Springsteen on Screen: The Best Uses of Bruce Springsteen on Film

‘Secret Garden’
– Jerry Maguire

This Cameron Crowe movie gets a lot of flak for being overly sentimental, whereas much of it is quite dark. Likewise, many people believe that Brooooooce’s beautifully melodic ‘Secret Garden’ is a love song, but its lyrics reveal a much darker, more manipulative undercurrent. As he sings: “She’ll let you in her heart/If you got a hammer and a vise/But into her secret garden, don’t think twice”, it becomes clear that it’s about seduction, not real connection – and seduction is what agent and PR man Jerry Maguire (Tom Cruise) excels at, both in work and in life. The scene where Renée Zellweger’s tender-hearted, idealistic single mother finally accepts that the man she fell for may have utilised his skills to create a shining image of a loving relationship that he can’t quite live up to, and that she bought it completely, is heartbreaking.

‘The Wrestler’
– The Wrestler
Asking Springsteen to write a song for your film always ends up getting good results for both The Boss and the box-office. He famously won an Oscar for ‘Streets Of Philadelphia’ from Jonathan Demme’s emotive legal drama Philadelphia, which saw another statuette go to Tom Hanks for his role as a gay man facing discrimination after being diagnosed with AIDS. Springsteen also wrote ‘Dead Man Walking’ for the film of the same name, and hit it out of the park again when Darren Aronofksy asked him to help soundtrack his tale of a former wrestler looking for redemption. The moment where Mickey Rourke leaps from the top rope in his final bout, just as Springsteen’s song about damaged people still trying kicks in, is an emotional knockout. Rourke received an Oscar nod for his performance, and the song won a Golden Globe.

‘Dancing In The Dark’
– The Place Beyond The Pines
‘Dancing In The Dark’ may be the one Springsteen song you can truly dance to without shame (if you manage with any of the others, shine on you crazy diamond), so it’s no wonder that it’s been used as a backdrop to some great jive scenes on film. But as it grapples with complex emotions, we’re particularly fond of its unexpected uses, including providing one brief moment of levity in Derek Cianfrance’s emotive crime drama triptych The Place Beyond The Pines. In a short scene, Ryan Gosling’s stoic motorcycle stuntman dances with his dog to Springsteen, finding respite from the harshness of his world in the joyous tune. It was also used in the charming documentary Young@Heart, which shows a group of pensioners forming a choir and singing all over the U.S. ‘Dancing In The Dark’ is performed in a prison, just hours after the choir have received some hard news. It develops a double meaning, as both choir and audience succumb to its redemptive powers.

‘Hungry Heart’
– Warm Bodies
One of Springsteen’s more ubiquitous songs, it’s not surprising that ‘Hungry Heart’ has appeared in many films in several guises, including Peter’s Friends, Kenneth Branagh’s ensemble piece starring Stephen Fry, Hugh Laurie and Emma Thompson. In it, the song plays over a scene featuring, of all things, Tony Slattery’s backside. It also made an appearance in Tom Cruise’s breakout hit Risky Business, where Cruise blasts it in his car while realising his newfound freedom. And a film that managed to pack in more classic hits than an ‘80s compilation CD, Adam Sandler’s The Wedding Singer has ‘Hungry Heart’ playing on a jukebox as his character mourns the upcoming wedding of the girl he loves. But the best use of ‘Hungry Heart’ has to go to the zom-rom-com Warm Bodies, which sees the undead Nicholas Hoult fall in love with non-infected human, Teresa Palmer. Springsteen lyrics have never before been quite so literal!