How Rocketman’s Vulnerable Outlandish Creativity Inspires Me As An Artist

[let’s revise this title to reflect your academic content now, not the personal review]
[It looks like your Abstract is missing! Fix that.]

In the biopic made about

Elton John called Rocketman (2019),
some of the leading performers
include Taron Egerton, Jaime Bell,
Richard Madden, and Bryce Dallas
Howard. The plot of the movie is the
life of Elton John, starting first at his
youth when he discovers his musical
talents of being able to pick up piano
instantly and composing music. He
starts to attend music school, stars in
a band, goes on tour as the opening
act, and goes to a music recording
company, where out of random
chance he gets paired up with the
lyricist Bernie Taupin. The rest of
the movie continues as it follows
A scene from Rocketman, when Elton Elton's rapid rise to fame as well as
him juggling addiction to drugs,
John (Taron Egerton) is first plucking out sex, and rock and roll. [In your
the notes to what is known to be “Your paper I am seeing lots of double
Song.” spacings between words that look
like you copy-pasted from a PDF
into a word processor. Fix all of
these double spaces throughout your
entire paper so that I can’t tell you
are copy pasting.]
I experienced Rocketman for the first time on the opening weekend back in 2019. This
movie, as well as Elton John himself, moved me due to having grown up listening to his music.
My mom is a massive fan of his music, and therefore it was always playing in the house. I have
constantly associated his music with my mom, which already makes the movie have a positive
impact on me, but over the years I found myself actually listening willingly. Then with this movie
and quarantine, it is like I couldn’t get enough: I become obsessed. It was like the opposite of
when people say that if you hear/see/play something over and over again, you are bound to hate it.
The opposite happened for me with Elton John’s music and movie: it is the gift that keeps on
giving. I keep discovering either more of his songs or lyrics that resonate deeply with me due to
his career being so long. I cannot tell you how many times I have rewatched this movie. The big
over-the-top way that Dexter Fletcher (the director) decided to show Elton's life through this
fantasy musical production lens moved me to care about Elton's personal life, rooting for him to
succeed and be happy. I grew to have a deep connection with his music. Each song tells a story
that has resonated with me and some part of my life. His genre of music (mostly consisting of
1970’s[ßno apostrophe] pop) really clicks with my personal taste and the big over-the-top way
that Dexter Fletcher (the director) decided to show Elton's life through this fantasy musical
production lens impacted me when I was watching it and moved me to care about Elton's personal
life and happiness.
Examples of how his
songs have major significance to
me is how the lyrics of “Honky
Cat”’s lyrics describe someone
who used to live rurally and now
is in urban living. I relate to this
song due to having lived in a
suburban neighborhood in Texas
and would visit family in Mexico
City, a complete 180 in terms of
atmosphere. In the song
“Rocketman,” the way the synths
and soft rock music as well as the
differing tempos throughout the
song makes me feel like I am in The scene above is depicting Elton John’s first suicide
space. I just lose myself in all of attempt in the movie, where he floats down to the bottom
his music and that’s what makes of a pool to sing “Rocketman” to a younger version of
it so special. Elton John’s way himself in a scuba diver costume playing the piano.
of storytelling through music
inspires me to do the same but
in my medium, the movie
emphasizes that by literally
using his own music to tell his
story.
There was a mild
controversy when the movie
premiered, with Variety’s Anna
Tingley shaming the movie for
being rated R, with The Guardian’s
The Observer reporting that
Paramount tried to cut out a gay
sex scene. I fully disagree with how
Paramount tried to water- down
Elton’s John life in order to make
the movie more marketable,
defeating the purpose of making a
biopic of his life in the first place.
There is a review of the movie on
The scene above is depicting Elton John’s sex and drug RogerEbert.com, where Christy
addiction by having him crowd surfing over an orgy while Lemire writes that if you were to
intoxicated while “Bennie and the Jets” is underscoring. watch Rocketman, the viewer would
assume Elton John never had a
happy moment in his life. Again, I disagree due to getting to actually show the seriousness of
Elton John’s addiction.
For example, Bohemian Rhapsody (2018) had a PG-13 rating, barely touching the
more serious side of Freddie Mercury’s life, glossing up AIDS as an inconvenience. Lemire
continues by comparing Bohemian Rhapsody to Rocketman, saying[comma]
“Both were flashy, gay, British musical icons, producing insanely catchy tunes around the
same era. Both reinvented themselves to escape the truth of their mundane
upbringings….. Fletcher also happened to direct both films... “Rocketman” is superior in a
lot of ways, but both films adhere to such a predictable narrative that they’re similarly
frustrating.” (Lemire) [ßblockquote long quotes like I show here]
She vents their frustrations with the movie, saying how the actor Taron Edgerton and the scenes
that use “Your Song” and “Rocketman” are, “like a mini-movie unto itself…...surprisingly
effective,”, while other scenes were “rather simplistic.” (Lemire). While she might have a point, I
claim that the more simplistic scenes serve a purpose to show more of the humanity/normalness of
Elton John's life: he wasn’t always a rock star. Those scenes were essential in order to show
more depth into Elton John, plus making those huge production scenes seem grander since they do
