Review: ‘Bruce Springsteen: Letter to You’ Sees Musician Facing Mortality

Creating and sustaining the character called “Bruce Springsteen” has been a 50-year project of Bruce Springsteen, and an immensely successful one. But at 71, the myth of Springsteen stands to one side as the man himself faces the same truth facing all of us, the one from which no amount of celebrity can protect him. From 1965 to 1968, as a teenager, Springsteen was a member of a starter rock band, the Castiles. In Bruce Springsteen: Letter to You, an affecting new documentary on Apple TV+, he notes with a combination of sadness and resignation, but not surprise, that he is now the only living member of the quintet following the death of bandmate George Theiss in 2018, at age 68. “What can I say?” Springsteen tells the members of the E Street Band in a toast at the end of the film. “We’re taking this thing till we’re all in a box, boys.”

Filmed in a frank black and white by Springsteen’s frequent collaborator, director Thom Zimny, Letter to You chronicles the hasty recording of the album of the same name, lashed together and recorded live in just four days at Springsteen’s home studio in rural New Jersey last November. The musicians are piled atop one another, mostly in the same room, with Springsteen doing his vocals and guitar work in a booth and directing the band to create the sound he has in his head. “No foot yet,” he tells drummer Max Weinberg, meaning he should hold off on the bass drum. It’s the first album Springsteen has ever recorded in this manner, rough and ready.

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Kyle Smith

Kyle Smith is the film critic for the Wall Street Journal.

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Bruce Springsteen

Creating and sustaining the character called “Bruce Springsteen” has been a 50-year project of Bruce Springsteen, and an immensely successful one. But at 71, the myth of Springsteen stands to one side as the man himself faces the same truth facing all of us, the one from which no amount of celebrity can protect him. From 1965 to 1968, as a teenager, Springsteen was a member of a starter rock band, the Castiles. In Bruce Springsteen: Letter to You, an affecting new documentary on Apple TV+, he notes with a combination of sadness and resignation, but not surprise, that he is now the only living member of the quintet following the death of bandmate George Theiss in 2018, at age 68. “What can I say?” Springsteen tells the members of the E Street Band in a toast at the end of the film. “We’re taking this thing till we’re all in a box, boys.”

Filmed in a frank black and white by Springsteen’s frequent collaborator, director Thom Zimny, Letter to You chronicles the hasty recording of the album of the same name, lashed together and recorded live in just four days at Springsteen’s home studio in rural New Jersey last November. The musicians are piled atop one another, mostly in the same room, with Springsteen doing his vocals and guitar work in a booth and directing the band to create the sound he has in his head. “No foot yet,” he tells drummer Max Weinberg, meaning he should hold off on the bass drum. It’s the first album Springsteen has ever recorded in this manner, rough and ready.