Customer Reviews

Bruce Springsteen: Under Review 1978-1982: Tales of The Working Man

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I really like the "Under Review" series. What I appreciate about these documentaries is that the authors try and deliver an in-depth analysis through the opinions of a panel of experts (usually journalists, writers, musicians and scholars) who express their ideas on an artist's work within the historical, geographical and social context it comes from.

With Springsteen the experiment wasn't as succesful as others (i.e. Velvet Undergound or Tom Wait's double dvd or Neil Young's). I guess the problem here is the selection of the panel. If you take out the brilliant comments of Anthony de Curtis and Robert Christgau, what you have is basically a sad bunch of nerdy fans who are trapped in Bruce's personality cult. The result is a continuous uncritical exclamation for the boss' grandness.

While it's good to review Springsteen's lyrics and subject matter development at the end of the 1970s, there is little if none attention paid to his musical creation in the context of the late 70s, early 80s. Where did the boss music come from? What style was he playing and how could that relate to other styles like punk and new wave? How did the boss contribute to the conservation or progress of rock music? Apart from the usual clichè reference to Bob Dylan and Woodie Guthrie, all of these questions remain unanswered in the dvd.

All in all, if you're a fan, I think this is still worth having. If you're new to the boss and want to discover more about him, you'd better avoid this dvd and go straight into a live dvd of the boss and enjoy the fun of his music!