At the beginning of Rocketman, the new Elton John movie, Tara Egerton bursts onto the screen in one of the flamboyant musician's signature outrageous outfits. It is no accident that this particular getup resembles some glam rock demon from one of the more fabulous corners of the netherworld. Carl Jung noted that the Latin word for alcohol is spirtus, that it is "...the same word that we use for for the highest religious experience as well as for the most depraving poison”. Addiction is a spiritual disease; that's why we say that the addict is "wrestling with their demons". Alcohol and other drugs, food, sex, gambling, shopping...all forms of addiction are demonic in the truest sense of the word; they are pathogens that infect our spirit and possess our souls, hijacking our lives and steering us toward ruin. In the depths of his addiction, Elton John has recognized the demon that he has assimilated; he spends the rest of the movie physically and spiritually removing this sequined devil's hide.
Despite the depressing theme, Rocketman is a thoroughly entertaining movie. There are musical movies about musicians: Bohemian Rhapsody, A Star is Born, even Amadeus feature musical numbers that take place on stage or in studios, just as they do in everyday reality. On the other hand, movie musicals like La La Land, Mama Mia, or Evita leave our world behind when characters suddenly break out into song and dance, often to the sounds of an invisible orchestra. Rocketman inhabits both worlds, and is all the better for it.
Some of the wilder scenes evoke the manic rock musicals of the 70s, like Phantom of the Paradise and Tommy (featuring Elton John as the Pinball Wizard). That musical fantasy element is what launches Rocketman into the stratosphere; energetically choreographed musical numbers take place in bars, emergency rooms (one of several scenes that are reminiscent of Bob Fosse’s All That Jazz), city streets, stores, even the bottom of a swimming pool. It gives Rocketman an extra boost that was missing in Bohemian Rhapsody, and makes it easier to overlook the jumbled chronology than it was in the Quuen film. It's hard to get upset about 1983’s “I Guess That’s Why They Call It the Blues” being played at a 1967 audition in a movie where the main character literally blasts off into the heavens during a concert!
These fantasy scenes tell us a lot about the characters. Early in the movie all four members of the Dwight household including young Reggie (who will later assume the identity of Elton John), sing a poignant rendition of "I Want Love”. At this point we’ve seen enough to realize that Elton’s cold and distant father and self centered mother have little time for him, and that the only nurturing presence in his life is his grandmother. The song establishes that all four are experiencing their own isolation and private pain. Love deprivation is a major theme; at one crucial point the singer is told that he will never be “properly loved”, and this verdict echoes throughout the rest of the movie.
“Love” is an English word that covers a variety of meanings. Other languages make distinctions between types of love. Ancient Greek has at least four different words that are rendered as love in English translations; C.S. Lewis gives a definitive account of these in his book The Four Loves. Rocketman takes us on a tour of these four modes of love, as Elton seeks “proper” forms of each. Storge is familial love, or love of a parent for a child. Lewis thought of it as the most unexceptional form of love, rooted as it is in biology; yet it is essential to survival. Elton is denied this by his parents and his doting grandmother is unable to overcome this deficiency. It stunts his emotional growth just as surely as a vitamin deficiency would have marred his physical development.
Eros, sexual love, comes into his life in the person of John Reid, the Irish manager and promoter who introduced Elton to sex (this movie handily earns its "R" rating). Eros is more than just sex, however, it also encompasses what we call romantic love, and Elton's infatuation with Reid is as infused with dreamy romance as it is with lust. Though the relationship continues for years, there doesn't seem to be more to it than that. It's not much of a spoiler to point out that eventually the affair becomes toxic.
Philia, brotherly love, friendship of the highest degree, is present in the person of Bernie Taupin, Elton's lyricist and truest companion throughout their long career. If there is a love story in the movie it is the story of this relationship: Taupin is what the biblical King Solomon called "a friend that sticketh closer than a brother", he stays by troubled Elton's side through good times and bad. Taupin is heterosexual though, so eros doesn't enter the picture. Throughout the movie love and sex are kept in seperate quarters, although in an epilogue it is suggested that Elton managed to unite the two later in life in his marriage to David Furnish. Our modern conception of marriage assumes the combination of philia and eros: spouse as lover and friend. It would have been curious to the ancients, whose "traditional marriages" were arrangements where a spouse was for eros, procreation and financial security while philia was found elsewhere. Thankfully we've moved beyond that.
Despite the depressing theme, Rocketman is a thoroughly entertaining movie. There are musical movies about musicians: Bohemian Rhapsody, A Star is Born, even Amadeus feature musical numbers that take place on stage or in studios, just as they do in everyday reality. On the other hand, movie musicals like La La Land, Mama Mia, or Evita leave our world behind when characters suddenly break out into song and dance, often to the sounds of an invisible orchestra. Rocketman inhabits both worlds, and is all the better for it.
