Bruce Springsteen’s journey crafting his 1982 album Nebraska, which emerged as he recorded Born in the USA with the E Street Band. Based on Warren Zanes’ book.
Until the apocalypse and perhaps even afterward – timeless as “the Boss” is – myriad docudramas and biopics about legendary rocker Bruce Springsteen will be developed to fill in the many missing pieces that “Deliver Me from Nowhere” must inevitably leave out due to time constraints. The film stars Jeremy Allen White as Springsteen, who conveys a strong performance in a doubtlessly challenging role. Not only does White bear an uncanny resemblance to Springsteen, but he also convincingly adopts numerous mannerisms and affectations of the kid from Jersey, famous for his energetic onstage presence.
Jeremy Strong plays Jon Landau, who, as a music critic, had written in 1974 that he “saw rock and roll future, and its name is Bruce Springsteen.” Landau co-produced the “Born to Run” album and, over the ensuing years, helped guide Springsteen through the morass of the music business. It’s worth noting that while the closing credits of “Deliver Me from Nowhere” indicate that 1984’s “Born in the USA” was a watershed event for Springsteen, his real breakthrough came in 1975 with the release of “Born to Run,” which contained the title track, of course, but also “Tenth Avenue Freeze-Out,” and the LP FM hit “Jungleland.” As an aside, John Hammond of Columbia Records – who clearly had an eye for talent – signed Springsteen after having also brought Bob Dylan to the label ten years earlier.
“Deliver Me from Nowhere” essentially begins after the repeat successes of “Darkness on the Edge of Town” and “The River,” with record company senior management pushing – as they typically do – for more of the same in the next few months, which is to say more top-selling singles – and fast. Yet during the course of the narrative, it becomes clear that Springsteen is fighting internal demons, prompting him to return home to New Jersey to decompress after the end of the tour for “The River,” which included the hit single “Hungry Heart.”
Though Columbia music executive Al Teller (David Krumholtz) wanted to push Springsteen’s career into overdrive, the singer-songwriter had other inclinations. While safely ensconced in his Colts Neck, New Jersey home studio, Springsteen acquires a bare-bones recording setup – consisting mainly of a four-track cassette recorder – in an apparent attempt to purge the darkness from his soul by putting his thoughts and feelings to paper, and then to music in virtual solitude. The backstory to the artist’s life and the source of much of his anguish pops up repeatedly through flashbacks that reveal the relationship between him and his troubled alcoholic father.
Springsteen jots down rows and stanzas of lyrics as an attempt to expunge – or at least reconcile – the experiences tormenting him. As he works with Mike Batlan (Paul Walter Hauser), the elements of his next album begin to take shape. While taking a break from writing to join in impromptu with a local band, Springsteen meets Faye Romano (Odessa Young), the sister of an old friend. Although the two see each other tentatively, Bruce’s inner turmoil continues to get in the way of a more serious relationship. He effectively ghosts her because of his focus on putting together the album that would eventually be titled “Nebraska.”
The sparse production of “Nebraska” was, not surprisingly, met with extreme skepticism by Teller, who didn’t see the opportunity to release any hit songs. The scene between Teller and Landau is reminiscent of another famous Columbia recording artist, Willie Nelson, who submitted “Blue Eyes Crying in the Rain” to the execs, who thought it was just a demo. Such rough cuts were typically later embellished with a plethora of background accompaniment by Nashville studio players. However, since Nelson’s contract gave him exclusive creative control, Columbia had no choice but to release the song in its original form. It turned out to be Nelson’s first number one single of many more released over his long and storied career.
“Nebraska” was a significant and risky departure for Springsteen, but even without promotion or touring of any kind – not even his picture on the album cover – the LP was well-received and sold solidly both in the U.S. as well as overseas. It is now considered one of Springsteen’s finest efforts.
“Deliver Me from Nowhere” does a good job of highlighting an essential stage in Springsteen’s evolution as a musician and as a person. Nonetheless, the film would have benefited from a broader context that encompasses the entirety of Springsteen’s extensive career, which may not be familiar to younger viewers now or to future ones. Of course, there are a lot more stories to tell about the life of Springsteen, both professionally and personally, and it’s hard to imagine any lone vehicle that could capture them all, except perhaps a multi-season series on Netflix or Paramount+. As just one example, given the many months in the studio for the bulk of Springsteen’s LP recordings, each album release probably contains its own set of dramas that could easily fill two or more hours of screen time apiece.
“Deliver Me from Nowhere” competently examines a pivotal point in the life of Bruce Springsteen in a surprisingly subdued fashion, though Scott Cooper – who also directed “Crazy Heart” with Jeff Bridges – does so with an air of quiet confidence. If not the wild rock and roll extravaganza that viewers might be expecting, it almost certainly will be welcomed by fans more intimately familiar with the widely acknowledged champion of the working class, who eloquently blends poetry and melody in such an incomparable way.
Now available on Digital and on 4K Ultra HD™ and Blu-ray™ January 20th
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