Elton John’s half-brother has attacked the rocker’s new biopic for its portrayal of their dad.
Geoff Dwight insists his father, played by Steven Mackintosh in the film, was not the cold, uncaring man depicted on screen.
“That’s not the dad I remember,” he says. “Dad had a big heart and he loved us all equally. He was incredibly proud of Elton and everything that he achieved.”
In the film, Elton’s dad appears far from supportive of his son’s passion for music and his sexuality.
“This coldness, it’s a million miles away from what Dad was like,” Dwight explains. “He was a product of a time when men didn’t go around hugging each other and showing their feelings every minute of every day, but he had plenty of love in him for all of us.
“Dad bought a piano for Elton and had it sent round to where he was living with his mother. Dad encouraged all of us to be musical. He was in a swing band himself, so I see no reason why he’d have thwarted Elton. I was hopeless on the piano so Dad left a guitar and a trumpet out for me with a few teach-yourself books. That doesn’t sound like a man who discourages his kids.”
Dwight isn’t the only person who has a problem with the depiction of a dad in the film – the son of British music mogul Dick James previously lashed out at Elton and the filmmakers for Stephen Graham’s portrayal of a foul-mouthed Cockney.
“They basically depict my father in the film completely opposite to the way he was in real life,” Stephen James said. “It’s rather upset me because my father was a nice guy. Elton’s own father had run off and wasn’t around. He treated my father at the time as very much a father figure, and my father treated Elton very much as if he was a son.
“They have turned him (my father) into this stereotype with a big fat cigar, swearing every other word. He just wasn’t like that. He never got aggressive. He never lost his temper. He never swore. But that’s how they have made him in the film.”
James blamed Elton for the way his father is depicted in the movie.
“He’s basically a coward,” he told NME.com. “He’s never been able to really express his emotions properly, certainly not to me. I don’t understand why he seems to feel the need to try to destroy everybody who helped him. We only ever tried to do the best for him and to promote his career. I really am very upset that he has turned on people in this way.”
Dick James died three months after the end of a royalties battle with Elton in 1985.
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