Throughout cinema history, there have been some iconic nude scenes that have transcended the bounds of the films in which they appeared. Our weekly column Anatomy of a Scene's Manatomy will take an in-depth look at these scenes, their history, their deeper meanings, and their legacy. This week, the Elton John biopic Rocketman embraces its lead character's sexuality in a way the previous year's Bohemian Rhapsody refused.
Regardless of whether you think it's a good movie, 2018's Bohemian Rhapsody was completely and totally toothless when it came to the discussion of Freddie Mercury's sexuality. In an attempt to not turn off conservative audiences in flyover country, the film seemed to take a "don't ask, don't tell" attitude toward Mercury's relationships with men, backgrounding it until they simply couldn't anymore. It's not totally surprising, however, as this has been the Hollywood way for decades, but the decision to mostly ignore his sexuality is one of many disservices the film's narrative does to its late subject.
Released a mere six months after Bohemian Rhapsody, the Elton John biopic Rocketman went at least some of the way toward ditching a lot of the pitfalls of the traditional musician biopic by turning it into a full-fledged musical. Rather than simply showing Elton singing in concert or while writing music at home, the film took over a dozen of John's hits and turned them into musical numbers, complete with choreography, making them feel like a break from the "reality" of your traditional musician biopic. Granted, it's not always successful at doing this, but when it shines, it shines much brighter than your average biopic.
Part and parcel with the film's quest for truth—something to which Bohemian Rhapsody barely paid a courtesy—Rocketman also doesn't shy away from its lead character's sexuality. When the studio asked for content changes to make the film a more marketable PG-13 effort, John himself quipped, "I didn't lead a PG-13 life." Granted, the more restrictive R-rating meant that the film would only gross a fraction of what Bohemian Rhapsody did at the worldwide box office—$200 million vs. $900 million—but it at least ensured that history will be a lot kinder to Elton's film than it will Queen's.
Now, Rocketman is far from perfect, but it at least puts its money where its mouth is when it comes to covering a gay icon in the music industry by having, gasp, a gay sex scene! In a Hollywood movie—double gasp!! Now, it's a relatively chaste sex scene, featuring only a glimpse of Taron Egerton's butt at the very end, and hardly the reason for the film's R-rating. Hell, a scene of a similar caliber in a film with less drug use and language than Rocketman—let's say, oh I don't know, Bohemian Rhapsody for example—could have easily fit within the boundaries of a PG-13 film...
I apologize for getting "Take Me to the Pilot" stuck in your head for the rest of the day. Would it have truly hurt Bohemian Rhapsody's box office prospects to have included even the slightest bit of affection between two men? Hell, if it cut the box office in half, it still would have been the highest grossing music biopic in history.
Another interesting thing to note is that Rocketman director Dexter Fletcher was brought in by Fox to help finish Bohemian Rhapsody—although he ultimately received no official credit for doing so—when original director Bryan Singer was fired. I'm sure that Fletcher wasn't able to influence much of what he did on that film, seeing as he was a hired hand brought in to get the film into theaters on time, but one can only imagine how much better the film might have been if Fletcher were allowed to tune its sensibilities toward his own style. Still, there were the enormous egos of the surviving members of Queen to contend with—who allegedly wanted Mercury's death to be the mid-point of the film—and lord knows that we often get the versions of famous people's lives we deserve, not necessarily the ones we want or need.
Thankfully Rocketman stands on its own as both a faithful and fantastical telling of an undeniably fantastical human being, rather than a homogenized product with all the rough edges sanded off. And even with that brief gay sex scene between Egerton and Madden likely didn't tip the film toward a more restrictive rating. After all, we know the real reason Rocketman earned an R-rating was because of a young Bruno Tonioli's thoroughly NSFW bulge in the "I'm Still Standing" video at the end...
Catch up with our other editions of Anatomy of a Scene's Manatomy...
—Two of History's Manliest Men Wrestle Naked in Women in Love
—Ewan McGregor Has Got It, Flaunts It in Velvet Goldmine
—A Pair of Stars are Born in Y Tu Mamá También
—Harvey Keitel Goes Hog Wild in Abel Ferrara's Bad Lieutenant
—Viggo Mortensen is Naked From Every Imaginable Angle in Eastern Promises
—There's No Shame is Michael Fassbender's Dick Game
—Kevin Bacon Steals the Show Going Full Frontal in Wild Things
—How We Met Jason Segel's Dick in Forgetting Sarah Marshall
—Jack Reynor is Uniquely Vulnerable for a Man in Midsommar
—Jaye Davidson Knows All There is to Know About The Crying Game
—David Bowie Battles Rip Torn for Dick Supremacy in The Man Who Fell to Earth
—Al Pacino Doesn't Get In All That Deep for William Friedkin's Cruising
—John Cameron Mitchell's Ass Gives Hedwig and the Angry Inch the Perfect Ending
—Ross Lynch Makes One Sexy Future Serial Killer in My Friend Dahmer
