Rocketman

So I went off to the cinema again last night to watch yet another film -becoming a real cinemaphile.

The usual gang of family and friends with a couple more. enjoying our recliner seats in anticipation of what was to come.

This time we watched Rocketman which was a biopic of Elton John.

Having watched the biopic of Queen (my favourite band)- Bohemian Rhapsody, this was a chance to make comparisons

The premise (SPOILER alert) starts in a therapy group whereby Elton John begins his story as the young Reg Dwight and through his childhood, growing adolescence ,meeting Bernie Taupin (lyricist) finding stardom,becoming Elton John, his hidden homosexuality and how he ended up trying to ‘conform’ with the perceived norms whilst being outrageous and how it nearly destroyed him.

The film is not shy in pulling punches and there is a warning around drug use, swearing and sexuality before you watch.

As one of my fellow watchers noted “my bum went numb” as I was transfixed and didn’t realise that 2 hours had gone by.

Analysing the film, it showed the childlike vulnerability due to perceived and real rejection, leading to him overcompensating in life for his feelings whereby he lacked real love.

The story moved along at a fair pace, and was different in style from Bohemian Rhapsody.

The character of Jim Reid who was Elton’s (and Queen’s) manager and also lover, played a big part and it was interesting to show the predatory element of the relationship by Reid compared to Bohemian Rhapsody with Queen. This reinforced some of the ‘headlines I have seen growing up about Reid and his shady dealings/ narcissistic actions.

It was interesting that the songs narrated his life were not in chronological order but this didn’t detract from enjoying them.

The screenplay is by Lee Hall (Billy Elliot writer) not my friend Lee and there are well known actors-too many to list

Safe to say that I enjoyed the film

9 out of 10

Author: Joe Campling

Joseph Campling lives in Buckinghamshire, and is married with adult children. He trained as a both a General and Mental Health Nurse in the South East of the United Kingdom in the mid 1980’s and has worked in various roles over the past 30 years. His first authored article in 2007 was jointly written about the need to share positive research based practice amongst care teams locally which was then published in a professional journal. He published “Mild Musings May Mitigate My Mentality” which was his first collection of poems in 2018. He has subsequently published MERRING or is it MRS GREN? Having written sporadically over the years (usually for friends and family) he has been writing more consistently over the past two years and has begun to recite his poetry at various Open Mic nights and Spoken Word events. He is often found ‘scribbling’ and then performing what he has just written. He recently has also been collaborating with a jazz composer by writing lyrics which have been put to music. His interests include watching live music, trying to play the guitar (still project in progress) and quizzing. He also likes to watch TV; mostly factual documentaries, comedy and quiz shows He also needs to read more and swears that he will do so very soon as he has a pile of books to read. He also ‘hangs out’ with members of the local drama club although he has no plans to act but is partial to the odd pint of orange juice and lemonade!! He follows rugby and can sometimes be found cheering his team on (London Irish) whether they win or lose. View all posts by Joe Campling