Mirsky: This Thanksgiving & Christmas Season, Go & See Bruce's Film: 'Deliver Me From Nowhere'

This is David Mirsky, your usually fearless political reporter who often speaks his mind on political things of which I have only a peripheral knowledge.

My area of real experience and expertise is not politics, however. I was planning on boring you all with my current take on the strongest candidates for President of the United States in 2028; it's a thing I've been doing for a while, called "Mirsky's List". The idea for doing that originally came from being an Exeter, #NH resident who loves politics and is especially enamored of our famous New Hampshire Primary, which in the past, before Bill Clinton ran for President in 1992, provided a surefire way to determine who was actually the strongest candidate for our nation's highest office, at least as of the time of Election Day on a Presidential Election Year. But things are all messed up now and I don't really want to get into that right now . . . .

So I'm here to tell you about a different thing, it's Bruce Springsteen's new movie, "Deliver Me From Nowhere" which I believe has been getting a lot of underserved bad press out there because younger people and professional moviegoers really seem to not like it! Too bad for those people. This is not a film for only younger people. This is not a movie only for people who are particular about what movies they go out to see in a movie theater or for people who don't like a film that has some erroneous features that might wreck it for them. I actually loved this film and have seen it twice so far, in the first two weeks of its release. I saw it at The Regal cinema complex in Newington, which is adjacent to the soon-to-be-gone (or is it already gone?) Fox Run Mall. You know the place I'm talking about: they had the best department store in the world, Macy's (this is my opinion so you might not agree), and they also had a really good Japanese fast food place that sold great chicken teriyaki takeout food.

The film, actually entitled, "Springsteen: Deliver Me From Nowhere", is playing at the O'Neil Cinemas in Epping (Friday showings at 1:35, 4:25, and 7:20 p.m.)

But clearly, as you can see, just look where we are here, I have digressed!

This article or blog post or whatever you want to call it, is really about this great movie I am telling you to go see. It is Bruce Springsteen's new movie, it's very autobiographical except misleading in that regard because it is only about a very narrow slice of Bruce's actual life. Those of you who were not born in the 1950's or early 1960s probably do not know this, but in the 1970s, Bruce was often hailed as some kind of Savior for the Young People of America. At the time he first hit the radio airwaves, the business people of the US music industry were on the lookout for what was termed, "The Next Bob Dylan", but little did they know there was never any possibility that such a thing could ever exist. Because there is only one Bob Dylan, you know the guy, he plays everywhere around the country and around the world, sometimes singing in a vocal style that I've read Mick Jagger considers to be Mr. Dylan's carefully studied use of the most terrible voice he can dream up. But, of course, Mr. Jagger (that's actually his real name, purportedly) was probably joking when he said that. . . .

Now the thing you have to know about the new Bruce Springsteen movie is that it doesn't tell you about all the things you already know and love about Bruce. You know, that he's a musical dynamo performing in a gloriously historic rock 'n' roll fashion that does nothing but bring joy to the masses. No, "Deliver Me From Nowhere" is not about that part of Mr. Springsteen's life. It's really about some real struggles that Bruce Springsteen apparently dealt with in a very private and painful way for most of his life, until his manager, Jon Landau, who is this brilliant former Rolling Stone Magazine writer who comes along in this man's life and straightens him out. So this movie isn't about music, it's about mental health. It seems that the music business people and the movie business people really don't like the film. I don't know why. Maybe because they don't care about your mental health. They just want to sell you concert tickets and popcorn, I guess.

So don't be fooled.

The plot of this film, I will deliberately include no spoilers here so you can enjoy seeing it for yourself, is ostensibly about the creative process Bruce went through in the early to mid-1980s after he returned home to New Jersey from a wildly successful tour backing the album, "The River." Rolling Stone Magazine itself (still in existence, hallelujah!) has tried to pass off the film as being about the making of Bruce Springsteen's "Nebraska" album. And to do that they try to show you the music business view of that album. Which is a great album. Go out and buy it. Get it in cassette tape form if you can, because that's the medium he used to make the album.

I will end this right here because I just want you to go and see the movie, "Deliver Me From Nowhere" because it's great!!! Doesn't matter what anybody says about it. There is just one thing I want to correct about the film, not a fatal flaw, but it's something you should know: The Music Business apparently still views "Nebraska" as a bad album because it is unique and groundbreaking, but they lie about it in the film, the business people do, by telling you that the album had no hits. They say that, because some of the music business people wouldn't even listen to it. So those who did not listen to what Bruce actually recorded did not know that "Nebraska" had one very great and lasting magnificent hit single on it, which is Bruce's original recording of the song, "Atlantic City". So go to "Deliver Me From Nowhere" and never make the mistake of reading a movie review before you decide which movie to see.

Hell, you probably shouldn't even be reading this!

Take care, New Hampshire, and have a great and Happy Thanksgiving!!!