So the film kicks off with a childhood flashback in which a young John sings “The Bitch Is Back,” which wasn’t recorded until 1974. “I was three or four when I first started listening to records like that.”. “I remember his mother, in her very sort of dictatorial way, going, ‘that’s a good one!’”. You can also choose to be emailed when someone replies to your comment. Word-of-mouth, plus a rapturous L.A. Times review written by Robert Hilburn, generated a frenzy around the British newcomer. Despite the rocky relations, John’s family was responsible for his early musical inclinations. Another celebrity who will be sharing stories of their trials and tribulations will be Hillary Clinton on The Graham Norton Show. The scene in the movie in which the name “John” comes to him while looking at a photograph of John Lennon and the Beatles appears to have been added for narrative flair. ", "Watching Seven Worlds, One Planet, it’s hard to know what to worry about most: the future of wildlife – catastrophically imperilled by our fondness for fossil fuels, long-haul travel and convenience food – or Attenborough himself, now 93 and one of the few people that the world will listen to about the impending apocalypse. Several biographies of John back up the film’s depiction of his parents’ relationship as an unhappy one, and they divorced when John was 13. The existing Open Comments threads will continue to exist for those who do not subscribe to Independent Premium. While John is proudly gay, he did have at least two significant relationships with women. But Taupin’s words weren’t the only ones that could immediately summon melodies. Rock music, which has been going through a rather uneventful period lately, has a new star,” Hilburn wrote). The focus on these intricate dances means that after a while we begin to question the idea of objective truth, as well as the facts at hand. It’s unclear what The Light is, exactly, which is deliberate. Viv Rook makes Ann Widdecombe look like, well, Emma Thompson at an Extinction Rebellion sit-in. The reporter notes that “for Elton, money long ago became as abstract as grain futures,” referring to recent acquisitions including an $80,000 yacht, a $2,300 raccoon coat and a Rembrandt artwork. After he quit school to focus on his passion for music, Reg (as he is known to those close to him) moved away from home and decided to reinvent himself. Some reports note that they physically fought on occasion, as depicted in the film when Reid slaps John in the street outside London’s Royal Albert Hall. You can’t buy love, even if you pay for David Attenborough. All Rights Reserved. About The Elton John Story. But, inevitably, as he scrawls out his campaigning brainwaves on a whiteboard, there is a touch of that deductive maverick Sherlock in his portrayal of this scruffy, balding political saboteur.”, “The programme-makers must have done much to win the confidence of so many friends and families, as they went through unspeakable personal pain; but they repay that confidence with an understated and powerful film.”, “This documentary goes behind the shrubbery to show off these animals and their guardians. “Some of the elements and scenes in the film, of course they’re not going to be exactly as they happened,” Bernie Taupin, John’s songwriting partner and lyricist, who’s played by Jamie Bell in the movie, told TIME in an interview. “All I can say is, John Reid should be happy that someone as good-looking as Richard Madden got to play him.”. Derry Girls, returning for a triumphant and exuberant second run, proves that humour, dark or otherwise, can be quarried from even the most unlikely of locations. ", "Timely, bleak, intelligent and compelling, Chernobyl is a triumph of a disaster. Feature length Drama Documentary on the life of singer songwriter Elton John. And while Rocketman places his future manager and lover John Reid at the show, Reid first saw John in performance a week later, according to a 1974 interview. And while the melancholy tone may not be for everyone, fans of the book will surely be sated. But I just haven’t led a PG-13 rated life.” He also says there were moments in the film “where I’m completely disgusting and awful, but then, at my worst, I was disgusting and awful.” Towards the end of the film, Taupin visits John in rehab, a scene that did happen in real life. ", "Damon Lindelof’s version of the beloved graphic novel is a compelling demonstration of what can happen when source material is treated with sensitivity and imagination.