S Poddar
Bruce Springsteen, known for his heartfelt music and charged live performances, has always been an artist who connects very well with his audience. His concerts are legendary because of the sheer passion and energy he brings, making him forge a powerful bond with his fans. “Road Diary: Bruce Springsteen and The E Street Band,” a new feature-length documentary chronicling his return to live performance post-pandemic, surprisingly lacks the warmth and generosity typically associated with Springsteen.
This is a documentary celebrating Springsteen’s connection with his audience, but the man remains distant throughout. Instead of being interviewed, the movie relies on his long-time bandmates in the E Street Band to give us his perspective. Valuable though their insights are, they cannot capture the essence of Springsteen himself.
One great scene is of the drummer Max Weinberg while talking about performing with Springsteen. “One thing you’ll never hear anyone say to Bruce – ‘that’s not the way we rehearsed it’. That doesn’t matter. It’s what happens now [on stage] that matters.” That is an interesting anecdote, highlighting the spontaneity and intensity of live performances by Springsteen, though the documentary hardly digs deeper at such moments.
Springsteen himself is a relatively rare sight, showing up as narrator at opening and closing credits. When he does talk, his words are often swaddled in grandiose clichés. “Playing live is a deep, lasting part of whom I am,” he says as the film opens on rehearsals of a tour in New Jersey. “When the world shut down, I made a promise. If we got through this, I’d throw the biggest party I could.”
“Road Diary” is part of a growing trend of documentations that serve as glowing profiles rather than being taken as in-depth explorations. While Springsteen’s music delves into all the complexities of human life, the film itself is not much more than a shallow tribute, failing to probe anything beneath the surface or raise searching questions.
Included but omitted issues are very serious controversy surrounding the dynamic pricing charged to sell over $1,000 in tickets per the US tour, which bruised the reputation of Springsteen as a singer of everyday man blue collar.
Not even an attempt to explain the mystery of Springsteen’s vigor at 75, this film barely touches on the passing of E Street stalwarts Clarence Clemons and Danny Federici, yet Springsteen vaguely acknowledges problems of aging as a performer. Questions about his fitness regimen or dietary habits remain unanswered, leaving viewers wanting more insight into how he maintains his energy and stamina on tour.
This can be said about his wife and fellow E Street Band member, Patti Scialfa. Since a diagnosis with “early stage multiple myeloma” in 2018, she opens up generously about her health woes and how it has affected her ability to perform. “I have to be careful what I chose to do and where I chose to go,” she says. “Every once in a while, I do a show or two.”. That’s been a treat. That’s the new normal for me now.
Though this is certainly an emotionally moving film at times, it feels more often like a long-form music video commercial for the live Bruce Springsteen experience. The camera spends a disproportionate amount of time focused on fans from Europe-the UK, Italy, Ireland, Germany, and Norway. Some of the footage of his 2023 shows and live performances of such hits as “Tenth Avenue Freeze-Out” is impressive, but the documentary does little to present a deep or revealing glimpse into who the man behind the music is.
In the end, “Road Diary” fails to deliver the intimate portrait of Bruce Springsteen that audiences are expecting. It does manage to capture the energy of his live shows and the devotion of his fans, but it misses the opportunity to really get under the skin of its subject. For a documentary about an artist known for his raw and honest connection with his audience, this lack of depth is a significant letdown.
