmates?

 

That's a movie I'd be interested in seeing. The other stuff... I dunno. Elton was always a mixed bag during my youth (loved Philadelphia Freedom, hated Crocodile Rock and GBYBR to be honest). I don't recall ever buying an Elton John album, but I bought every Deep Purple album as soon as they came out (where my head was at back then).

 

Now some 45 years plus later everything is kind of a nostalgic mush :laugh: but I'd watch Rocketman if it gets into the nuts and bolts of how things were put together.

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Its rated R so that's no for me. I have no reason to watch other people have explicit sex. I don't care what kind it is. Too bad I like his music, and really don't care about his lifestyle. It's his business not mine. In this day and age do we really have to share every detail with images?

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I'm gathering that the movie tries to provide insight into Elton's personal life and issues. To those who have seen it... is there much insight into his creative processes? Writing, recording, bandmates?

 

I'd say no, not really, and that was another disappointing aspect. BohRhap provided much more of that in my opinion. For instance, as we all know, Elton's music owes much to gospel chord progressions. In the movie, we see Elton as a kid learning classical pieces, then we see him later as keys player for a black soul band, but there is no attempt to show us how his musical thought process evolved. It's not like in Ray, for instance, where you've got those scenes of him playing in a country band that gives you a better appreciation of how that influenced his style and approach. Rocket Man just isn't interested in exposing that. His talent and music is offered as a fait accompli. The movie is interested in his emotional life and his personal relationships to the exclusion of almost everything else. That's my take on it, anyway.

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Thanks Adan... yeah I think I'll pass until home release then. And I agree about BohRhap... other than the jaw dropping recreation of the Live Aid concert at the end, the thing in that movie that had me on the edge of my seat was the barn scene. It was fascinating watching them bounce vocal tracks and wondering if the tape would hold up,
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I'm gathering that the movie tries to provide insight into Elton's personal life and issues. To those who have seen it... is there much insight into his creative processes? Writing, recording, bandmates?

 

I posted earlier I got to work/hang on one of Elton's sessions when Gus Dudgeon was producing him. Gus did talk about how Elton and Bernie work that I found interesting. He said Bernie treats lyric writing like a regular full time job. He has an office above his garage behind his house. In the morning he goes to work and sits at his typewriter and cranks out lyric. At end of day he leaves his office walks back to his house and relaxes. Gus said Elton when prepping for a new album will put together a list of subjects with comments for the type lyrics he wants and sends that to Bernie. Bernie writes the lyrics to order and submits them for Elton to review.

 

What was cool Gus said Elton want to sing a song in a foreign language, but he doesn't speak any other languages and told that to Bernie. Bernies wrote the lyrics to "Solar Prestige a Gammon" for Caribou basically all in syllable that sounded like a foreign language. Gus then pulled out the original lyric sheet Bernie wrote and showed it too us. It was hilarious seeing this gibberish Elton sang. I also found it interesting Bernie types up the lyrics on what looked like that cheap brown paper we were given in elementary school to draw on.

 

There a little backstory for you.

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For instance, as we all know, Elton's music owes much to gospel chord progressions. In the movie, we see Elton as a kid learning classical pieces, then we see him later as keys player for a black soul band, but there is no attempt to show us how his musical thought process evolved.

 

Yes I thought the same thing too. According to movie Elton had crazy good ears and could reproduce anything he heard even before he had lessons. His dad had a good collection of jazz albums and mom would buy him rock n roll albums. I can only assume he developed his style by listening to albums and copying. Good classical chops, raw talent, and a great ear can get you pretty far.

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Just saw itwatchable for sure and very enjoyable at times but also sappy and redundant (although addicts behaviors are always redundant to begin with).

 

My two biggest problems were not getting know the band even a little. Nigel Olsson on drums was the first important post-Ringo rock drummer for me. I even bought his solo album. Harder for me, though, was the leads voice. Capable but not even in the same zip code as Eltons. They should have used the original vocal tracks but that would have limited the production numbers and new arrangements, some of which I felt were unnecessary. If youre doing a biopic of Picasso, you can show an actor starting a painting but in the end you would show real Picasso, not an imitation by someone who painted kind of like him.

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If youre doing a biopic of Picasso, you can show an actor starting a painting but in the end you would show real Picasso, not an imitation by someone who painted kind of like him.

 

I get your point, but Exhibit A to the counter-argument would be the movie Loving Vincent. All animation done in the style of Van Gogh, and really amazing to see, though unfortunately crippled by a mundane story line. But painting is different. A good painter copying a master can come pretty close. A singer copying Ella, Aretha, Elton, etc, probably can't. I don't know much about the actor who portrayed Elton, but I'd say he sings pretty well for an actor.

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i've seen a few Elton tribute guys nail him to a tee both vocally and piano wise. nevertheless ... carry on.

 

my takeaway is the movie isnt accurate to him and his music?

The baiting I do is purely for entertainment value. Please feel free to ignore it.
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  • 2 weeks later...

Jumping on this one a little late but just returned from watching this with my wife at the cinema.

 

Really enjoyed this. Had a real old school musical feel to it and it would translate beautifully to the stage. The surrealist approach worked well and was handled with a light touch. I note the comparisons to Baz Luhrmann but I personally feel the stylings of this film were considerably more subtle than his movies.

 

The highlight for me was the cleverly wrought scene where Elton sings Your Song to Bernie at his mothers piano. The NY Times review posted here by Jazz+ describes it brilliantly.

