“Springsteen: Deliver Me From Nowhere” digs to the core of the legendary New Jersey native Bruce Springsteen, sharing the art behind the creation of his 1982 album “Nebraska.”
Inspired by Warren Zanes’ 2023 novel “Deliver Me From Nowhere” and Springsteen’s 2016 memoir “Born to Run,” director Scott Cooper spotlights a crucial time of Springsteen’s life. Instead of summarizing his entire career, Cooper chose to highlight the internal darkness that led to a turning point in Springsteen’s early career.
Jeremy Allen White brilliantly captures Springsteen’s psyche through his own essence of vulnerability and passion. White’s acclaimed performance as a troubled chef on the series “The Bear” allows him to truly share the inner psychological workings within Springsteen. White learned to sing and to play the guitar and harmonica for the role, therefore adding to White’s acting credibility.
The film treats and subverts many of the genre expectations associated with a musical biopic. Springsteen returns to his home state of New Jersey after his expansive “Rivers” tour, and he comes to a crossroads in both his career and personal life. Much of the film sheds light on the mental health issues Springsteen experiences while balancing his authenticity and the growing demands of his management.
While creating his next album, “Nebraska,” Springsteen desires to mend the void within himself, a consequence of the ugly and unresolved parts of his past. Many flashbacks are included in the film, not of his peaks or glory days, but rather, the difficult, raw moments from his childhood that he struggles to face. While this film entertains typical genre clichés with his on- and off-the-stage career highlights, the film takes more of a deeply meditative documentarian approach, cracking open Springsteen’s mental and emotional warfare. Notably, Springsteen was on set for most of the filming, keeping the portrayal of Bruce Springsteen real and consistent throughout.
The film emphasizes that the success of an album is not defined by its commercial gain, but rather the creation of a non-commercialized work of art. Like “Nebraska” which has a barebones, folk-y sound, the cinematography often displays fall leaves on the brink of winter.
In his bedroom in New Jersey, Springsteen simplifies the process of recording with a four-track TEAC Tascam PortaStudio and a Gibson Guitar Echoplex. Through this medium, he wrestles not with the technology, but the words he writes and their meaning. The film emphasizes Springsteen’s pivot away from attempting another hit album, but instead using music to embrace who he is behind all the fame.
The film highlights not just Springsteen, but everyone who made him who he is. The complexity within his parental and romantic relationships in the film shares the humanity behind the artist. The father-son dynamic, and their shared fight with depression, portrays how complex familial ties can be. In sharing his mental health journey and relationship struggles, the producers don’t make Springsteen out to be a heroic character, but a real person with relatable hardships.
On the other side of his journey, “Born in the U.S.A,” arguably his greatest work, arose from this time of struggle. He released both this hit and “Nebraska” with no desire for media or press attention, yet it became one of his most acclaimed works. The producers and cast strived to make the film not a musical biopic that trophies history but rather shares an intimate part of Springsteen’s life.
Fan or not of Bruce Springsteen, audiences will leave with something real, a reflection of one’s own experience and a deeper appreciation for the art of creating authentically.