LOS ANGELES, Oct. 22 (UPI) -- Springsteen: Deliver Me from Nowhere, in theaters Friday, focuses on a single album from Bruce Springsteen's catalog. Limiting the film's scope actually exacerbates all the cliches from other music biopics that attempt to cover their subjects' entire lives.
Jeremy Allen White plays Springsteen in the film writer/director Scott Cooper adapted from Warren Zane's book. After his 1981 tour, Springsteen lives in Colts Neck, N.J., writing the album that will become Nebraska.
He gets his first inspiration from seeing the Terrence Malick film Badlands on TV. The idea hits very quickly, as the scene after shows Springsteen in the library researching Charles Starkweather and Caril Ann Fugate, the real-life pair who inspired Malick's characters, on microfiche.
Springsteen comes up with lyrics shortly after, a true cinematic simplification of artistic inspiration. If the lyrics Springsteen writes in his notebook aren't familiar to casual viewers, he soon states that he is changing the title from "Starkweather" to "Nebraska."
Springsteen also writes down several song titles that include some of his future hits. Aficionados will know the tracks ultimately appeared on different albums, but to see "Born in the U.S.A." or "Glory Days" allows more people to recognize the songs featured in the film.
