I've been an Elton John fan most of my life. My love for the music of Elton and Bernie literally shaped who I am. So I REALLY wanted to love this movie but I left the theater irritated and disappointed.
My biggest gripes were: 1.) Some of the musical numbers were corny and out of character (e.g. young Elton dancing through the streets, acting tough and singing "Saturday". The young Elton John actors/singers were not very good either. 2.) The "fantasy" aspects and creative liberties taken to distort facts were annoying. For example, the scene at the Troubadour. It was corny having Elton and the audience flying but I get that the filmmakers wanted to communicate that the concert was a surreal, life changing evening for everyone there. What made me MAD is that he was playing Crocodile Rock! That was absurd. He and Bernie didn't even write that until '72. Plus, that song is NOT why people would have been blown away with him performance. It's a catchy little ditty that got great airplay but is not one of the songs that make Elton & Bernie great. The real set list for the Troubadour was songs like "Your Song", "Border Song", "Take Me to the Pilot", "Burn Down the Mission". That's the amazing stuff he played that night that rocked people's worlds. Not radio pop "Crocodile Rock". I don't see how any real Elton John can be happy with that gross distortion of facts. How about him playing part of "Sad Songs" for Dick James in 1969? What? That song, one of their worst commercial pop songs, was written in '83. Decades after that scene. Do the filmmaker's think we are stupid? That's not fantasy - that's just wrong! 3.) The majority of the movie was about Elton's struggles with drug/alcohol abuse, sexuality/relationships, and Mommy & Daddy issues. While it was interesting to learn about him as a person, other than some great scenes about his early days writing with Bernie, there was almost nothing about the music and how it was created. The fact that he and Elton and his band (Davey Johnstone, Nigel Olsson, Dee Murray, Ray Cooper and others) recorded dozens of great albums in cooperation with producer Gus Dudgeon and arranger Paul Buckmaster and that the band performed thousands of concerts was completely omitted from the film. In fact, the movie suggested that Elton didn't enjoy performing concerts. Like the only reason he was there was because his manager propped him up and forced him onstage. Really? Elton must have spent a huge amount of time writing, recording and performing during the first decade of his career. Was he really a wreck who was constantly wasted and feeling sorry for himself the whole time? Were there no happy moments writing music, in the recording studio, onstage? If not then I feel I have wasted my time being a fan all these years. I thought he actually liked the music but the movie suggested that once he became famous it was all about sex, drugs and depression.
Were there things I liked? Sure. I really enjoyed the depiction of the early days in Elton and Bernie's relationship and particularly loved the scene with Elton writing the music to "Your Song". The Elton/Bernie relationship was well represented throughout the movie and the acting/singing of Taron Egerton was superb. Jamie Bell was fantastic. It made me like and admire Bernie even more than I already did. The recreation of scenes like Elton's childhood home, the Troubadour, Dodger Stadium, etc. were really well done with a ton of attention to detail. Which made it even more irritating that the filmmakers thought it was OK to distort other facts like claiming the Elton's last name was inspired by a picture of John Lennon. Sure, that would have been nice but they rewrote history. Elton has documented that it was because he liked Long John Baldry. Why change well documented facts? That's not being "fantastical" - that's just lying.
My biggest gripes were: 1.) Some of the musical numbers were corny and out of character (e.g. young Elton dancing through the streets, acting tough and singing "Saturday". The young Elton John actors/singers were not very good either. 2.) The "fantasy" aspects and creative liberties taken to distort facts were annoying. For example, the scene at the Troubadour. It was corny having Elton and the audience flying but I get that the filmmakers wanted to communicate that the concert was a surreal, life changing evening for everyone there. What made me MAD is that he was playing Crocodile Rock! That was absurd. He and Bernie didn't even write that until '72. Plus, that song is NOT why people would have been blown away with him performance. It's a catchy little ditty that got great airplay but is not one of the songs that make Elton & Bernie great. The real set list for the Troubadour was songs like "Your Song", "Border Song", "Take Me to the Pilot", "Burn Down the Mission". That's the amazing stuff he played that night that rocked people's worlds. Not radio pop "Crocodile Rock". I don't see how any real Elton John can be happy with that gross distortion of facts. How about him playing part of "Sad Songs" for Dick James in 1969? What? That song, one of their worst commercial pop songs, was written in '83. Decades after that scene. Do the filmmaker's think we are stupid? That's not fantasy - that's just wrong! 3.) The majority of the movie was about Elton's struggles with drug/alcohol abuse, sexuality/relationships, and Mommy & Daddy issues. While it was interesting to learn about him as a person, other than some great scenes about his early days writing with Bernie, there was almost nothing about the music and how it was created. The fact that he and Elton and his band (Davey Johnstone, Nigel Olsson, Dee Murray, Ray Cooper and others) recorded dozens of great albums in cooperation with producer Gus Dudgeon and arranger Paul Buckmaster and that the band performed thousands of concerts was completely omitted from the film. In fact, the movie suggested that Elton didn't enjoy performing concerts. Like the only reason he was there was because his manager propped him up and forced him onstage. Really? Elton must have spent a huge amount of time writing, recording and performing during the first decade of his career. Was he really a wreck who was constantly wasted and feeling sorry for himself the whole time? Were there no happy moments writing music, in the recording studio, onstage? If not then I feel I have wasted my time being a fan all these years. I thought he actually liked the music but the movie suggested that once he became famous it was all about sex, drugs and depression.
Were there things I liked? Sure. I really enjoyed the depiction of the early days in Elton and Bernie's relationship and particularly loved the scene with Elton writing the music to "Your Song". The Elton/Bernie relationship was well represented throughout the movie and the acting/singing of Taron Egerton was superb. Jamie Bell was fantastic. It made me like and admire Bernie even more than I already did. The recreation of scenes like Elton's childhood home, the Troubadour, Dodger Stadium, etc. were really well done with a ton of attention to detail. Which made it even more irritating that the filmmakers thought it was OK to distort other facts like claiming the Elton's last name was inspired by a picture of John Lennon. Sure, that would have been nice but they rewrote history. Elton has documented that it was because he liked Long John Baldry. Why change well documented facts? That's not being "fantastical" - that's just lying.