February 06, 2022

Another perfect pairing of sound & vision - Rocketman and Crocodile Rock


2019's Rocketman was a brilliantly entertaining example of a musical biopic and one that didn't shy away from delving into the darker side of it's subject's life in the cowardly way that Bohemian Rhapsody did. In parts the drug use and depression that haunted Elton John make it a heavy watch but we're never more than minutes away from some of it's superbly realised musical sequences such as the one below.

August 25, 1970. The moment Elton John (Taron Egerton) becomes a star. The Troubadour club on Santa Monica Boulevard. A nervous Elton is about to play his first show on American soil. He's stressed. Are his songs good enough? Will he be accepted by this hip crowd?

Then he hits that first key and all his worries flitter away


What a scene. The crowd slowly getting interested and then hooked as the song kicks off. The place is bouncing, EJ knows he has the room in his hands and starts pulling off the crowdpleasing moves and just as that chorus we all know is about to kick in everything slows to a crawl. A dream? Magic realism? Neither of course, just a stylistic choice but who cares because it perfectly captures that euphoria only music is capable of creating by making it fantastical. The band knows they've hit on something, Bernie Taupin (Jamie Bell), Elton's song writing partner watching from the balcony realises they've struck gold and the two executives in the room have nothing but dollar signs in their eyes. A perfectly pairing of sound and vision that not only rocks but it's one that moves the story forward too. What more could you ask?

Previous pairings

Beetlejuice
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