Elton John – Never Give Up: New film documents singer’s farewell tour

A new documentary about Sir Elton John’s final tour, co-directed by his husband David Furnish, has premiered at the London Film Festival.

The Farewell Yellow Brick Road tour played to audiences around the world between 2018 and 2023, longer than expected due to delays enforced by the pandemic.

Elton John: Never Too Late focuses on the star’s return to Dodger Stadium in Los Angeles, 47 years after he first played in front of 110,000 fans at the venue.

But the documentary, which has just played the London Film Festival, has had a mixed reception from critics.

Variety said “the original King of Pop gets the satisfying documentary he deserves”, but the Guardian described it as a “thin portrait of a musical genius”.

The tour footage is interspersed with archive material focusing on Sir Elton’s popularity earlier in his career, particularly the 1970s.

Furnish and Sir Elton were among the guests attending the film’s London premiere at the Royal Festival Hall on Thursday.

The film’s release follows a biopic, Rocketman, which came out in 2019 and starred Taron Egerton as Sir Elton.

The new documentary is produced by Sir Elton’s husband and manager David Furnish, who also co-directs it with RJ Cutler.

It focuses on Sir Elton’s 2022 concert at Dodger Stadium in Los Angeles, a venue he first played in 1975.

Using the stadium as a common dominator allows the film’s timeline to jump back and forth and explore how Sir Elton, and society around him, has changed over the decades.

The most obvious difference is the attitude towards homosexuality. Sir Elton said he was bisexual in a 1976 interview with Rolling Stone. He reflects in the film that being open about his sexuality hurt his career.

But today, he is one of millions of gay people around the world who have the right to marry and start families.

Sir Elton also doesn’t shy away from admitting his drug use at the height of his fame, and the negative impact it had on his songwriting.

Sections which deal with that, as well as other issues and stories for which no footage exists, are represented on screen by photographs and animated sequences.

The film, released next month, has received varied reviews so far. The Guardian’s Radheyan Simonpillai noted the impetus of telling the story now was that Sir Elton wants to largely retire from music, in order to spend more time with his husband and children.

“However, the film rarely lives in that space,” he continued in his two-star review, “because the film-makers, who understandably want privacy when it comes to their family, share so little of it. That leaves its emotional arc more assumed than felt.”

The film is “a competent but largely conventional look at John, which focuses on the most documented part of his life: His astronomical rise in the first half of the 1970s,” wrote IndieWire’s Esther Zuckerman.

It’s true that the documentary arguably doesn’t shine much new light on Sir Elton’s life and career, and audio interviews the singer recorded for his memoir in 2019 are used as the film’s narration.

However, Variety’s Owen Gleiberman was more positive. “We experience the staggering magnitude of stardom Elton achieved, the candy rapture of his music, right along with the anxiety and hollowness he was feeling,” he wrote.

And Alejandra Martinez of AwardsWatch said the “simple, well-made documentary” provides a “welcome look at and farewell to an unmatched voice in pop music”.

Sir Elton retired from touring following his string of shows, but has said he may still do occasional one-off live performances in the future.

Earlier this week, Sir Elton collected the Legacy prize at the Attitude Awards, a magazine and media brand dedicated to LGBT community.

Ed Sheeran presented the star with the award, making Sir Elton its second recipient after the Duke of Sussex collected the honour in 2017 on behalf of his mother, Diana, the Princess of Wales.

After some spicy language about Tesla and X owner Elon Musk in his acceptance speech, Sir Elton dedicated the award to his family; husband David Furnish and their song Zachary and Elijah.

“I love my husband, my children – I have benefits as a gay man I never thought I’d be able to have,” Sir Elton said.

“Thank you, David, I love you so, so, so very much. We’ve come a long way. And we’re very lucky to live in a country that gives us the rights we have.

“But there are still people who don’t have those rights, and I intend to fight for those rights until the day I die.”

Earlier this year, Sir Elton won an Emmy for his concert film, Farewell From Dodger Stadium, earning the prestigious EGOT status – a winner of an Emmy, Grammy, Oscar and Tony award.

The singer’s next projects include the opening of the musical The Devil Wears Prada, for which he wrote the music, in London’s West End.