SPILL FILM REVIEW: STEVIE VAN ZANDT: DISCIPLE

STEVIE VAN ZANDT: DISCIPLE

HBO

JUNE 22, 2024

When you’re best known for being part of a cultural phenomenon like the E Street Band, it can be hard to get your individual story told. Disciple sets out to redress that balance by focussing on Steven Van Zandt’s life beyond the well-known, and attempting to shine a light on the other huge aspects of his many decades in music.

You get the feeling that the bits covering the obvious, chiefly the E Street Band and his association with Springsteen, are well-trodden subjects that Van Zandt is not especially keen to revisit or expand on in great detail, as there’s not a lot of new information here. Part of this may at least be that the details are presumed to be already known to the viewer – after all, if one is viewing a documentary on Van Zandt, you probably know the backstory and some myths are pervasive and persuasive enough not to want to be tampered with. It’s still fun to work through those formative years, and there’s particularly hilarious footage of his wedding officiated by one Little Richard that raises some big smiles. Still, it overall makes the film quite a slow burner, save for some interesting avenues explored around his mid-80s departure, where, via dueling comments from Jon Landau, Springsteen, and Van Zandt himself, you get a great picture of the frustrations that were following him around at the time.

Really, though, Disciple is at its best, and probably designed to be so, when focusing on other matters, and as such, the second half of the film is notable for a guarded Van Zandt becoming much more relaxed – be it in the talking head interviews that form part of the film, or in the various candid video clips and audio clips from his autobiography that show him at his effusive best. The focus on his writing and production skills is particularly welcome to a musical obsessive, while also adding another dimension to a man who has at times been portrayed in caricature to the public eye.

This coincides with two main foci – first, Van Zandt’s role in challenging South African apartheid, and various other political causes, and then his latter-day role in the Sopranos television show. In the case of the former, it’s extremely informative and enlightening as to Van Zandt’s largely unknown efforts in political lobbying, particularly an astonishing effort to overturn the President’s veto on sanctions towards the South African government. Perhaps freed from the monotony of things people already knew, Van Zandt warms massively to this theme, particularly on the making (or several makings, as it turns out!) of his anti-Sun City single. It sets Van Zandt apart from some other artists who defied the boycott, and marks him not just as an objector, but an actual force for change. Where that was serious, the Sopranos reminiscence is full of insouciance and smiles. Strangely, this becomes the most likable part of the film, as everyone seems to finally release the pent-up tension that seems to dog other parts of it occasionally.

Van Zandt is a Disciple Of Soul, but disciple is as well a seemingly accurate descriptor of a man who threw his heart into the causes he cared about – but it plays safe just once too often. This might be because Van Zandt is still very busy in today’s music world, but ultimately, while this is a warm show, full of love for its subject, and you learn something throughout a watch, the lack of openness at times drags the film down a few points. Perhaps one other bible section that might have pushed it over the top – Revelations.

Artist Links