not make up the entire movie.
Moving on from the critics and
audiences, Rocketman was received well
when it came to award season, resulting in 76
nominations and 21 wins (source?). [cite
your source in-line] Almost all of their wins,
the most prestigious being an Oscar and The
Golden Globe are towards the original song
in the movie “I’m Gonna (Love Me Again)”
and 4 individual wins for Taron Egerton’s
portrayal of Elton John. Rocketman’s budget
was 40 million dollars and it grossed 195.2
million dollars, being considered the “The
Second-Most Successful Musical Biopic
Ever”. I would argue that Rocketman is
better more accurate and more complicated
Taron Edgerton won the Golden Globe for
[ßremember how we phrase quality Best Actor in a Musical Comedy Motion
judgments in academic writing] than Picture in 2020.
Bohemian Rhapsody due to the portrayal of
Elton John’s life being more extreme in comparison to the sugarcoated randomly cut and paste
portrayal of Freddie Mercury’s life. Rocketman took Elton John’s issues and made them a part of
the story, front and center, while Bohemian Rhapsody barely addressed it.
I believe that Rocketman is the more authentic biopic than Bohemian Rhaspody because
Rocketman makes the telling of Elton John’s life more complicated, having the gritty parts of his
life such as substance abuse, sex addiction and coming to terms with his sexuality totally on
display. Bohemian Rhapsody hides and whitewashes Freddie Mercury’s very complicated life,
disrespecting and misrepresenting him as more than just an idol. [this is where you can provide a
transition sentence explaining that you wanted to better understand this issue, so you did academic
research on representations of authenticity.]
In the thesis Is This Real Life? Is This Just Fantasy? A Musicological Research on
Authentic Representation in Musical Biopics, Rinske Lerk first addresses the reborn popularity of
musical biopics, with the newest additions to the genre being Bohemian Rhapsody (2018) and
Rocketman (2019). He bases all of his opinions on his questioning thesis: “what is the importance
of authentic representation in a musical biopic for critics?” (Lerk 5) He then starts to analyze what
are the components that make a successful biopic: “authentic representation.” He goes further into
breaking down what does it mean to be authentic, whether it be the actual actor singing in the
movies or whether the movie is portraying the scenes of that exact moment as factual as life. He
references the success box office hits Bohemian Rhapsody and Rocketman in the introduction,
reviewing the controversy that Bohemian Rhapsody has caused and why critics were more
inclined to like Rocketman, even though Bohemian Rhapsody swept during award season.
Rinske Lerk lists off all the forms of authenticity when it comes to music and “questions
that “perhaps there is such a thing as biographical authenticity.” (Lerk 6) He begins his argument
with “A Brief History of Musical Biopic”, stating that they began in the 1930’s, [ßno apostrophe
in 1930s] even though they seemed to be the backburner of biopics. “The development of the
genre came in to halt, only to be picked up in the 1990’s.” (Lerk 8). [ßno apostrophe in 1990s,
make sure you quote exactly] At that time, the word biopics was tainted, with people assuming
that if it was a bad movie, it was a biopic. “This attitude has changed in the early twenty-first
century and the label biopic is now used as an objective term.” Rinske Lerk then brings this all
back to Bohemian Rhapsody and Rocketman, stating that Rocketman was marketed as a “musical
fantasy” while Bohemian Rhapsody was marketed as a biographical film “and has become the
most successful musical biopic of all time. Despite the success of the genre, [Rocketman]is still
not generally accepted.”
He continues on in his next segment
“General Ideas on Authenticity” breaking
down what it means to be authentic and what
it means to be representative. Rinske Lerk
describes representation is that it is as simple
as something that uses “‘... language to say
something meaningful about, or to represent,
the world meaningfully, to other people.’' He
continues to say that authenticity is harder to
The images above depict the describe due to it being so complex. Rinske
Lerk references Hugh Barker and Yuval
comparisons between the actors Taylor with saying that authenticity is “an
and the actual people they are absolute, a goal that can never be fully
based on in Elton John’s life in attained, a quest.” (Barker and Taylor quoted
Rocketman(2019) in Lerk 11). [ßcite page number in-line for
every quote, credit your sources quotes like I
show here] Richard Lerk then starts arguing
whether rock authenticity is commercialized and whether that affects the story that is being told of
an actual person-—not an ad. He continues on about how authenticity is always identified as the
original and is always in opposition to fakeness, using the trope of how the musical biopics
usually don’t use the actual musician’s voice within the soundtrack as a point to his on-going
questioning of authenticity. [So do some people think that an overdub of the original singer (like
Freddy Mercury over Malik) is more authentic, and some people think that the actor/actress
singing in their own voice is more authentic (like Egerton does)? Is that the complicated lesson
about authenticity here? Be clear about that.]
In the next segment, Rinske Lerk goes over “Review Analysis”: specifically over their
originality alongside authenticity. He focuses on what the critics say
about authentic originality in the biopic, specifically in the casting.
He mentions how it is not only the main character that is important,
but everyone around them as it makes up for all the people that one
musician met in their life.

