EXCLUSIVE report from preview screening of Thom Zimny's Springsteen Center film, THE TIES THAT BIND
- Lisa Iannucci
- Apr 23
- 5 min read
Updated: Apr 24
April 23, 2026
This past Tuesday, an invitation-only event was held at Monmouth University’s Pollak Theatre to debut Thom Zimny's “welcome” film, The Ties That Bind (not to be confused with Zimny's similarly titled 2015 documentary about the making of The River,) that will be on view to visitors at the the soon-to-be-opened Bruce Springsteen Center for American Music's new building, located a few minutes’ walk across campus. Directed by Zimny, who is Springsteen's longtime film/video/archival collaborator, The Ties That Bind was shown to an exclusive audience comprised only of Monmouth faculty, students and staff. After the screening there also was a brief Q & A with Monmouth's President Patrick Leahy and the Center’s Executive Director, Robert Santelli.
The event began with an intro by Santelli, who provided a bit of background to the genesis of the Center, including the now-familiar story of how the idea was presented to Bruce, how he didn’t want it to just be about him but about American music, etc., and how Santelli and manager Jon Landau had driven to the campus, Bruce following on his motorcycle. They pointed to the spot where they envisioned it, Bruce ok’d it, and rode away. It was then that Santelli could begin to believe it would actually happen. “I guess we’re doing this,” he recalled saying to himself.
The film, which runs about a half-hour, followed. Note: the film is not completely “done” yet; per comments by Santelli, Zimny has some final touches to add before they both would consider it “finished,” and attendees were requested not to film or take photos while the screening was in progress. Santelli said that they wanted to preserve the element of surprise as long as possible, thus the embargo. (Zimny, originally slated to be there, was in California, and Santelli joked that he’d be on the phone with him at 4:01 pm - i.e. immediately after the program’s conclusion - giving him the lowdown on audience reaction.)
Without giving too much away, the concept is pretty simple: Bruce, clad in typical leather jacket and jeans, is seen in close-up as he cruises down the back roads of Monmouth County, New Jersey in his vintage black and white Corvette convertible. As he drives, he tells the story of rock and roll, his personal discovery of it, and its seismic impact on American culture. There is a wealth of archival footage interspersed throughout, both of the major artists he mentions, and of Bruce and the E Streeters. There are family photos and home movies, and images of Bruce in the Castiles, and later, onstage in the various iterations of his bands. He sets the stage for this journey in his hometown of Freehold, and later moves to Asbury Park, where he continues to cruise the streets and is later seated at a bar near the Stone Pony stage.
We also see him seated in a booth at a local diner, flipping through the selection cards for the joint’s jukebox. This is a bit of a narrative device, as some of the songs that are mentioned are displayed as selections. He gives a brief overview of Asbury Park's musical history; the Black blues and R&B artists like Count Basie, who graced the stages of the West Side, and gives a brief rundown of the 1970 Asbury Park uprising and its effect on the city. “It’s still recovering,” he says.
We don’t really see him walking around much; the narration is done while he’s seated, though there is some footage of him in a record store, leafing through the vinyl. (The sign outside the door says “Hometown Records,” FWIW.) But for all the music history, this is not the story of Asbury Park’s music scene per se; you won’t hear about Southside Johnny or how he met Clarence Clemons. Instead, Bruce tells you about rock and roll’s roots in gospel and folk, how out of that came blues and country and R&B and rock and roll and hip hop, and along the way, mentions major artists of each genre, who appear on the screen at full volume.
The footage of the artists is mostly familiar stuff, and, as might be expected, runs heavy on the Elvis, Little Richard, and Chuck Berry. You hear how one trend led to another, how the music developed and changed, and there are dozens of familiar faces.There is a lot of jump-cutting, maybe in an effort to include certain things or to hold the audience's attention, but it can be jarring and occasionally distracting. The song selection is mostly what you’d expect, although inexplicably, The Eagles and The Doors get a mention while there is nary a word about The Band, only a brief shot of Bob Dylan, and nothing much at all about the major cultural shift that happened with the advent of punk rock. It’s heavy on the Black artists whom Bruce clearly favors, but the short shrift given Dylan in particular is a bit mystifying.
Bruce keeps driving and talking, and you see footage and stills of him interspersed with the clips of the artists mentioned. And as the film winds to a close, he sums up and drives off, reinforcing the metaphor of rock and roll as a continuous, ever-changing ride down a two-lane blacktop.
But don’t leave yet! As the “credits” roll (there are no actual credits placed there yet; remember, this is the “rough cut,”) there’s some spectacular color footage of Bruce and the band in their prime performing “Sweet Soul Music” to a packed house in a huge stadium circa 1988, backed by the Miami Horns. A muscular Bruce, clad in sleeveless black tee, belts “Spotlight on the Big Man/ don’t he look great?!”, and you see all the familiar faces - Max, Nils, Garry, Roy, Danny, even Richie “La Bamba” and Mark Pender - but no Steven (the reunion hadn’t happened yet) - and the whole thing ends with Bruce’s signature jump up with his guitar to end the song, as iconic as as that Fender, and something that longtime fans have no doubt seen more times than they can count.
It’s great stuff, and if you were fortunate enough to have lived through that time period and experienced the band during that era, it makes you feel both nostalgic and incredibly fortunate to have been able to witness it live and in person. Those of us who were there know it was nothing but pure magic, and we will not see its like again. Fortunately, this complex, earthshaking, and uniquely American musical gumbo will live on and continue to be discovered and enjoyed by future generations - and in New Jersey, you will now be able to do that at the brand new Springsteen Center.
