The new film Springsteen: Deliver Me from Nowhere, from 20th Century Studios, chronicles the making of Bruce Springsteen’s 1982 album “Nebraska,” which he recorded on a 4-track in his New Jersey bedroom, and the ensuing struggles he faced trying to replicate it in a larger commercial studio.
Jeremy Allen White plays “The Boss,” with Jon Landau taking on the role of his steadfast friend and agent Jeremy Strong. Odessa Young is Faye Romano, an early girlfriend from his hometown, and Paul Walter Hauser is Mike Batlan, his recording engineer.
Springsteen: Deliver Me from Nowhere is a film by Scott Cooper, who wrote the screenplay based on the book by Warren Zanes, and also directed the film. Cooper partnered with frequent collaborator/director of photography Masanobu Takayanagi, ASC, for the project, which was edited by Pamela Martin, ACE. Here, he shares insight in the shoot and post production for the film, which came together in less than a year, despite personal tragedies brought on by the California wildfires.
You began shooting in October of 2024 and the film was released less than a year later. It sounds like a quick turnaround?
“Yeah, in fact, I think we delivered a wet print to the Telluride Film Festival, which is where the film made its debut. I think (we) finished the movie just in time to debut at Telluride. But I wrote it quickly. We shot it pretty quickly — certainly given how long the gestation period of some films (are). I don't shoot a great deal of material. I'm pretty clear on what I want, certainly tonally, and Pam (Martin)'s such a remarkable editor. With my cinematographer Masanobu Takayanagi - for better or worse – (we made) very specific choices and it came together pretty quickly.”
Director Scott Cooper, in the green room at The Stone Pony in Asbury Park, NJ.
Did you have an aesthetic in mind, and how did you express that to Masanobu Takayanagi?
“Well Masa and I really discuss it at length. We've now made five films together, several of which were shot on film. We have now shot two digitally. We wanted a certain formalism in the black & white flashbacks — very locked off on the dolly, just as Bruce remembered it. We spoke at great length with Bruce about what his memories of his parents felt like, and he said, ‘They always felt in black & white to me,’ which is why ‘Nebraska’ has a black & white cover. Which is why the photography and the liner notes is black & white. Then, when we shot the contemporary 1981 and ‘82 scenes — it's handheld because Bruce is in disequilibrium. And we wanted to feel Bruce's disequilibrium. We also wanted to feel Bruce's intensity, his vulnerability, because much of this is internal. You say to yourself, ‘How can you make this cinematic?’ And of course, one of the films that really influenced us was (cinematographer) Christopher Doyle's work in Chungking Express, if you've seen that.
“So Masa and I speak specifically. We used the (Arri) Alexa LF Mini. It really seems to me that he and I are such in concert because we've made so many movies together that once we speak about what we want to feel, emotionally, it comes out. And then we test, and we test, and we test. We came to the film with a black & white look for 1957. And then how we think ‘81-‘82 would feel with some neon, some of the lights that also drew inspiration from the 1970s. Mean Streets (1973). Scorsese — we would look at when he would make the films from that particular era. We did the same thing on Black Mass (2015). We made the film as though it was 1975. So we'd look at movies that were made in 1975, try to use lenses and colors and production design. It all comes together so it felt like 1981 or ‘82 because we're making a film about America's most authentic artist and it better be authentic. Who better to answer my questions than Bruce Springsteen, as he's there.”
You were fortunate to be able to speak directly with him.
“It was an incredible gift. Again, I'm not making a documentary, but I wanted it to feel like a documentary. Everything that happened in the film really happened in Bruce's life, and I wanted to capture it as best as he remembered it, and also in a way that allowed the audience to be transported to Asbury Park…in 1981 and 82. To feel what it felt like in The Stone Pony. To feel what would have felt like as you're driving through Freehold, NJ, or you're spending time in the streets of New York City at night, or in The Power Station — the great recording studio in New York City, where Bruce recorded so much of his great work.”
Between the different time periods, and the flashbacks, what was your shooting schedule like? Was it linear?
“No, unfortunately. As you know, I have done that in the film that Masa and I made together called Hostiles (2017), an American western with Christian Bale. We shot that in sequence because we never visited the same location twice. It was about a man taking a Native American chief home to die in Montana. We started in New Mexico. We made our way up the Rocky Mountains. But when you make a film here, unfortunately, because of the cost, we had to shoot it out of order, which is hard. It's difficult for the actors, the crew, but it makes it more cost efficient.”
How did the LA fires disrupt things? You lost your home.
“I don't know if we took any time off from the fires, quite frankly. I didn't go home. I stayed (in New Jersey) when we were shooting. I think it finished early January, so we shot from October through to January.”
You shot in many of the actual locations – Asbury Park, the boardwalk, The Stone Pony. What were the visual effects needs for this film?
“Mostly digitally erasing things that are from 2024, when we shot. Things that don't look like they did in 1982, or some of the lighting along the boardwalk. In 1981 and ’82, (they had) these really great looking cobra heads. Now they're all LED lights that look very different. It was largely about removing things.”
I spoke with editor Pam Martin for Post and she mentioned some changes in the placement of the flashback sequences compared to the original script?
“She is such a remarkable filmmaker, Pam, and I had long wanted to work with her. And I think that her work is just really pretty great.
“Yeah, when you make a film, you make it three times. You make it when you're writing it. You make when you're shooting it. And then you make for the final time when you’re editing it. And you realize that, ‘Oh, this scene might play better, more emotionally better, or might better inform the audience if we move it from the first act to the third act.’ Or, ‘You know what? This scene that I spent an entire day shooting and a great deal of money, it's unnecessary.’
“You don't know those sort of things when you're writing the screenplay. Or when you're shooting it. Otherwise, why would you go to the expense and the effort to do so? So editing is, especially when you have an editor as good as Pam, when you can really whittle down the film to its marrow — this and nothing more. (You) don't need things that are extraneous, that might feel too obvious. Things that might feel just simply unnecessary, might feel confusing and nothing to do with whether we didn't capture everything we wanted to on the day. It was more about when you've put the film together and you place it in one run, and you watch it in one run, things that just don't feel necessary, or that are confusing, or slow the pace, or are better removed from the first act, as I mentioned, to the third act.”
Pam mentioned a few of her favorite scenes from the final edit. One being the ‘mansion on a hill’ sequence.
“Yeah, that's a very good one, ‘the mansion on the hill.’ Those sequences where you're dealing with Bruce's memory, and myth, and regret, and the art of creation. The psychological drama part of creation. That, and probably towards the end of the film, another sequence, ‘my father's house,’ where he's writing the final song and his most personal song, where we travel back in time. Bruce is also traveling back in time with us into the theater. That was all designed when we shot it — specifically Bruce is in color, but his father's in black & white. But just the way that came together, I think, for me at least, is incredibly satisfying and moving.”
Do you have your next project lined up?
“I do. I hope that very soon I get the band back together again – Masa and Pam, and my visual effects team, Paul Massey with sound, and we do it all again, because this was one of the best experiences of my life. One of the hardest times of my life.”