SummarySpringsteen’s first studio album in five years, Western Stars marks a departure for the legendary singer/songwriter while still drawing on his roots. Touching on themes of love and loss, loneliness and family and the inexorable passage of time, the documentary film evokes the American West—both the mythic and the hardscrabble—weaving archival fo... Read More
Directed By:Bruce Springsteen, Thom Zimny
Western Stars
Metascore
Generally Favorable
80
User score
Generally Favorable
6.7
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Metascore
Generally Favorable
80
88% Positive
14 Reviews
14 Reviews
13% Mixed
2 Reviews
2 Reviews
0% Negative
0 Reviews
0 Reviews
Sep 24, 2019
91
What Western Stars best achieves, a universal notion that will hook fans and non-fans alike, is the shared sense of community displayed in the infectious love shown for playing vital and moving music.
Sep 14, 2019
90
Don’t go into Western Stars expecting to see The Boss. That guy is on a break. What we get instead is Bruce Springsteen, a human being who seems a lot less sure of himself than The Boss ever did. Springsteen’s book gave us some details, but Western Stars looks straight into his soul.
User score
Generally Favorable
6.7
67% Positive
10 Ratings
10 Ratings
20% Mixed
3 Ratings
3 Ratings
13% Negative
2 Ratings
2 Ratings
Nov 1, 2019
9
Beautiful presentation of the new songs on the Western Stars album. Springsteen shares his inspiration for each song while tying it in to his life journey. This movie is a continuation of sorts of his Broadway Show where the artists adds to his life story, his trials, his suffering, and simply his humanity. The setting for the concert is inspiring as is the moving orchestra. The movie gives textures to the songs and gave me a deeper love of them.
Oct 25, 2019
8
As concert film laced with doc footage the surprisingly straight forward structure and old school sentimental delivery is nice. As new Springsteen music with western themed content his wisdom, philosophies and learned preaching are welcome.
Sep 14, 2019
90
A gorgeous tone poem that both deepens and personalizes the audio recording, creating a satisfying emotional arc that isn’t as apparent in the collection of 13 fully-orchestrated country-tinged songs.
Oct 24, 2019
80
The energy here is controlled, the mood reflective. These character-driven songs are populated by the washed-up and the run-down — an aging actor, a hitchhiker — and the shared themes are remembrance and regret.
Oct 23, 2019
80
The film, bathed in gorgeous shadow and light by cinematographer Joe DeSalvo, gets more personal as it moves along. You can feel the romantic ache when Bruce and the missus duet on “Stones.”
Oct 21, 2019
63
Swaggers across the landscape like a cinematic epic, but it’s basically a concert flick, with some extras. And those extras are not the best things in it.
Oct 20, 2019
50
Western Stars isn’t misguided. It’s just dull and self-serious. But if you’re Bruce Springsteen, nobody around you’s going to point that out.
Feb 11, 2020
7
I've never really been a Bruce Springsteen fan but this was actually pretty good. What drove me to watch it is that the documentary it's a companion of the album, which I recently listened to and I really liked it, so both things were good. Still not a fan though