Some of the wilder scenes evoke the manic rock musicals of the 70s, like Phantom of the Paradise and Tommy (featuring Elton John as the Pinball Wizard). That musical fantasy element is what launches Rocketman into the stratosphere; energetically choreographed musical numbers take place in bars, emergency rooms (one of several scenes that are reminiscent of Bob Fosse’s All That Jazz), city streets, stores, even the bottom of a swimming pool. It gives Rocketman an extra boost that was missing in Bohemian Rhapsody, and makes it easier to overlook the jumbled chronology than it was in the Quuen film. It's hard to get upset about 1983’s “I Guess That’s Why They Call It the Blues” being played at a 1967 audition in a movie where the main character literally blasts off into the heavens during a concert!
Love deprivation is a major theme; at one crucial point the singer is told that he will never be 'properly loved', and this verdict echoes throughout the rest of the movie.
These fantasy scenes tell us a lot about the characters. Early in the movie all four members of the Dwight household including young Reggie (who will later assume the identity of Elton John), sing a poignant rendition of "I Want Love”. At this point we’ve seen enough to realize that Elton’s cold and distant father and self centered mother have little time for him, and that the only nurturing presence in his life is his grandmother. The song establishes that all four are experiencing their own isolation and private pain. Love deprivation is a major theme; at one crucial point the singer is told that he will never be “properly loved”, and this verdict echoes throughout the rest of the movie.
“Love” is an English word that covers a variety of meanings. Other languages make distinctions between types of love. Ancient Greek has at least four different words that are rendered as love in English translations; C.S. Lewis gives a definitive account of these in his book The Four Loves. Rocketman takes us on a tour of these four modes of love, as Elton seeks “proper” forms of each. Storge is familial love, or love of a parent for a child. Lewis thought of it as the most unexceptional form of love, rooted as it is in biology; yet it is essential to survival. Elton is denied this by his parents and his doting grandmother is unable to overcome this deficiency. It stunts his emotional growth just as surely as a vitamin deficiency would have marred his physical development.
Eros, sexual love, comes into his life in the person of John Reid, the Irish manager and promoter who introduced Elton to sex (this movie handily earns its "R" rating). Eros is more than just sex, however, it also encompasses what we call romantic love, and Elton's infatuation with Reid is as infused with dreamy romance as it is with lust. Though the relationship continues for years, there doesn't seem to be more to it than that. It's not much of a spoiler to point out that eventually the affair becomes toxic.
Philia, brotherly love, friendship of the highest degree, is present in the person of Bernie Taupin, Elton's lyricist and truest companion throughout their long career. If there is a love story in the movie it is the story of this relationship: Taupin is what the biblical King Solomon called "a friend that sticketh closer than a brother", he stays by troubled Elton's side through good times and bad. Taupin is heterosexual though, so eros doesn't enter the picture. Throughout the movie love and sex are kept in seperate quarters, although in an epilogue it is suggested that Elton managed to unite the two later in life in his marriage to David Furnish. Our modern conception of marriage assumes the combination of philia and eros: spouse as lover and friend. It would have been curious to the ancients, whose "traditional marriages" were arrangements where a spouse was for eros, procreation and financial security while philia was found elsewhere. Thankfully we've moved beyond that.
The last and highest form of love is agape love, Divine Love. Addiction is a counterfeit spirituality; it fills a empty soul with distraction and the false serenity of oblivion. It often mimics the "highest religious experience" that Jung spoke of; that's why its called getting "high". It is a poor substitute for the real thing, and leaves us more empty than when we began. In One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest, Chief recalls that after a while his alcoholic father wasn't drinking out of the bottle anymore, instead the bottle was drinking out of him. Something lasting is needed to fill the emptiness, the "living water" that Jesus described to the Woman at the Well. Most recovery programs have at their heart the recognition that a spiritual disease requires spiritual medicine. an encounter with the agape love, the "higher power" that is necessary for breaking the chains of addiction. While the movie is not explicit about this, the amends and reconciliation and spiritual integration that the fractured Elton John goes through at the climax of the movie suggest such an encounter. The end credits note that he is twenty five years clean and sober, proof of some form of salvation. As the Man from Galilee put it, "By their fruits ye shall know them".
Movies You Might Have Missed
| WiredDan Aykroyd was so angry about this account of his friend John Belushi’s descent into addiction that he asked friends who practiced witchcraft to curse the film. It must have worked: Wired flopped and then all but disappeared. The recently deceased Belushi is given a tour of his life by a sinister cab driver. Uneven and strange, but it stays with you. |
 | All That JazzBob Fosse directed this semi-autobiographical character study of a choreographer whose life is veering tragically out of control. Daring and inventive, All That Jazz is one of the best movies ever made about Broadway. |
 | Sing StreetNot all movies about performers are tragic. Sing Street is a funny and upbeat coming of age story set in 1980s Dublin. A teenager escapes the dreariness of his home life and the repressiveness of his school by forming a New Wave band. |
 | Sunshine on LeithRocketman director Dexter Fletcher made his name with this joyful musical based on the songs of Scottish folk rock duo The Proclaimers. The climatic flash mob rendition of "(I Would Walk) 500 Miles" in the Princes Street Gardens of Edinburgh will leave you smiling for days. |
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