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Rocketman exposes the Hollywood hypocrisy over portrayal of gay relationships
AS ELTON John left the Grand Theatre of the Cannes Film Festival in floods of tears, having watched the story of his life told in the musical masterpiece that is Rocketman, a group of nervous American film executives hung back to analyse what they’d just seen.
“It was absolutely brilliant,” one said, “but I wonder what Alabama is going to think about it.”
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And therein lies the great hypocrisy of the Hollywood elite.
The world’s most liberal group of people love to bang on about equal rights and minorities and various other types of injustices at every opportunity.
But when it comes to their bottom line they simply don’t practise what they preach.
Especially when it comes to the portrayal of gay relationships on the big screen.
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It’s a shocking fact that no film from a major Hollywood studio has portrayed any type of gay sex scene in a mainstream movie outside of the Oscar-nominated Brokeback Mountain and Call Me By Your Name.
Sadly, even in 2019, the commercial implications of doing so can be vast.
To begin with, you’ll get an “R” rating and then you won’t be released in China — a massively financially significant market for blockbusters these days.
That’s why Bohemian Rhapsody became such a mainstream success, but also presented a very different version of Freddie Mercury’s life, stripped of gay love, any real heartbreak over his sexuality or the descent of his health after he was diagnosed with AIDS.
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Thank heavens, Elton John is alive to ensure there wasn’t any type of watering down of his life story. And thank goodness director Dexter Fletcher was up for the challenge and then some.
While beautifully made and very tastefully portrayed, Elton’s reality as a closeted gay man — including his toxic love affair with manager John Reid (played by the heartthrob Richard Madden) — is one of the key planks of the film.
And yup, there’s even a bedroom scene that is very much in context and not at all salacious.
Believe me, more people will be interested in seeing Richard’s butt again — it was made famous by Bodyguard, you might remember — than in being scandalised over two men whose characters are in love getting mildly freaky in bed.
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But I’m very sad to learn that it was this scene that delayed the movie being made for so many years.
It took Paramount Pictures to have the balls to eventually take on the project, desperate for some commercial success at the box office.
Shame on the various other Hollywood executives, who love lecturing the world about the importance of gay rights but won’t do the most important thing to make it part of mainstream culture.
I sat down with Elton last week, who blasted as “bulls***” woke criticism that Taron Egerton was the wrong choice to play a gay icon because he’s a straight man.
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I totally agree.
There’s a reason why so many A-listers remain firmly in the closet — they are still terrified the impact coming out could have on their movie career.
Rocketman, and Taron’s brave decision to take on Elton, gay sex and all, should be the start of a sea change that’s been a long time coming.
Rocketman stars Richard Madden and Bryce Dallas Howard join Elton John and David Furnish on the blue carpet in London
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