Elton John From the Mind of a Millennial

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One of the last movies I ever watched was "Rocketman". You'd think it's about Buzz Lightyear, especially with its usual poster of a man wearing something that's similar to Buzz's attire, but it's actually a musical/biography about Elton John. Yes, the great singer. "Elton John" is such a well-respected name, permanently etched in history, I found it hard to connect it with the word "rocketman". However, I read about the movie even while they were still filming it, so I already knew it was about Elton John.

I always associate Elton John with "Candle In the Wind" and the funeral of the late Princess Diana, and I expected that the story of the movie would revolve around that. However, watching the movie made me realize that there's more to Elton John than "Candle In the Wind".

I first heard the name "Elton John" when I was around four-years-old. My older sister, Carol, liked to sing his songs and taught me some of them. He was already old and I always saw him only as a bespectacled musician who sat next to his piano and sang in a very, very deep, strong voice. His songs were hard to sing because he was like a baritone.

I don't know about you, but it was only when I started getting old that I began to understand that my elders also used to be young. As a kid, I saw old people as just old people. I imagined Elton John was always the Elton John I saw in the pictures and on TV. I never pictured him as a young person. So this movie is just surprising because it shows Elton John during his younger years, living the life and having the problems of a typical young person. Although not so "typical", because he was talented and became successful very quickly. It is surprising to see an Elton John that is still dreaming of going big, getting a stage fright (I really love how Taron Egerton did that panic attack in the bathroom), getting distracted by vices, and searching for love.

During the time that I learned about Elton John, everybody already knew that he was gay. Nobody made a big deal out of it, because it wasn't a big deal anyway. He's a great musician with wonderful songs, and being gay doesn't make him any less of a great musician with wonderful songs. The biggest thing that I learned from "Rocketman" is Elton John's life as a gay man, because it was no longer discussed during my time. The movie deeply explored it, and the most interesting thing to me is watching it unfold at an older time. Being gay was such a taboo concept back then, and whoever was gay was cursed to a life of uncontrollably taboo things. What his mother said, "You will never be loved properly", can make headlines and cause an outrage in my time. It was spoken like being gay was an abnormality, like Elton John turned out as an aberrated, multicellular mistake. We just don't think of it like that today, so the statement gave a kind of cultural shock. I'm glad the film reiterated it in the credits, because the film was made in a more advanced time.

The movie also shows Elton John struggling with the common things that most young famous people struggle with. As someone who always saw him as an old living legend, I never imagined he had actually gone through the petty issues of youth and fame like drugs, arrogance, turning away friends and family, and a lot of wrong decisions. The movie gave me a knowledge of Elton John that is fuller than the musical icon that I listened to as a kid.

"Rocketman" is a biographical musical about Elton John, one of the icons of music, but it gives the modern audience a chance to see how far we have come. As much as his music has been a part of so many lives in so many parts of the world, it shows us Elton John's struggles through various areas of life while creating all the songs that we love so much. I think the movie adds to the greatness of his reputation.

References

Fletcher, D. (2019). Rocketman. New Republic Pictures.