Bruce Springsteen’s Favorite Movies, From ‘Double Indemnity’ to ‘The Grapes of Wrath’

“Thunder Road” (1958)

Beyond “Blinded by the Light,” Springsteen has always professed a huge appreciation for grittier dramas. In 2017, Springsteen sat down with “Philadelphia” star Tom Hanks at the Tribeca Film Festival to chat about a wide range of subjects, including some of his favorite films. No surprise here: he named Robert Mitchum’s “Thunder Road,” which inspired the title of a Springsteen song of the same name, as one of the formative pictures of his life. 

Of the film, which follows Mitchum’s Lucas Doolin as he returns to America after the Korean War and gets involved in bootlegging to save his family, Springsteen said, “It’s a great noir picture, and I saw all of those at the time. So a lot of it came out of that.”

“Two-Lane Blacktop” (1971)

During that same chat, Hanks asked Springsteen about the genesis of his hit “Born to Run.” The Boss explained that that the song “came from life experience of being in Asbury [Park] on a Saturday night looking at the circuit with the hot rods going round and round every Friday and Saturday night, so that life was there in front of me. But it also came from every B-hotrod picture.”

While he didn’t explicitly name any “B-hotrod pictures,” he was likely thinking of Monte Hellman’s road-tripping”Two-Lane Blacktop,” starring fellow rockers like James Taylor, Warren Oates, and Dennis Wilson. Springsteen has referred to the film as one of his all-time favorites, and even called it out during a Musicares event honoring Taylor himself.  

“The Grapes of Wrath” (1940)

At the Tribeca chat, Springsteen also singled out John Ford’s 1940 adaptation of John Steinbeck’s seminal American novel, “The Grapes of Wrath.” The singer and songwriter’s affection for the film started early, and he said, “I think the first thing I remembered was John Ford’s ‘Grapes of Wrath.’ The humanism in that was something that touched me deeply, deeply. And I thought, I want some of that in my music.”

“The Postman Always Rings Twice” (1946)

After movies like “The Grapes of Wrath,” Springsteen said he got “hooked into noir writers,” and pointed to films like Tay Garnett’s 1946 noir classic, based on the novel of the same name by James M. Cain. 

The feature, the third adaptation of Cain’s novel but the first made for American audiences, stars John Garfield and Lana Turner as a couple that starts a torrid affair that leads them to kill off Turner’s character’s husband, played by Cecil Kellaway. Inevitably, it doesn’t turn out the way they’d hoped.

The story was adapted four more times, including a 1981 version starring Jack Nicholson and Jessica Lange, but Springsteen seems to be a devotee of Garnett’s take. 

“Double Indemnity” (1944)

Springsteen also pointed to Billy Wilder’s 1944 noir classic as a key film in his movie-going life. Starring Fred MacMurray, Barbara Stanwyck, and Edward G. Robinson, the film is also based on a Cain text, a serial turned novella of the same name.

Like “Postman,” the film teams up a unhappy housewife with an alluring stranger, with a twisted murder as the shocking end goal. Told mostly in flashback, the film is considered a classic of the noir genre, and though it pulled in seven Oscar nominations, it didn’t earn a single Academy Award. Springsteen’s affection for film noir influenced much of his early work, songs focused on dreamers and schemers looking for a way out of their dead-end lives, even if the cost is too big to bear.

“Rolling Thunder” (1977)

During another festival chat, this time at the 2010 Toronto International Film Festival, Springsteen detailed another batch of films he loves, including a number of ’70s-era cult offerings. Springsteen told moderator Edward Norton that many of his early songs were inspired by movies of the time, billing the mid-’70s as “a terrific time in the movies.”

One pick: John Flynn’s “Rolling Thunder,” based on a story by fellow filmmaker Paul Schrader. The film stars William Devane, Tommy Lee Jones, Linda Haynes, James Best, Dabney Coleman, and Luke Askew and follows Devane’s character as he struggles to readjust to life back in San Antonio after a wrenching stint as a POW in Hanoi.

The film was originally a Fox picture, but after dismal test screenings (Flynn claimed that studio brass screened the film for psychiatrists to try to figure out what about it made movie-goers so sad) and requests to cut it, producer Larry Gordon took it to American International Pictures. The studio released it “as is,” and it proved to be a critical hit for the now-defunct distributor.

Eagle-eyed moviegoers may notice another connection between the film and modern cinema: Quentin Tarantino is also a huge fun of the movie, and even named his short-lived Rolling Thunder Pictures after it. 

“Jackson County Jail” (1976)

Springsteen also named Michael Miller’s American exploitation thriller as a favorite. Starring Yvette Mimieux, Tommy Lee Jones, and Robert Carradine, the film combines road movie tropes, revenge thrills, and one hell of a “gorgeous lady in prison” theme into a wild stew of drama and bad deeds.

And, yes, it’s another Tarantino favorite, too. Perhaps QT’s next film can be a fictionalized spin on The Boss’ life? 

“Cockfighter” (1974)

A canny combination of other Springsteen obsessions, the film (also known as “Born to Kill”) is yet another Monte Hellman picture starring Warren Oates that chronicles American anti-heroes. 

As the titular fighter, Oates is joined by Harry Dean Stanton in a loose adaptation of Charles Willeford’s novel of the same name (the author also wrote the script, and made a number of changes on his own accord), and follows Oates’ mute Frank Mansfield as he endeavors to become Cockfighter of the Year.

The film was a box office bust, and even when producer Roger Corman had it recut (and re-titled), it failed to generate much money. Springsteen, however, still loves it. It’s easy to see why: The grizzled anti-heroes of mid-’70s cinema seem pulled from Springsteen’s own songs, lovable losers with nothing left to lose.

“Blinded by the Light” (2019)

Based on the coming-of-age story of Springsteen super-fan Sarfraz Manzoor (played by breakout star Viveik Kalra), Gurinder Chadha’s big-hearted period dramedy was a massive hit when it premiered at Sundance earlier this year. It’s a crowd-pleasing love letter to The Boss’ music, one steeped in the intrinsic relatability of his hard-luck jams (it’s set in 1987 Britain, a tough time that Kalra’s Javed feels is perfectly encapsulated by Springsteen’s songs about similarly blue collar concerns in America).

That Springsteen granted permission for so many of his songs — a dozen in total — was already proof that he dug the concept of the film, but as Chadha recently told JOE, he’s a bonafide fan of the final product. She told the outlet, “When it came to showing him, I went to New York and he was playing on Broadway at the time. We sat down and all his managers were there in this little cinema, the lights go down, the movie starts, and Bruce is watching really intensely. Then he started smiling and going through the gamut of emotions watching it. … At the end of it all, the movie ends and there’s silence. I went to turn the lights on and he walks over, gives me a big kiss and says, ‘Thank you for looking after me so beautifully,’ then I melted!”

The film opens in theaters everywhere next week.