A new Disney+ documentary, Elton John: Never Too Late is crammed with thrilling vintage footage of the singer-songwriter at the height of his 1970’s superstardom, dressing in outrageous outfits to play some of the greatest songs ever written at the biggest concerts on the planet.
There he is in 1975, in a glittery baseball outfit, seemingly levitating at his piano as he plays to over 100,000 fans at the Dodger’s Stadium in Los Angeles. On the soundtrack the band hammers joyously away, Elton’s fingers ripple across piano keys, an ecstatic audience is dancing and singing, everybody’s smiling – even Elton, gap toothed and grinning like he’s having the time of his life. But there’s also the deeper voice of Elton John at 77, looking back from the vantage point of old age and maturity, and saying “There was an emptiness within me. My soul had gone dark … It was like I was dead.”
There is an odd sombreness at the heart of what is effectively a slick, flashy, highly entertaining and otherwise quite superficial career celebration, a quality of unease imparted by Elton himself. It is a disjunct between the joy of the music in a narrative arc of incredible showbusiness success, with the subject’s recollections of a deep unhappiness kept hidden from cameras. “I was either really having fun or very miserable,” he recalls, but in a way the footage most effectively evokes the fun, whilst Elton focuses on personal misery. He is probably the only person on earth who could look at this riotously entertaining film and conclude: “I wish it had been much different.”
The documentary (co-directed by American filmmaker R.J. Cutler and Elton’s film-making husband David Furnish) offers a rollercoaster ride through the first explosive decade of Elton’s career, set against (in a slightly contrived fashion) a countdown to his return to Dodger’s stadium in 2023 for the final US concert of his farewell tour.
In the rather less interesting contemporary footage, we see old Elton with his husband and children, backstage and onstage, looking slightly weary and battered by time but quick witted, amusing and clearly enjoying his domestically happy home life and luxuriously organised career. The real energy of the film comes from the historic narrative concocted in a modern shapeshifting mixed media style with lots of fantastic old film and TV footage and dazzlingly montaged photographs interspersed with witty and inventive animations. These colourful segments amusingly illustrate scenes that might have otherwise been lost to history, such as Elton’s first cocaine binge and a ludicrous suicide attempt. In one scene, a cartoon Elton and John Lennon hide from Andy Warhol whilst out of their minds on drugs. There have certainly been some fantastical Disney cartoons in the past, but I am not sure the illustrious movie company has ever been associated with something as gleefully outrageous as The Animated Adventures of Elton John (on Drugs).