A movie based on the life of Elton John that won a string of awards and grossed $195million (£145million) at the box office is now available to watch for free.
After spending nearly two decades in development, in 2019 the biographical drama Rocketman finally hit screens.
Based on the life, music and career of the musician, it starred Taron Egerton and focused on Elton’s early life through to his time at the Royal Academy of Music and later partnership with Bernie Taupon.
It won awards including the best original song at the Oscars, while its star was nominated for a Bafta and Screen Actors Guild award, whilst also winning the Golden Globe for best actor in a motion picture musical or comedy.
Aside from being a massive commercial success, it was also a hit with critics, many who predicted it would be a darling of awards season.
‘Rocketman is an honest, heartfelt tribute to Elton John’s music and his public image,’ The Guardian wrote in its review.
‘It’s a heart-racing, toe-tapping, all-glitter-cannons-blazing triumph…’ the Daily Telegraph declared.
‘A sequin-encrusted delight. On paper it reads like a by-the-book biopic; on screen it explodes with the kind of colour and energy that only Elton John himself could invoke,’ Empire shared.
‘Rocketman is magnificent and ridiculous, a feathered melanage of clichés and originality, of respectful homage and unrepentant nostalgia,’ Time added.
In its review Metro said: ‘Rocketman is just as much about the story as it is about the music, if not more. It’s a magical ride but one you should definitely be strapped in for.’
Meanwhile viewers said it ‘might be the best biopic they’d ever seen’ and that it ‘beautifully encapsulates the complex life of Elton John’.
This week the film was added to Channel 4’s free streaming service.
The no-holds-barred look back at Elton’s life didn’t shy away from his more difficult periods, addressing his battles with drug addiction, his sexuality and his rise to fame.
Some of the more shocking scenes included recounting an incident when he tried to take his own life in front of a crowd at a house party in 1975, his eyebrow-raising marriage to Renate Blauel and his strained relationship with his mother Sheila, including when she tells him she wished she never had children.
Around the time of the film’s release, Elton spoke to The Daily Telegraph about choosing to show his darker experiences.
‘This is how my life was, and I didn’t want to cover it and gloss it over,’ he said.
‘And it’s difficult to watch because I thought, “God, I don’t want to go back there. Thank God I came out of it”.’
Reflecting on how his rise to fame affected him, he added: ‘Success was fantastic, and then I couldn’t cope with it. And you can’t leave out the bad.’
In 2019 Elton also admitted he’d been left ‘sobbing in that loud, unguarded, emotionally destroyed way’ when first watching the film about his life in the cinema.
He also wrote about his battles with addictions and seeing them on screen.
‘It is strange, I do not find it painful to watch those parts of the film. They are truthful and it was my own fault,’ he said.
Also praising Taron’s work – the actor did all the singing on the Rocketman soundtrack – Elton said it was ‘extraordinary’.
‘My songs aren’t easy to sing. I know because loads of musicians have told me that they’re hard to sing,’ he said on a special edition of Zane Lowe’s Beats 1 show on Apple Music.
‘What he’s done is quite extraordinary because he sounds like me, but he also sounds like Taron.’
Rocketman also starred Jamie Bell as Bernie, Richard Madden as music manager John Reid and Bryce Dallas Howard as Elton’s mother Sheila.
Rocketman is streaming on Channel 4.
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