Springsteen: Deliver Me from Nowhere Blu-ray Movie

Rating summary

Movie		3.0
Video		5.0
Audio		5.0
Extras		1.5
Overall		3.0

Springsteen: Deliver Me from Nowhere Blu-ray Movie Review

Reviewed by Jeffrey Kauffman January 19, 2026

Few would probably think of Bruce Springsteen as fitting snugly into subgenres like emo or shoegaze, but, boy, does Springsteen: Deliver Me from Nowhere make a compelling case for what may be a "calling card" for both of those idioms, namely a dour, depressive inner world spilling out into an artist's music. Of course, any serious reading of Bruce's lyrics probably inevitably discloses a veritable trove of sadness and melancholy, at least at times, even if Bruce himself tends to project (rightly or wrongly) a heroic and steely persona. For those who didn't catch an ostensible "tie in" product released by The (Actual) Boss™ a while ago, Bruce Springsteen: Nebraska provided a different kind of revisiting to one of Bruce's most interesting if still somewhat debated outings, but itself may suffer from the same kind of unexpectedly distant feeling this film imparts, as if it is on anti- depressants and can't fully convey emotional depth. One way or the other, it's manifestly obvious virtually from the get go here with the first of several black and white sequences documenting a less than happy childhood for a young Bruce that Springsteen: Deliver Me from Nowhere is not going to be a glitzy, glossy musically centered biopic a la Bohemian Rhapsody and/or Rocketman, whatever intermittently fraught subtext either or both of those films may have offered. Springsteen: Deliver Me from Nowhere is also an undeniable showcase for Jeremy Allen White, and it certainly won't surprise me if White ends up in the Best Actor sweepstakes in the impending Academy Award nominations announcement due in just a few days as this review is being written, even if ostensible expert handicappers have minimized his chances recently (due in part to the lackluster box office the film experienced). Having just completed my Shameless: The Complete Series Blu-ray review which included reviews for the simultaneously released tenth and eleventh seasons, I may have been personally struck more than I might have otherwise been by White's commanding and believable performance which, when compared to his Lip Gallagher (not to mention his Carmy in The Bear), is certainly an indication of his range.

Bruce has always been the American rock equivalent to Everyman, and in that regard it might only be slightly jokingly asserted that part of that quality may be his evident difficulties with his father. It might also be joked that anyone who has delved either into generalist Freudian psychology or specifically the subtext of some of Springsteen's own lyrics will find the depiction of the relationship between father and son in Springsteen: Deliver Me from Nowhere to be unsurprising, at least in some ways, but even given that familiarity (and frankly maybe because of it), the scenes with a young Bruce (an impressive Matthew Anthony Pellicano) and Springsteen père Douglas "Dutch" (Stephen Graham) have an admittedly disturbing air of authenticity. That said, the whole blue collar ethos for which Bruce has become so well known was obviously infused into the young boy probably by osmosis growing up under such a powerful if remote father.

Springsteen: Deliver Me from Nowhere ping pongs between black and white flashbacks of various childhood trials and tribulations young Bruce experienced, interspersed with conflicts of a more professional variety in the early eighties as Bruce insists his follow up to his first Top 10 single Hungry Heart go in a completely different direction from what Columbia Records and producer / manager Jon Landau (Jeremy Strong) probably prefer. This part of the film frankly is more generic than the flashback material, offering a supposed deconstruction of what Joni Mitchell famously called "the star making machinery behind the popular song" in Free Man in Paris, but which may arguably come off as the more "highly produced" part of the film itself, something that is contextually on the ironic side, all things considered.

Also generically handled in the "contemporary" segments is a kind of odd subplot featuring a character named Faye Romano (Odessa Young), a completely fictionalized "composite" that evidently writer and director Scott Cooper specifically added to give the film some kind of romantic spark. Unfortunately that decision only tends to add to the artificiality that the "modern day" sequences can offer, especially since the historical record seems to suggest that Bruce was maybe echoing the title of a Neil Diamond tune by being a Solitary Man during the writing and recording of Nebraska, something that actually may have been more moving had it been presented factually.

Note: My colleague Brian Orndorf was evidently even less impressed with Springsteen: Deliver Me from Nowhere than I was. You can read Brian's thoughts here.

Springsteen: Deliver Me from Nowhere Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality 

Springsteen: Deliver Me from Nowhere is presented on Blu-ray courtesy of Disney / Buena Vista and 20th Century Studios with an AVC encoded 1080p transfer in 2.39:1. The IMDb lists the Arri Alexa 35 and a 4K DI as relevant datapoints. Despite any narrative or emotional deficits the film may have, this is another great looking 1080 presentation from Disney and 20th, though I'd certainly recommend those with the appropriate setup to opt for Disney's 4K UHD release if they're a fan of the film. Both detail levels and an unusual expressive palette (in both black and white and color) help to ameliorate some of the actual storytelling issues here, and while the 4K presentation shows improvements in both of those categories, the 1080 presentation offers secure fine detail throughout and a lustrous (for SDR) accounting of the palette. There are occasional slight ebbs in shadow detail which perhaps surprisingly do not see a major improvement in the HDR version on 4K disc, but they're very minor and short lived.

Springsteen: Deliver Me from Nowhere Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality 

As they often tend to do, Disney offers a DTS-HD Master Audio 7.1 track on this 1080 disc, with their 4K UHD release featuring Dolby Atmos. There are a few isolated moments, notably some of the live performance material in arenas, where I'd argue the Atmos track does noticeably improve immersion and spaciousness, but otherwise this 7.1 track really did not strike my ears as substantially different from the Atmos track. Some of the most noticeable surround activity attends rather frequent sylvan outdoor sequences, as well as a glut of source cues (not necessarily just by Bruce), but even some of cloistered environments, including some "two hander" material between Bruce and various other single characters can offer directionality and good spill of ambient environmental effects into the side and rear channels. Dialogue is rendered cleanly and clearly throughout. Optional subtitles in several languages are available.

Springsteen: Deliver Me from Nowhere Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras 

• The Liner Notes: Making Springsteen: Deliver Me from Nowhere (HD; 34:17) is a (probably needlessly) four part featurette documenting background and context. This expectedly ping pongs between talking head interviews and snippets from the film, along with some candid footage.

Disney sent their 4K release for purposes of this 1080 review, but it looks like this standalone 1080 release includes a digital copy, but (unlike the 4K release) no slipcover.

Springsteen: Deliver Me from Nowhere Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation 

Bruce made quite a bit of news in my neck of the woods and in fact in the very suburb of Portland where I lived for many years, Lake Oswego, when he famously married Julianne Phillips there (here?) in 1985. By that time maybe just a little hilariously Portland had already seen at least a couple of homegrown bands eaten up and spat out by that aforementioned "star making machinery behind the popular song", an aspect to Springsteen: Deliver Me from Nowhere which may be of some interest, but probably has to take a back seat to the troubled relationship between Bruce and his dad. The result is both disjointed and oddly lethargic, but it's elevated by some really amazing work by White. Technical merits are solid and the making of featurette on the 1080 disc is enjoyable, for anyone who may be considering making a purchase.