'Western Stars': Release date, plot, cast, trailer and everything else about Bruce Springsteen's concert movie
Bruce Springsteen's album 'Western Stars', released June 14, was his first studio album of solo material since 2005’s 'Devils and Dust'. It is also the first album that he hasn’t supported with a tour since 1982’s 'Nebraska'.
Not willing to leave his fans high and dry, the singer-songwriter is preparing to release an 83-minute companion concert film, also titled 'Western Stars'. In an interview with E Street Radio in July, he said: "I was looking for a way to get some of the music live to an audience and so we figured that [this movie] was the best way to do it.”
Release date:
The film's world premiere will be at the Toronto International Film Festival in September 2019. Warner Bros will release the film in theaters October 25, following two exclusive one-night Fathom Events screenings for fans on October 19 and 23.
Plot:
According to a Warner Bros. note, the film will be "touching on themes of love and loss, loneliness and family and the inexorable passage of time. " According to the press release, "the documentary film evokes the American West—both the mythic and the hardscrabble—weaving archival footage and Springsteen’s personal narration with song to tell the story of Western Stars." The film will feature Springsteen perform all 13 songs on the album, backed up by a band and a full orchestra, "under the cathedral ceiling of his historic nearly 100-year-old barn," to an audience of family and friends.
Cast:
Bruce Springsteen, nicknamed the Boss, is an American singer-songwriter who is a solo artist and the leader of the E Street Band. His album 'Born to Run' released in 1975 catapulted him to worldwide fame.
His songs often address the experiences and struggles of working-class Americans in a career that has spanned five decades. He has sold more than 135 million records worldwide and more than 64 million records in the United States.
He has won 20 Grammy Awards, two Golden Globes, an Academy Award and a Tony Award (for 'Springsteen on Broadway'). In 1999, he was inducted into the Songwriters Hall of Fame and the Rock And Roll Hall Of Fame. He has also received the Kennedy Center Honors in 2009 and was awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom in 2016.
Patti Scialfa is an American singer-songwriter and guitarist. She has been a member of the E Street Band since 1984 and married Bruce Springsteen in 1991. In 2014, Scialfa was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame as a member of the E Street Band.
Creator:
Directed by Bruce Springsteen and Thom Zimny. The film will be the first time Springsteen has taken on a directorial role. Zimny and Springsteen have worked together for more than two decades, previously collaborating on films like 'Wings for Wheels: The Making of Born to Run', 'The Promise: The Making of Darkness on the Edge of Town' and the Netflix special 'Springsteen on Broadway'.
Trailer:
The trailer invites the audience to step into Springsteen's 100-year-old barn filled with the "best kind of ghosts and spirits" where he got to play for a "few friends", promising an intimate concert experience to the viewer.
Besides showing Springsteen performing with his backing band, the trailer also has archival footage of Springsteen in his younger days, one of which shows him kissing his wife Patti Scialfa as his voice-over says: “We all have our broken pieces. Emotionally, spiritually; in this life, nobody gets away unhurt. We’re always trying to find someone whose broken pieces fit with our broken pieces and something whole emerges.”
The trailer reveals Springsteen will be in an introspective mood. He narrates: "It’s easy to lose yourself, or never find yourself. The older you get, the heavier that baggage becomes that you haven’t sorted through, so you run. I’ve done a lot of that kind of running.”
Not content to bask in his fame and still self-critical, he says: “I’ve spent 35 years trying to learn how to let go of the destructive parts of my character, and I still have days when I struggle with it.”
If you like this, you'll love these:
'A Hard Day's Night', 'Live at the Paramount', 'Prince: Sign O’ the Times', 'The Last Waltz', 'Searching for Sugarman', 'Buena Vista Social Club', 'Marley' and 'Michael Jackson’s This Is It'.
