While not a direct biopic, ‘Rocketman’ is about the soul transformation and exploration of one of the greatest pop rock stars of all time.
The first time I saw Elton John was on my mom’s little TV in her apartment on West 66th Street in Manhattan. I couldn’t have been more than eight years old.
In the video, the dancers are covered with paint. It’s bright and boundary crossing, all these naked, painted people in public. Mom loved MTV. It was new and scintillating, and revealed the existence of so many emerging worlds. Worlds that had been hidden were now exposed to the light of my eyes.
“Rocketman,” directed by Dexter Fletcher and starring the unbelievably compelling and brilliant performer Taron Egerton as Elton John, tells the story of John’s early years. It unfolds the story of a superstar who looks put together, confident, and at the peak of success, but was crumbling inside. Although we often hear stories of the struggles of mega stars, it never quite gets old to know that even the pinnacle of success can leave a person feeling empty inside.
“Rocketman” opens with John in full costume revealing his addictions and excesses to a group therapy session. He’s walked off the stage straight into rehab. It’s a memory play, and would be a great Broadway show, with the ready-made frame of recovery.
More than what would be a “clothesline” musical, in which songs are strung along the line of a scanty book for the sole purpose of selling tickets on the name of a band, “Rocketman” uses the songs to propel story, heighten stakes, and enhance character. The way the songs are woven into the storytelling is really well done, moves both story and emotional life along seamlessly.
As John begins his process of healing, “Rocketman” tracks back through his childhood, where everything starts. As a boy, he did not get the affection he needed from mother or father, ending in him feeling a separate and extra accessory to their sad lives.
It’s his Gran who takes an interest and boosts him, encouraging piano lessons and additional musical study. But the whole family is lacking love, and wants it desperately. Mother, son, and Gran all give, but their love is not received. To give love with joy, a joy that is not accepted or cherished, is a destructively lonely feeling.
As a young man, John’s got composition down, but needs words. He gets a pack of them in an envelope from a potential manager, and as fate would have it, they’re Bernie Taupin’s (played by Jamie Bell) words. They have a collaboration date at a coffee shop, and team up.
It’s such a brilliant match, obviously. There’s nothing like a truly compatible artistic collaborator to ease the loneliness and increase the drive. Taupin became John’s lyricist, and John his composer, for all those hit early songs, and their collaboration is still going strong.
There is a beautiful sequence where John puts Taupin’s lyrics for “Your Song” to music.
