By Bryan Coley
Since 9/11, one word has trended for quite a long time on film- Hope. However, the basis of this hope has gradually been evolving. Right after 9/11, the basis of our hope was located outside of ourselves in unseen worlds and supernatural power, found in the fantasy genre (i.e.- HARRY POTTER & LORD OF THE RINGS). Likewise, Marvel and DC have shown us that hope can also be found in superpowers outside of ourselves with superheroes who will swoop in and vanquish our villains. However, starting about six years ago, the number of films based on real life heroes started to sky rocket. Our hope seemed to be torn between the desire to be rescued by a hero outside of ourselves versus a real life hero who lived among us. As we have witnessed the proliferation of films based on a true story (aka- biopics), I believe there’s a certain comfort we derive when the credits roll and we see that the person we just watched on the screen actually existed. However, lately it seems that the unwritten rule that a person needs to be dead in order to be honored on film has been erased. What might it say about the evolution of the basis of our hope when a movie such as ROCKETMAN, attempts to sum up the life of Elton John…with Elton still alive to see it?
Movies that are based on or inspired by a true story have always been around. In most years, the Oscar nominees have usually included at least one epic biography of some major political or cultural hero. Consider past winners such as SCHINDLER’S LIST, PATTON, CHARIOTS OF FIRE, GHANDI, and BRAVEHEART. In 2014, however, something happened with the Oscar nominees that had never happened before. Six of the nine Best Picture nominees were based on a true story. Then, in both 2015 and 2016, five of the eight nominated films were also based on a true story. And then, seemingly overnight, the box office – popular films – exploded with this genre. Movies like IMITATION GAME, THEORY OF EVERYTHING, SELMA, THE DARKEST HOUR and AMERICAN SNIPER seemed to highlight prominent male figures who had special skills or gifts (math, science, oratory, marksmanship). Films like these give us hope that there are heroes among us who have the talent and unequaled determination to save us.
The majority of these films share one thing in common: the main character upon whose real life story the film is based, is dead. It makes sense that a reflection on a prior setting and a particular character’s legacy needs the perspective that time can give. But movies like MONEYBALL, JOY, VICE, BLACKKKLANSMAN, BOHEMIAN RHAPSODY, FIGHTING WITH MY FAMILY, BREAKTHROUGH, I, TONYA and ROCKETMAN have accelerated the timeline for how soon a person’s life can be chronicled on film. Specifically with ROCKETMAN, we witness Elton John’s childhood, his rise to fame, his subsequent struggle with addiction, and land in a place in which Elton’s wholeness of identity finally matches the wholeness of his musical legacy. The film has the usual epitaph of pictures of the real life Elton, just like films whose central character has died. But something other biopics do not have is the press junket where Elton and the actor playing him appear on every talk show to promote the film together, breaking down whatever parts of the movie that are true and any parts that were slightly embellished. There’s something about this real-time fact checking that might be a key to how the basis of our hope is shifting. Could it be that there’s an underlying quest to confirm whatever is put out there as true IS true, as a means of generating hope?
We are unfortunately living in a time where people play fast and loose with the truth. Our primary news outlets have been polarized with inherent liberal or conservative bias such that it is hard to trust what is reported as truth. Our social media tends to push us into echo chambers, filtering the way we see the world through the way we search and click. More information at our swiping finger tips only means more to wade through to uncover the truth. This quest to find out what is a true story either causes us to throw our hands up in the air or to become even more skeptical and diligent to fact check. It makes sense that, in this climate, if you are going to claim that your movie is based on a true story, then having the people portrayed alive to back up the truth secures our hope that there is such a thing as truth.
GREEN BOOK is a great example of the current dangers of telling a story in which the person is not alive to speak to the truth of the story. This film had multiple controversies, from the family of the main character (Dr. Shirley) saying that the story was false, to the fact that a white guy was telling the story of a black man’s internal struggle with his own blackness. It would have been much more comforting and validating of the film’s thematic, if Dr. Shirley was still alive to speak to the story’s authenticity. The hope we might have that racial division can be bridged today is actually weakened because of the weakness of the film’s measure of truth in relationship to its claim to be relating it. And, while historical distance gives us perspective, it can weaken our hope. It is easy to dismiss a true story like GREEN BOOK by saying, “well, that was a different time and place back then.”
However, a movie like ROCKETMAN feels ever present because it seems to be marching towards an ever-present reality, in which the story is not over for the main character. We are living in the final act of Elton’s life, such that when we look back on his journey, we feel like we are reflecting on our journey also. His search for identity is our search for identity, with Elton as only a slight forerunner. And ROCKETMAN does something else that seems to be trending in biopics these days: presenting a not-so-pretty picture of the film’s protagonist. When coming out of ROCKETMAN, I turned to my son and said, “another movie based on a living hero.” My son, who is 19, quickly replied, “I don’t view him as a hero. He’s talented but he’s not a hero.” I realized that, unlike the BRAVEHEART and GHANDI biopics of old or even the AMERICAN SNIPER and IMITATION GAME examples just a few years ago, ROCKETMAN was not trying to make its central character into a hero in the classic sense of the word. He wasn’t a war hero or an exemplary leader. Instead, we were invited into the story of a cultural icon, who was extremely broken behind the scenes. My overwhelming thought coming out of ROCKETMAN was “has Elton seen this because if he has, he is really a courageous person to put the truth of his addictions and search for identity out in such a raw form.” It’s ROCKETMAN’s vulnerability and authenticity that plays even deeper into the truth being the truth. Why in the world would you show your dirty laundry to the world unless you believed that the very act of truthfulness would give people hope?
So with the biopic genre, we seem to be shifting from true life stories that highlight past heroism to, instead, more current stories that validate truthfulness in our world today. And maybe the act of vulnerability and authenticity in telling a story, as demonstrated through Elton John in ROCKETMAN, is actually the act of heroism.
