I came into this film knowing that Bruce Springsteen was a big star back in the 70’s and not much else; this film did not teach me much more information than this. As time went on, I only started questioning what the point of this entire movie was. Compared to other biopics made before, this movie irritated me by the use of harmonicas and the inclusion of unnecessary drawn-out sequences.
This film surrounds the story of how Springsteen made his sixth album, “Nebraska.” The film shows Springsteen’s struggle with depression and the root of the cause: having an alcoholic father when he was a child. The movie shows how Springsteen dealt with his challenges through the music he recorded in his bedroom alone since he was reevaluating his career direction.
This movie bored me like no other. Romance scenes were too long and served little to no purpose. The making of “Nebraska” was not too bad to sit through, but the second half was a snooze-fest with the studio sessions. He throws a fit over the music not sounding right, and the album releases. Unfortunately, like the rest of the film, this was all unnecessary.
Biopics as a genre has one main mission: to tell the audience about the star they are portraying, how they started, grew up, etc. With this movie, they are banking on us knowing Springsteen and the extent of his success, giving us only a few flashbacks of his childhood. I did not leave knowing much more about him than when I arrived. This is what makes it feel like a failure as a biopic.
There was one main theme within the movie, which is getting help for depression and burying himself in work will not be a solution. Springsteen did exactly that and let himself get in the way of his own happiness. “Nebraska” was Springsteen using music as an outlet for his pain. This entire movie could have been better off made as a documentary narrated by Springsteen himself, instead of a biopic that requires Jeremy Allen White to play him to get the public excited.
“Springsteen” also showed the other side of being a rock star. Contrary to popular belief, some stars do not have it as glamorous as we may think. This part made him more relatable, and he did not get the help that he needed since he was never told to get help in this film up until a certain point.
Overall, the acting was just good; the actors portrayed their characters well. The true downfall was the script, not the delivery. It seemed like some moments the script was awkward, such as Springsteen talking about why he is stumping his love life to his friend. It came off as something that was only mentioned to make sure, we were keeping up with what was happening in case we were lost.
The runtime was around two hours, and during these hours I only saw three things: his love life, the making of “Nebraska”, and his childhood. There was potential for this film to be something great to inform a wider audience of who he is. Instead, all we got was a half-written story that could have been incorporated into a documentary. If someone is a Springsteen fan and a dedicated listener to his album “Nebraska”, they would love this film. But this film is in no way a good representative for biopic films.
