Why the vibe between Elton and Bernie is so powerful in the "Your Song" scene.
In just quickly browsing through the script, there's a lot of differences from the movie. But this particular script direction got played brilliantly by the actors for Elton and Bernie: Bernie's lyrics are a platonic love song to Elton but Elton's emotional singing is directly to Bernie.
I'm pretty sure the real Bernie Taupin would strongly disagree with the intent of the song. To paraphrase him from years past, "It was obviously written by a teenager who still hadn't gotten laid."
On the other hand, it sounds quite the tease when Elton said years ago, concerning the intent of the song, that when he once asked Bernie about it, "Bernie got defensive."
For that matter, I read Elton John's autobiography last fall. It's an easy read -- a personal feel, rather than being full of names, dates, and sales statistics. Since I'm a fan of Alice Cooper, I found it particularly amusing when the book mentions Elton and Bernie mutually agreeing to work with other artists. Bernie really had struck out on his own. He'd made album with Alice Cooper, a big concept work about Alice's alcoholism and recent stay in rehab.... It was a good album. I was impressed. So why did I feel so odd when I looked at the songwriting credits and saw Alice Cooper's name next to Bernie's instead of mine? Actually, there's nothing odd about how I felt. It was very straightforward. I hated admitting it to myself, but I felt jealous.
That's a charming anecdote.