The 39th AFI gala kicked off in Hollywood on Wednesday night with a brief tribute to Diane Keaton and then a lengthy celebration of Bruce Springsteen, courtesy of Scott Cooper’s drama “Springsteen: Deliver Me From Nowhere.” But that celebration culminated in an appearance by the boss himself, who called the night “my last night in the movie business” after making a string of festival appearances in Telluride, New York and finally Los Angeles.
With a couple of songs that got the crowd at the TCL Chinese Theater on their feet and going “Brooooce!” screams more commonly in arenas and arenas than movie theaters, the evening lived up to AFI President and CEO Bob Gazzale’s opening remarks, which included the promise, “There’s no more epic way to kick off this five-day film festival.”
Gazzale began his remarks by showing a photo of AFI award winner Keaton on the giant Chinese screen, calling her “our wonderfully warm, crazy friend Diane Keaton” before promising that the 150-plus films to be screened from Wednesday to Sunday would “mess with your algorithm”.
For his part, Cooper said the first movie he ever saw when his family moved to Los Angeles was Quentin Tarantino’s “Pulp Fiction” in Chinese. He introduced the cast of his film as well as Springsteen’s manager, Jon Landau (portrayed by Jeremy Strong in the film), but fought back tears as he introduced Springsteen by mentioning that the iconic rocker had moved Cooper’s family into his own LA house after theirs was destroyed in the Palisades fire.
Cooper composed himself long enough to tell the crowd, “If you stick around until the end of the credits, I promise it will be worth your time” — a hint of the after-show entertainment that prompted Springsteen to raise his index finger to his lips and give the crowd the silence sign.
The film was warmly received even without the promise of a mini-concert, but it’s safe to say that almost no one had left when Cooper returned after the screening and said, “I was teasing that we might have something a little special. Well, ladies and gentlemen, Bruce Springsteen.”
To no one’s surprise and everyone’s delight, Springsteen walked out with a guitar and harmonica “I really love the people who made this movie,” he said. “They really honored my work and my family and my experience.”
After thanking the filmmakers, actors and studio, Springsteen, who has followed the film to Telluride, New York and now the AFI festivals and sometimes performed after screenings, added, “This is my last night in the movie business. I’m sticking to music.”
He stuck to the music for the next few minutes, performing an emphatic acoustic version of “Atlantic City” and then segueing into a version of his anthemic “Land of Hope and Dreams” that replaced the jubilant drive of the usual full-band version with a more measured, more mournful approach.
Even in the muted performances, Springsteen managed to bring the drama, stepping back from the mic to create a ghostly effect on the chorus of “Atlantic City” (“Everything dies, baby, that’s a fact / But maybe everything that dies one day will come back”) and then doing the same in the next song on the repeated line “Meet me dreaming in the land of hope.”
He dedicated that song to Scott Cooper, opening it by telling the crowd that the Chinese Theater reminded him of an old movie palace in Asbury Park, New Jersey. “(But) outside, all hell is breaking loose in the United States,” he said. “For 250 years around the world, despite all the faults we’ve had, the United States has stood as a beacon of freedom and democracy and hope and freedom. I’ve spent 50 years on the road as a kind of musical ambassador for America, and I’ve seen firsthand all the love and admiration that people around the world have for America.
“Despite how terribly damaged America has become recently, that country and these ideals are worth fighting for.” As the crowd cheered, he added, “I send this out as a prayer for America and for our unity. And no kings!”
