Bruce Springsteen: Nebraska Blu-ray Movie

Rating summary

Movie		4.0
Video		4.5
Audio		5.0
Extras		5.0
Overall		4.5

Bruce Springsteen: Nebraska Blu-ray Movie Review

Reviewed by Jeffrey Kauffman October 27, 2025

If industry reportage is to be believed, Springsteen: Deliver Me from Nowhere is shaping up to be a pretty big box office bomb, and reading my colleague Brian Orndorf's review of the film may provide a few clues as to why. Prognosticators probably assumed the film would be a major smash simply based on Bruce Springsteen's name alone, but the niche perspective of the film may almost unavoidably keep the story from resonating with all but the most devoted fans of The Boss. Columbia must have thought that the film would spark new interest in the album at the core of the narrative, Bruce's 1982 "epic" Nebraska, which is offered here along with a glut of bonus material on CDs (there's a significantly spendier LP version available as well). What may be disappointing to some fans is that the Blu-ray included in this set (and the LP version) is not a hi res audio offering featuring the original album, but instead a rather ingratiating if strictly unnecessary 2025 live performance by Bruce (see below for the set list). It's a frankly kind of odd choice for this particular album, and it may strike aficionados as a less instantly alluring option than a hi res audio Blu-ray of the original album.

The Blu-ray offers a live unplugged performance by Springsteen (with a few additional background musicians) at the Count Basie Theatre in Red Bank, New Jersey, featuring the following tunes:

1. Nebraska
2. Atlantic City
3. Mansion On the Hill
4. Johnny 99
5. Highway Patrolman
6. State Trooper
7. Used Cars
8. Open All Night
9. My Father’s House
10. Reason to Believe
11. Nebraska (Instrumental) – End Credits

Bruce Springsteen: Nebraska Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality 

Nebraska is presented on Blu-ray courtesy of Columbia Records with an AVC encoded 1080p transfer in 1.78:1. Shot in evocative black and white, the live concert offers some excellent contrast and is refreshingly free of any potential banding issues since lighting values change fairly dramatically throughout the concert. The camera is quite often in motion, leading to arguable slight variances in detail levels (especially fine detail), but in midrange and close-ups, things are sharp and extremely well rendered, down to the kind of mottled skin on Bruce's neck. One slight deficit, which may in fact be intentional, is a lack of real shadow definition, which means other musicians back there in the dimly lit areas of the stage (or seemingly maybe even in the wings) can't be made out all that clearly.

Bruce Springsteen: Nebraska Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality 

The live concert features Dolby Atmos, Dolby TrueHD 5.1 and LPCM 2.0 options. All three of these tracks sound absolutely fantastic, but that said, both the 5.1 and Atmos iterations deliver their "surround" activity basically by offering what amounts to a multi-channel presentation of Bruce's vocals, guitar playing and harmonica playing "in tandem". That means that kind of ironically (and maybe even a bit humorously) the most "overt" surround moments are the whistling wind and what I assume is supposed to be a semi truck roaring down a highway which bookend the concert during the opening and closing credits, and which deliver noticeable panning that simply isn't provided (or admittedly necessary) in the live concert setting. Bruce's voice is nicely prioritized despite the fact that you're basically getting "everything" out of the surround channels simultaneously.

Bruce Springsteen: Nebraska Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras 

This is another "multi media" release where one fan's "extra" is another fan's "main feature". The non Blu-ray disc content is as follows:

CD 1: Nebraska Outtakes

1. Born In the U.S.A. - Demo Version – 1982
2. Losin' Kind – Nebraska Outtakes
3. Downbound Train – Nebraska Outtakes
4. Child Bride – Nebraska Outtakes
5. Pink Cadillac – Nebraska Outtakes
6. The Big Payback – Single B-side – 1982
7. Working on the Highway – Nebraska Outtakes
8. On the Prowl – Nebraska Outtakes
9. Gun in Every Home – Nebraska Outtakes

CD 2: Electric Nebraska

1. Nebraska
2. Atlantic City
3. Mansion On the Hill
4. Johnny 99
5. Downbound Train
6. Open All Night
7. Born in the U.S.A.
8. Reason to Believe

CD 3: Nebraska (Count Basie Theatre, Red Bank, NJ)

1. Nebraska
2. Atlantic City
3. Mansion On the Hill
4. Johnny 99
5. Highway Patrolman
6. State Trooper
7. Used Cars
8. Open All Night
9. My Father's House
10. Reason to Believe

CD 4: Original Album Remastered

1. Nebraska
2. Atlantic City
3. Mansion On the Hill
4. Johnny 99
5. Highway Patrolman
6. State Trooper
7. Used Cars
8. Open All Night
9. My Father's House
10. Reason to Believe

All of the discs are packaged in an attractive if somewhat unusually sized DigiBook that measures approximately 6 1/4" wide by 6 1/4" high by 1/2: deep. The CDs are in pocket sleeves inside the front and rear covers as well as the first and last pages. The Blu-ray is in its own separate pocketed page (and in a mini LP-esque sleeve as well). The book offers a glut of stills and lyrics, along with information on the various contents of the CDs. There's also a nice essay by Erik Flannigan.

Bruce Springsteen: Nebraska Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation 

The actual live concert offered here on a Blu-ray disc is undeniably captivating on its own terms, and it's rather evocatively shot by Thom Zimny, but I am absolutely positive I'm not going to be the only fan of the original album wondering why Columbia didn't at least include a hi res audio version of that original album, if not as a replacement for the live performance, then at least as another audio disc to accompany either the CDs or LPs. Bruce is vigorous and emotional in this concert, but it may well be the material on the CDs that ends up offering the most sustained interest. As a complete package, Highly recommended.