He moves on from the cast of characters to

the content of the movie itself, and whether
the critics look at it as a whole or not, noting
how “the story show has already happened
and is now recreated.” [cite page number]
But keeping in mind “that a biopic is a film,
not a documentary.” [cite page number] He
then starts to find the common patterns of
what biopics consist of, such as “showing the
highlights of the career and it being a rise-to
stardom-tale.” [cite page number] Rinske
Lerk references YouTuber Patrick Willems, who says that there is a
formula with these movies, “implicat[ing] that musical biopics show lives
in certain ways so the audience will enjoy watching it.” (17). [ßpage
numbers like this for every quote] He moves on, saying that originality is
also judged on how the artist is represented in the movie, with the
“biopics [being a way] to show that a musician has/had integrity.” (page).
Rinske Lerk then continues on to his next segment, which is “Liveness in Musical
Biopics” in which he discusses the factor of whether the movie dedicates time to the actual
creation of the music as well as using actual live recordings. The critics pay more attention to
whether the actor playing the musician is actually singing. Overall he concludes that it honestly
depends on the actor and the kind of authenticity that the biopic needs. For example, Rinske Lerk
references Rocketman getting commended for having Taron Egerton sing his part, while
Bohemian Rhapsody had Rami Malek lip-synch to Freddie Mercury. The critics seemed to favor
those movies in which the actors actually sang due to adding authenticity to the film. This all
relates to the “authentic reproduction”, in which the actors have to go through the same process as
the artist they are playing and makes them feel more grounded and real-giving them integrity. He
then breaks down more on authenticity with both sections “Explicit Remarks of Authenticity” and
“Authentic Representation.” Most of what he discusses involves the argument that it rather not the
actors themselves cannot sing, but rather live up to the representation of the icon they are playing.
He then argues against a critic that bashes Taron Egerton’s performance of Elton John for not
being authentic to Elton John but authentic as an actor. It starts to get more complicated as he
breaks it down. He also talks about whether genre changes how authentic the musical biopic can
be in the last section: “Genre Comparison.” He describes says that the music discussed in the
movie, whether it be rock or classical, affects the genre and the liveness of the rest of the film.
[ßI don’t quite understand this point, what impact does genre difference make here?] He then
summarizes all that is discussed in the conclusion, where he Lerk doesn’t really have an answer of
if there is a right or wrong way to do a musical biopic. Yet, he ends the essay with a hopeful
message that musical biopics are going to “enter
new stages in its existence.” [ßcite page]
Rocketman digs deeper into Elton John’s
issues more than Bohemian Rhapsody addresses
Freddy Mercury’s issues, by using psychology to
explore more of the complexity of the upbringing
of Elton Johnthis icon. [ßclarify your reader’s
parsing like I show here—good transition
sentence!] In the article “We are Still Standing:
Internal Family Systems and Rocketman,”Crystal
L. Hughes, Emily Horton, and Tonya R.
Hammer connects and [ßI can see evidence of
copy-pasting the PDF here, be careful to erase all
of evidence of that. Also, please stop copy-pasting from the PDF] analyzes the internal family
systems theory with how Dexter Fletcher has portrayed Elton John’s life in Rocketman (2019),
specifically a certain scene that takes place in a group meeting at a rehabilitation center. The idea
of the Internal Family System is a model that combines systems thinking with the view that the
mind is made up of relatively discrete subpersonalities, each with its own unique viewpoint and
qualities. In the final scene the internal family systems theory is in full effect, with “the significant
people in Elton John’s life, his mother, father, step-father, grandmother, agent, and co-writer,
emerge with different voices and speaking phrases from Elton John’s own internal dialogue.”
(Hughes 1) [?] how this specific part of the “movie is an impeccable illustration of Internal Family
Systems theory (IFS).” [ßYou messed up your corrections here, go back to the PDF of my
comments on your summary to see how to fix this. Pay attention to the comment rather than copy-
pasting the tracked changes] They reference Richard Swartz, who is the one who first introduced
the internal family system theory, suggesting there are different roles involved: “ the Self,
protectors, and exiles.” (Hughes 2) [ßuse a single font for your entire paper, Times New Roman]
Within the realm of protectors, there are either managers or firefighters. In the first section where
they start to fully define the roles in
the internal family system theory,
“the Self [is] central to a person,
cannot be “damaged,” and is
consistent throughout development
as the compassionate and wise
presence.” (Hughes 2)They describe
it as the first initial part of us, if
you will. “The Self as the part of
our personality that has been with
us since the beginning of our life,
the Self connects with others, and
the Self displays admirable qualities
of curiosity, confidence, and
creativity.”(Hughes 2)
 Hughes et al. then move on to
one of the protector roles, “The
manager role is one of two protective
parts, whose job is to protect a person
