Film And TV
16 Oct 25

Springsteen: Deliver Me From Nowhere: "When it was released, Nebraska reflected the underside of Reagan’s America, an aspect that resonates in these fractured political times"

<i>Springsteen: Deliver Me From Nowhere:</i> "When it was released, <i>Nebraska</i> reflected the underside of Reagan’s America, an aspect that resonates in these fractured political times"

Paul Nolan looks at why Nebraska was such a groundbreaking and influential album – and why Springsteen: Deliver Me From Nowhere is an absolute must-see.

Even in a career as spectacular as Bruce Springsteen’s, 1982’s Nebraska stands apart as an artistic triumph. Already established as the bard of working class American life, thanks to a triptych of classic albums in Born To Run, Darkness On The Edge Of Town and The River, with Nebraska, the Boss nonetheless achieved new thematic depth.

Indeed, it was a record that found the singer ascending to the level of lyrical heavyweights like Bob Dylan and Leonard Cohen, as he assembled brilliantly intense portraits of beaten-down characters, desperately searching for redemption in bleak and desolate circumstances. In doing so, the singer delivered the kind of vivid storytelling more often associated with the best cinema and literature. It’s no wonder that it has become the subject of the first feature film about The Boss, in the shape of Springsteen: Deliver Me From Nowhere.

As he prepared the album, Springsteen studied a virtual syllabus of dark Americana, with strong echoes of southern gothic writers like William Faulkner and Flannery O’Connor, as well as heavyweight crime novelists James M. Cain and Jim Thompson. Nebraska is also something of a musical cousin to Terence Malick’s 1973 crime drama Badlands, one of the greatest directorial debuts ever, and a similarly powerful meditation on the seamy underbelly of American life.

As well as recalling Malick’s inspired use of barren landscapes on the monochrome album cover, Springsteen directly described a scene from the movie – in which killer Charles Starkweather (Martin Sheen) first encounters the young Holly Sargis (Sissy Spacek) – on the sublime opening title track: “I saw her standing on the front line / Just a-twirling her baton.”

In its stunning tales of life on the margins, the album achieved something of the atmosphere of Truman Capote’s In Cold Blood - and marked a milestone moment in Springsteen’s journey to becoming one of the great chroniclers of contemporary American life.

Nebraska was also a musical tour de force. Though it famously made use of stripped back recording – which would have a profound influence on the development of underground, indie and lo-fi music – the melodies and stylistic flourishes were simply magnificent.

Arguably the high point was reached on ‘State Trooper’, in which Springsteen ingeniously drew on New York electro-punk Suicide’s nihilistic masterpiece, ‘Frankie Teardrop’, to underpin the tale of a car thief on the run.

Sandwiched between the arena rock epics The River and Born In The USA – the latter turning him into a superstar – Nebraska was seen as a lower key creative statement.Over the years, however, its reputation has grown. It’s now seen as a major artistic turning point for Springsteen.

As such, it was ripe for a fresh deep dive, which duly arrived with Warren Zane’s wildly acclaimed book on the album’s creation, 2020’s Deliver Me From Nowhere. With musical stories very much in vogue on the back of hit biopics of Queen (Bohemian Rhapsody) and Bob Dylan (A Complete Unknown), it was perhaps inevitable that The Boss would get the full big-screen treatment.

Enter Scott Cooper’s hotly anticipated adaptation of Zane’s book. As early details of the movie were unveiled, the casting details sent excitement levels through the roof. Leading the way as Springsteen is Jeremy Allen White, whose lead role in critical smash The Bear has seen him hailed as one of the finest actors of his generation.

As Springsteen’s hugely influential manager Jon Landau, there’s Jeremy Strong, also celebrated for his role in a revered TV series: the actor delivered a tour de force as Kendall Roy in Succession, arguably the greatest TV show of the 21st century.

The planets have aligned with the casting of Stephen Graham, the Boardwalk Empire star who just recently saw his Netflix mega-hit Adolescence sweep the Emmys, as Bruce’s father, Doug Springsteen. One of the most fascinating aspects of Deliver Me From Nowhere will be the dynamic between Bruce and Doug, the singer having reflected on their troubled relationship on the Nebraska track ‘My Father’s House’.

There’s a timely element to the film. When it was released, Nebraska reflected the underside of Reagan’s America, an aspect that resonates in these fractured political times. And with film and TV having become hugely important to perpetuating artists’ legacies, all the signs are that new generations will be introduced to The Boss via Springsteen: Deliver Me From Nowhere.

So get ready for a gripping cinematic experience that celebrates one of the true immortals: the man, the maestro – The Boss.

Springsteen: Deliver Me From Nowhere in cinemas on October 24.