To director Thom Zimny, the key element in his filmed version of Bruce Springsteen's Broadway show was in the star's eyes.
The Netflix documentary makes its first appearance on the service early in the morning of Dec. 16, hours after the singer's 236th and last performance of "Springsteen on Broadway" at the Walter Kerr Theater. A soundtrack is being released Friday.
"I wanted to capture Bruce's eyes in a way that you don't get from being in the theater," he said. "It's another sense of intimacy, another sense of the performance."
That focus paid off when cameras caught Springsteen's emotion during an introduction to the song "Long Walk Home," telling of an unexpected visit by his father just before Springsteen's first child was born. His dad said he hadn't been the best of fathers and hoped his son would do better. Anyone familiar with Springsteen's music knows the import of that acknowledgment.
Those are the moments, subtle enough to be missed by most of the live audience, that Zinny feels makes the "Springsteen on Broadway" film unique from the "Springsteen on Broadway" show. Another was the look of loving remembrance on Springsteen's face when he played piano and talked about his late band member Clarence Clemons, one he didn't see until reviewing tape later.
Zimny wasn't simply called in to tape a show near the end of its run. The filmmaker has a history with Springsteen and manager Jon Landau that includes a 2001 documentary with the singer and his E Street Band performing in New York. He was brought into the project while it was still in rehearsals.
"I've seen the show so many times I've lost count," he said. If not in the audience, he watched video and listened to audio tapes, to keep up with how the performance tightened and changed throughout the run.
At one point in the film, Springsteen confesses to the audience that "I've never worked five days a week — until now." The weary observation meant more at the end of his Broadway run than the beginning.
The filmmaker continually discussed the process with Springsteen and Landau. Their advice: "Plan a lot, but also be open to whatever the film gods or the music gods throw at you in the moment."
Zimny needed to match the intensity of a noted perfectionist. To whit: he watched the evolution of a small moment where Springsteen illustrates how little he knew about playing a guitar when he was young. He kept trying out different chords to get it just right in order to show his playing was just wrong.
The film opens with the first words Springsteen says onstage to open the performance, which is a mixture of storytelling and song that builds off the singer's autobiography, and credits roll with the final bows. Zimny wanted to recreate when the lights go down on a sparse stage and Springsteen simply appears, a moment "that puts you on edge," he said. "You have to listen."
There is no nervous backstage footage from before showtime, shots of Springsteen's hometown of Freehold, New Jersey, or artificial interludes, techniques Zimny dismissed as cliched.
"I never felt interested in cutting away from the show," he said. "The power of the show unfolding was something I wanted to capture. There's no need for cameras or editing to take away from that moment. There was no need to cut to footage of Freehold or anything. The tree in my imagination was much more powerful than anything I could film."
The tree was one Springsteen climbed as a boy in front of his house, that he later returned to as an older man. He's now 69.
The theater audience is rarely seen, except at the film's end when Springsteen shakes some hands.
"It was most important to capture a very abstract thing that goes on in the Broadway show — an emotional feeling and an arc where you go on a journey with Bruce," Zimny said.
"It's hard to put into words. But experiencing the Broadway show is such a beautiful and intense presentation. I wanted the film to both represent that and also be slightly different — so if you saw the show on Broadway, you had a different understanding of the power of performance by seeing his eyes."
TOKYO (AP) — The American envoy to the United Nations called Friday for countries armed with atomic weapons to pursue nuclear disarmament as she visited the atomic bomb museum in Nagasaki, Japan.
Linda Thomas-Greenfield, who became the first U.S. cabinet member to visit Nagasaki, stressed the importance of dialogue and diplomacy amid a growing nuclear threat in the region.
“We must continue to work together to create an environment for nuclear disarmament. We must continue to prevent the spread of nuclear weapons in every corner of the world,” she said after a tour of the atomic bomb museum.
“For those of us who already have those weapons, we must pursue arms control. We can and must work to ensure that Nagasaki is the last place to ever experience the horror of nuclear weapons,” she added, standing in front of colorful hanging origami cranes, a symbol of peace.
The United States dropped the world’s first atomic bomb on Hiroshima on Aug. 6, 1945, destroying the city and killing 140,000 people. A second attack three days later on Nagasaki killed 70,000 more people. Japan surrendered on Aug. 15, ending World War II and its nearly half-century of aggression in Asia.
Nagasaki Gov. Kengo Oishi said in a statement that he believed Thomas-Greenfield's visit and her first-person experience at the museum “will be a strong message in promoting momentum of nuclear disarmament for the international society at a time the world faces a severe environment surrounding atomic weapons.”
Oishi said he conveyed to the ambassador the increasingly important role of Nagasaki and Hiroshima in emphasizing the need of nuclear disarmament.
Thomas-Greenfield's visit to Japan comes on the heels of Prime Minister Fumio Kishida's official visit to the United States last week and is aimed at deepening Washington's trilateral ties with Tokyo and Seoul. During her visit to South Korea earlier this week, she held talks with South Korean officials, met with defectors from North Korea and visited the demilitarized zone.
The ambassador said the United States is looking into setting up a new mechanism for monitoring North Korea's nuclear weapons program. Russia and China have thwarted U.S.-led efforts to step up U.N. sanctions on North Korea over its ballistic missile testing since 2022, underscoring a deepening divide between permanent Security Council members over Russia’s war on Ukraine.
She said it would be “optimal” to launch the new system next month, though it is uncertain if that is possible.
The U.N. Security Council established a committee to monitor sanctions, and the mandate for its panel of experts to investigate violations had been renewed for 14 years until last month, when Russia vetoed another renewal.
In its most recent report, the panel of experts said it is investigating 58 suspected North Korean cyberattacks between 2017 and 2023 valued at approximately $3 billion, with the money reportedly being used to help fund its weapons development.
The United States, Japan and South Korea have been deepening security ties amid growing tension in the region from North Korea and China.
U.S. Ambassador to United Nations Linda Thomas-Greenfield, left, and Japan's Prime Minister Fumio Kishida, right, shake hands during a meeting Friday, April 19, 2024, at prime minister's office in Tokyo. (AP Photo/Eugene Hoshiko, Pool)
U.S. Ambassador to United Nations Linda Thomas-Greenfield, left, and Japan's Prime Minister Fumio Kishida, right, shake hands during a meeting Friday, April 19, 2024, at prime minister's office in Tokyo. (AP Photo/Eugene Hoshiko, Pool)
U.S. Ambassador to United Nations Linda Thomas-Greenfield, right, speaks to Rahm Emanuel, U.S. Ambassador to Japan, second right, as they wait for a meeting with Japan's Prime Minister Fumio Kishida Friday, April 19, 2024, at prime minister's office in Tokyo. (AP Photo/Eugene Hoshiko, Pool)
U.S. Ambassador to United Nations Linda Thomas-Greenfield, left, and Rahm Emanuel, U.S. Ambassador to Japan, right, walk to meet Japan's Prime Minister Fumio Kishida Friday, April 19, 2024, at prime minister's office in Tokyo. (AP Photo/Eugene Hoshiko, Pool)
U.S. Ambassador to United Nations Linda Thomas-Greenfield, left, and Japan's Prime Minister Fumio Kishida, right, talk prior to a meeting Friday, April 19, 2024, at prime minister's office in Tokyo. (AP Photo/Eugene Hoshiko, Pool)
U.S. Ambassador to United Nations Linda Thomas-Greenfield, left, and Japan's Prime Minister Fumio Kishida, right, prepare to talk during a meeting Friday, April 19, 2024, at prime minister's office in Tokyo. (AP Photo/Eugene Hoshiko, Pool)