 

Referring to a comment above, there are no explicit sex scenes in this movie. Couple of blokes briefly kissing with their shirts off is all. The Top Gun beach volleyball scene is steamier.

 

 

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What I came away with from watching the movie is that love is a more essential quality than talent, money, or success.

 

I already felt that way going into the movie, but it certainly reinforced that belief. I'm glad it seems that Elton John has finally found the love he missed during the early years of his life.

 

Best,

 

Geoff

My Blue Someday appears on Apple Music | Spotify | YouTube | Amazon

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I am hoping this will be our monthly movie soon, but there's no guarantee of what will be picked, as usually there has to be some tie-in at the production end with our own gear and I'm not sure if that's the case here. My entire jazz combo wants to see it together. Usually a movie gets chosen for our monthly company screening, right after it comes out on Blu-Ray.

 

For me personally, the songwriting process and the recording details are always more important than the personal drama. I don't really connect with Elton as a person, so don't tend to get very worked up over his happiness the way I do with some of my bigger heroes. But his life journey would still be educational, as he started out thinking he'd just be a writer for others (as did David Bowie and a few other mega-stars). He was very shy.

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  • 2 months later...

I finally got to see this film last night, as it was our monthly freebie at the company theatre (I haven't been in a commercial theatre in almost five years now).

 

I found the childhood segment enjoyable, but most of the rest of the film was horribly depressing, and I chose the longest cocaine binge scene for my bathroom break.

 

Why do both films (same director) deliberately tell lies about important aspects of chronology, background, industry execs and related A/R, Producers, Engineers, etc.? It would be one thing if those people were dead, but they're not, and it could damage their reputations for these knowingly-false narratives to become dominant.

 

Given that the band were a big part of the sound, I'm disappointed that they weren't part of the story at all, except for the early band, whose sax player was in Soft Machine later on. Even the name change part was fouled up for the sake of Hollywood (the first names of two band members were used to form Elton John; Lennon had nothing to do with the inspiration), but it's more innocent than the other untruths, and similar to the fake beginnings of Mercury's involvement with Queen (Freddie was a consultant for eons before joining).

 

It's strange that the marriage is just skirted over (no pun intended); whereas it would have been nice to see how this period affected everyone, as it surely was revelatory in many ways. The fake chronology is also even weirder in the context of this film than it was in Bohemian, as the timing of when songs were written and performed matters even more here.

 

I felt cheated by the end of it all; as though the childhood scenes had been put there just so that we would care what happens to Reggie Dwight after he becomes a #1 self-absorbed jerk, but even during his worst period, others are made out to be villains, and in a very black and white way (just as in Bohemian).

 

The acting was superb throughout, and Giles Martin did a great job curating and engineering the soundtrack elements. It's just that this movie could have been so much more, even without being longer.

 

But in the end, I think Elton John as a person probably just doesn't make for a very compelling story; that on-line show where stars revisit their past (i.e. their home towns), showed such a contrast in his personality with that of McCartney's on the latter's segment, and made me realize why Elton has never been one of my heroes, even though I like some of his songs and have always admired his talent. I saw him live for free a couple of years ago and his band was incredible! It's a shame that they weren't considered part of the story of Elton's success.

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I"m going to jump in too, because I finally saw this movie yesterday. For those of you who haven"t seen me post about the subject in the past, Elton John is in my top five musical influences. I expected to feel about this film the way I do about most music biopics (Ray, Walk the Line, etc): a mostly fun, formulaic time, but I"d prefer to watch a documentary or a concert film.

 

Almost, but not quite. I LOATHED this film. Hated it. From the moment they started modifying Bernie Taupin lyrics to fit them into the mouths of young Elton and his dad and grandmother, I knew the fantasy element of this film was not going to hit the mark for me, and I AM a big musical theater fan. But the majority of the musical sequences made me cringe, even the most straightahead ones, because of Taran Egerton"s ridiculous vocal impression of Elton.

 

I could talk about things I disliked all day, but I"ll make one major point and go home: if the film wasn"t going to be a documentary, if it was going to be this semi-fictionalized, fairytale fable, could they have, perhaps, given us a protagonist who I care about in the slightest? Every single relationship and character in this film was flatter than a sheet of paper, and Elton himself just lets things happen to him and occasionally yells and snorts and goes to rehab. It was an incredible disservice to a man with an interesting, complicated life, with incredible relationships with Bernie Taupin and his band and yes his evil manager and even his damn parents, who are presented as such unfeeling pricks they might as well be in a 1950s propaganda film about family values. If they had focused on any one relationship for more than a few moments (really focused, not repeating this 'why won"t you hug me' tripe), I might have felt something, other than sick.

 

What a disservice to one of the greatest songwriters of the 20th century.

 

Okay, two short, amusing observations, and then I"m done, I mean it this time:

 

1. During the scene when Elton is backstage doing coke (no not that one, the other one), I turned to my wife and deadpanned, 'Do you think his drug abuse is affecting his personal life?' She replied 'I think maybe it"s because he didn"t like his parents, but the movie hasn"t taken a stance on that, so I don"t know.'

 

2. Game of Thrones fans: do you also find it hilarious that in this movie, John Reid is portrayed by the guy who played Rob Stark, while in the Queen biopic, he was played by the guy who played Littlefinger?

Samuel B. Lupowitz

Musician. Songwriter. Food Enthusiast. Bad Pun Aficionado.

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