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Great art serves a multitude of purposes — it makes us feel a range of emotions, it teaches us about the world and ourselves and ultimately it makes us better, sometimes in small ways and in other ways it is profound. Think of the best movies over the years and they all share those traits. And they do it in a way that is entertaining and educates you, often times, without your realizing it.

Netflix’s Springsteen On Broadway has all of those traits. In fact it’s hard to think of another film this year that will elicit such a range of emotions while teaching us so much about human emotions.

For longtime Springsteen devotees the transcendence of the film version of his Tony-winning, record-breaking, year and a half Broadway run is no surprise. Forget about being “Born To Run” or being “Born In The U.S.A.” it turns out Bruce was “Born For Broadway.”

That would not have been the obvious calling for one of the half-dozen greatest rock stars who ever lived, but it makes perfect sense. Springsteen is the greatest storyteller rock has ever seen. Maybe he is not the best songwriter. But no one has ever spun better yarns onstage or given more of themselves in the long underrated art of onstage banter.

In the same way you can argue John Lennon is the best political songwriter of all time for the way he made every political song so personal and universal to the audience (just look at the brilliance of the song “God” or the simplistic beauty of “Watching The Wheels”), Springsteen’s tales of growing up, of feeling alienated, of the escape rock offered, of his doubts and insecurities, make us feel that he is carrying on a one on one conversation with us and simultaneously show us ourselves in those stories.

That is what great storytellers do. Or in this case a great playwright. We may not have grown up in Freehold, New Jersey or watched Elvis Presley on a random Sunday night at the age of seven. But everybody has struggled with finding their identity or role in the world or fought for the affection of a parent.

The tale he spins of his father being his hero and his greatest foe in introducing “My Father’s House” is one that crosses generations and languages.

Or they’ve lost a loved one. If you don’t feel a lump in your throat during Springsteen’s tribute to late E Street Band member Clarence Clemons during “Tenth Avenue Freeze Out,” if you don’t choke up when he looks distantly into the camera, clearly in another world, and he says, “I’ll see you in the next life, Big Man,” you clearly have lost your tear ducts. And you don’t have to be a Springsteen or E Street Band fan, you don’t even ever have to have attended an E Street, show to understand the pain and heartfelt love in his voice.

Springsteen is my favorite artist of all time, by a wide margin. It obviously started with the songs. But the music is secondary in this movie. It’s not that “Growin’ Up,” “The Rising,” where he whispers the end, the gritty, dirty “Born In The U.S.A.,” the joy of “Dancing In The Dark,” the beauty of “The Wish” and the sheer majesty of “Land Of Hope And Dreams” aren’t superb, it’s just the storytelling and oration are that special.

His speech late in the special about his role as an artist and an American is one of both stunning beauty and candor. “What did it mean to be an American,” he wonders. “To be a part of that story in this place and in this time. I wanted to be able to celebrate its power and its beauty and I wanted to be able to be a critical voice when I thought that’s what the times called for. But most of all, more than anything else, I wanted to be able to tell that story well to you.”

Much has been written already about the idea of Springsteen dissecting his role and the character of Bruce Springsteen, rock star, but for those who’ve paid attention it’s gone on for his whole career. It’s just easier as you get older, as it is for anyone who gets more confident and comfortable in their skin as they age. And it should be no surprise for anyone who read his best-selling autobiography.

The honesty and realism with which he writes about depression, about feeling alone and being in the “abyss” should be required readings in schools today to understand mental illness.

At the end of the America speech introducing “Dancing In The Dark,” he says, “You’ve provided me with purpose, with meaning and a great, great amount of joy. I hope I’ve done that for you and I’ve been a good traveling companion.”

Springsteen speaks a lot in this show about his magic trick. But his greatest magic trick was making Bruce Springsteen the rock icon feel like Bruce Springsteen was your buddy you were with on this journey together. He does and did it better than anyone music has ever seen. No one has ever made an entire stadium feel more intimate than Springsteen. And this movie is culmination of almost five decades of feeling like you were riding with him, even when he couldn’t drive (just watch the show).

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