Blinded by the Light Blu-ray Review
Aaron Walker
January 16th, 2020
There have recently been a great number of films about musical acts and how they came together. And it seems like there are many films about how music can and has influenced us as human beings, how music becomes the language of a generation. It was surprising to me, though, to find that there was a new way to convey this same story, in the recently-to-Blu-ray BLINDED BY THE LIGHT, directed by Gurinder Chadha (BEND IT LIKE BECKHAM). She has a great eye and special way of presenting moving images that is kinetic but grounded. Chadha’s visual flair is present and perfectly executed in BLINDED BY THE LIGHT, a film I didn’t expect to love about a musician for whom I’ve never cared (Springsteen).
In 1987 England there was a lot of civil unrest. Pakistani immigrants were facing persecution and there was massive unemployment. Set in the small town of Luton, BLINDED BY THE LIGHT shares the story of a young Pakistani man named Javed, played charmingly by relative newcomer Viviek Kalra. Javed lives with his strict immigrant family and dreams of becoming a writer but has consigned himself to a life where he serves his father and his family, as is his place in their culture. But though he knows this is his duty, he continues to struggle with feeling out of place and seeing the culture of the British youth around him.
So while he is preparing to go to University, he secretly takes a writing class and meets a young Sikh man named Roops who introduces him to the music of Bruce Springsteen. This is when BLINDED BY THE LIGHT really soars, as Javed blooms both in his writing and his ability to express himself through the lyrics he hears and shares with his friend. Springsteen gives him a foundational language to accept that through conflict comes growth. Even though he continues to struggle with his father’s ambivalence, he finds a cultural touchstone in this American’s lyrics and he finds them giving him a way to express himself in a way that he never could before.
BLINDED BY THE LIGHT is a semi-autobiographical tale of Sarfraz Manzoor, a writer and massive Springsteen-fan who grew up a Pakistani immigrant in England in the late 1980’s. He adapted his memoir, “Greetings from Bury Park: Race, Religion, and Rock N’ Roll”, with director Chadha and ended up making a love story to both Springsteen and to the age-old ‘coming of age’ movie genre, all while introducing a bunch of their own little tricks. At the core of the film is great acting. Chadha got great performances in her feature-debut and here she continues the streak with a breakout performance from star Kalra. Only a slightly lesser character, though, is Springsteen’s own catalog. Chadha and Manzoor crafted a film that goes in and out of song in some really fascinating ways, feeling more real than fantastic (a la YESTERDAY or even LA LA LAND) and more grounded than a standard movie-musical.
That grounding is necessary to digest the lyrics of Springsteen, who Manzoor (and by proxy Javed) identify with because of their intensity and their willingness to push for change. BLINDED BY THE LIGHT is honest about the struggle, about how difficult the world can be. It hits on a lot of difficult themes that are still relevant today (nationalism, distrust of immigrants, cultural identity, coming of age and dealing with your family) and it doesn’t flinch from them. But in doing so, BLINDED BY THE LIGHT achieves something that many other films don’t – it gives us a window into how to build a bridge through adversity. A bridge between worlds, a reminder that there is a universality of growing up that goes beyond cultures, and reminds us that we can, as Gandhi said, “be the change we want to see in the world”. BLINDED BY THE LIGHT is available now, and worth your time.
BLU-RAY REVIEW
Video: (1080p; 2.39:1) The video presentation of BLINDED BY THE LIGHT is pretty well done but really shines in a few specific montages as Javed is learning and losing himself in Springsteen’s music. The use of projection and CGI in small doses to convey lyrics as they hit home really worked thanks to Chadha’s grounding of the film.
Audio: (English Dolby TrueHD 7.1) The audio track for BLINDED BY THE LIGHT really… ahem… sings. It’s a beautifully orchestrated track with great dynamic range and clarity.
Memoir to Movie (06:10) Director Gurinder Chadha, writer (and inspiration for the film) Sarfraz Manzoor, cast and crew talk about turning Manzoor’s memoir into BLINDED BY THE LIGHT.
The Most Crazy Thing (06:55) This feature dives much more deeply into the reasoning behind BLINDED BY THE LIGHT and how Manzoor and Chadha came together to put this film together. It’s a great little featurette.
Deleted and Extended Scenes (09:49) A number of scenes are presented in extended versions. They’re all quite interesting, actually, but they’re a little bit less effective in their uncut versions.
BLINDED BY THE LIGHT comes in a Blu-ray Combo Pack with with a Digital Copy of the Film