and help them adapt to changes in
social and interpersonal situations.”
(Hughes 2). These are what you
typically feel is the emotionally
hardened part of your personality,
making sure you can function during
hard times. “Managers are the parts
that are perfectionistic, want to please people, and
ultimately control the person and their response to
situations in life.”(Hughes 3) The next protector
role they go over is “the firefighter”, which is
different from the managers because the
firefighters specifically deal with “protecting the
person from the pain of deep emotion. Unlike
managers, firefighters provide distraction from
the pain rather than control, and rush into a
The scenes above depict the situation reactively, regardless of the
therapy scene at the end of the consequences.” In the movie, Elton John’s anger
movie, where Elton John accepts and more flamboyant side, the side that puts on
the show, is the side to be considered the
Reginald Dwight for who he is, firefighter role. [ßgood clarification—it is funny
truly and finally. that his
flaming
side is his
firefighter, lol] They mention consistently throughout each
of the definitions that each role has good intentions only,
but with the firefighter role, it is infamously known for
having short term and reactive responses. Which can lead
to bad decisions in the long run, such as substance abuse
and such activities that try to numb from deep pain. The
last role to be defined is “the exile. Exiles are the most
child-like and vulnerable parts in a family system.” [ßcite
page number] The movie starts with showing Elton John’s
childhood, taking on the perspective of him as a young The image above depicts
Reginald Dwight. While the other roles seem to be Elton John is his
permanent and there with a purpose, the reason this one is enormous flamboyant
called the exile is because this part is often exiled due to costume to
the trauma it had to endure, usually at a very young age.
Hughes et al. elaborate on how the IFS deals with
overcompensate his
and heals trauma in their next section. They say that trauma and feelings.
delving into their trauma through this lens makes it easier
to analyze and find ways to make it better, with identifying the trauma such as “acute trauma,
complex or relational trauma, developmental trauma, combat trauma, extreme or dissociative
trauma, and other post-traumatic stress disorder….Historically, IFS is an efficacious treatment
tending to trauma symptoms, such as dissociation, self-destructive behavior, internalized shame,
etc.”(Hughes 3)
They continue to expand on that and then start to tie it all back to Rocketman. In their new
section, they begin to describe Elton John’s journey, with “his incredible musical skill, his
personal challenges with his sexuality and relationships, and ultimately his addiction and
subsequent recovery.” (Hughes 3). [ßwhen you cite in-line, periods go after the parentheses like
this, not in the quotation marks] They list off the people that Elton John surrounded himself with,
such as his mom and dad, grandmother, his toxic manager and ex boyfriend, and his lyricist and
closest friend Bernie. What Dexter Fletcher made was also make Elton John’s younger self,
Reginald Dwight, be a whole character apart from Elton John. In the scene being depicted, they
all step out of the shadows in a recovery group meeting when Elton is finally opening up and is
ready to heal. “It is evident to even the novice viewer that Elton John’s family and friends are not
actually standing in front of him in present time but represent internal interactions.” They break
down what each piece of dialogue for each character in this pivotal moment means in terms of
what roles they played in Elton John’s IFS. They also analyze the specific costuming that Elton
has throughout the movie and how that is his firefighter role in him trying to protect him from
having to deal with hard and overwhelming trauma happening to him. “The costumes represent an
emotional barrier of self-preservation between Elton and the painful road to
embracing his authentic Self. Elton’s self-preservation and penultimate defense against the world
emerges when he says, “Real love is hard to come by. So, you learn to cope without it” (Fletcher,
2019). There is no-doubt that the firefighter part of Elton encourages his efforts of self-
preservation through measures fueled by shame.” (Hughes 5)
In conclusion, by using psychology as well as stripping back the glamour of fame to show
how complicated and messy it can be is what makes Rocketman superior to Bohemian Rhapsody.
Life is more messy, more complicated and Rocketman highlights that with the mixing of it all.
[Carefully look at the advice I gave about writing conclusions and thesis statements. Follow steps
6 through 8 on our prompt for this assignment (go to the link under Week 8 [April 26] listed on
our Canvas home page). You should be thinking about how authenticity and IFS intersect. What
would each of your academic authors think about what the other author(s) say? Does an IFS
interpretation impact authenticity in a way that Lerk does not consider? Explain this clearly to
develop a thesis.]
[Fix your Works Cited, alphabetical order, put in MLA format, etc.]
[You may want to use your grammar checker to find all of the random double spaces you left in
here from line wraps in the PDF. Microsoft Word also auto-highlights these errors with a double-
underline.]
[Great work on this draft! Please make careful revisions, I really want to see you turn this
into a perfect paper!]

