Springsteen: Deliver Me From Nowhere is out today, and I cannot urge you enough to do anything else with your time instead of watching it. That sounds incredibly harsh, especially since The Bear star Jeremy Allen White is playing rock God Bruce, but hear me out.
Where do I start? Instead of being a typical ‘you’re gonna be a star one day, kid’ type of biopic, writer-director Scott Cooper chooses a specific moment in the star’s career – the writing and recording of his sixth album, Nebraska, to focus on. This is a potentially interesting approach, and it’s worked in films, such as Pablo Larraín’s Spencer and Maria – yet here, it doesn’t.
What I’m sure was a challenging and transformative period, both in Springsteen’s musical evolution and his personal life, doesn’t translate on screen in the slightest, and Allen White fails to hit the heights of the real-life icon in his performances (particularly the singing).
Deliver Me From Nowhere never really goes anywhere, fails to hold the viewers’ attention, and completely glosses over everything that made Springsteen’s journey to global stardom exciting and timeless. For me, this means it’s a pretty poor job – sorry Scott.
The real deal
Watch On
So much about what Springsteen fans love is watching him come alive on stage, but it’s also fascinating to learn more about the humble man behind the spectacular performances. While Deliver Me From Nowhere doesn’t give us many concert scenes and and doesn’t tell us enough about the Springsteen we think we know, these facets are the heart of Road Diary: Bruce Springsteen & The E Street Band.
From archival footage and band rehearsals to concert highlights and in-depth interviews with the man himself, Road Diary features everything needed to give us the complete picture of one man’s musical and personal life journey. If you’ve ever seen Springsteen give an interview, you’ll know how candidly he comes across, never holding anything back, and never coming across as anyone but his true self.
Most importantly, the Disney+ documentary movie explores the earlier years of Springsteen’s career and his rise to global stardom, which Deliver Me From Nowhere does not. One of the things that annoyed me most about Deliver Me From Nowhere was its editing – we jump from The Boss at rock bottom to being back at the top of his game in a single cut, without any further explanation other than a ‘ten months later’ title card.
Alongside the songs and the live performances, Springsteen’s openness about his personal struggles with depression is something that resonates with his legions of fans, so why choose not to include it?
Instead, we’re left with something that’s unintentionally vapid and soulless, and which also isn’t entirely accurate (characters have been invented for dramatic effect, for example). I’m not a Springsteen superfan, but I can imagine those who are will be left cold by Cooper’s and Allen White’s efforts… why make do with a pale imitation of The Boss when you can get the real deal?
Road Diary: Bruce Springsteen & The E Street Band is available to stream now on Disney+ in the US, UK and Australia.
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