Works Cited

Lerk, R.S. “Is This the Real Life? Is This Just Fantasy? A Musicological Research on Authentic
Representation in Musical Biopics.”, 1 Jan. 1970,
 dspace.library.uu.nl/handle/1874/393484.

Hughes, Crystal L., et al. “We’Re Still Standing: Internal Family Systems and Rocketman.”
Journal of Creativity in Mental Health, 2020, pp. 1–9.,
doi:10.1080/15401383.2020.1842275.

Bean, Travis. “Box Office: 'Rocketman' Is Nearly The Second-Most Successful Musical Biopic
Ever.” Forbes, Forbes Magazine, 8 Aug. 2019,
www.forbes.com/sites/travisbean/2019/07/31/box-office-rocketman-is-nearly-the-second most-
successful-musical-biopic-ever/.

Contributor, IMDb. “Rocketman (2019).” IMDb, IMDb, 31 May 2019,

www.imdb.com/title/tt2066051/?ref_=nv_sr_srsg_0.

Contributor, IMDb. “Rocketman - Awards.” IMDb, IMDb.com, 17 May 2019,

www.imdb.com/title/tt2066051/.

Holden, Stephen. "Elton John". Encyclopedia Britannica, 3 Apr. 2020,

https://www.britannica.com/biography/Elton-John. Accessed 17 March 2021.

Lemire, Christy. “Rocketman Movie Review & Film Summary (2019): Roger Ebert.” Movie
Review & Film Summary (2019) | Roger Ebert, 28 May 2019,
www.rogerebert.com/reviews/rocketman-2019.

Observer, The. “Elton John: 'They Wanted to Tone down the Sex and Drugs. But I Haven't Led a
PG-13 Life'.” The Guardian, Guardian News and Media, 26 May 2019,
www.theguardian.com/global/2019/may/26/elton-john-in-my-own-words-exclusive-my-
life and-making-rocketman.

, SMF. “Elton John’s ‘Honky Cat’ Lyrics MeaningSMF.” Song Meanings + Facts, 15 June 2019,
www.songmeaningsandfacts.com/elton-johns-honky-cat-lyrics-meaning/.

Tingley, Anna. “Taron Egerton Calls 'Rocketman' Sex Scene Controversy 'Nonsense'.”
Variety, Variety, 4 Apr. 2019, variety.com/2019/film/news/taron-egerton-rocketman-sex
scene-controversy-nonsense-1203180959/.

Tomatoes, Rotten. “Rocketman (2019).” Rotten Tomatoes, 2019,

www.rottentomatoes.com/m/rocketman_2019.

Hughes, Crystal L., et al. “We’Re Still Standing: Internal Family Systems and Rocketman.”
Journal of Creativity in Mental Health, 2020, pp. 1–9.,
doi:10.1080/15401383.2020.1842275.