WHAT IT’S ABOUT Some 50 years since he became a superstar after telling the world that “Bums like us, baby we were born to run,” Bruce Springsteen remains a unique figure in modern music.

He is 75 years old. And yet, every night on his current tour with the E Street Band, he’s still on stage for up to three hours, his energy level at an all-time high, performing a litany of hits, new songs and underrated gems, without so much as a moment of pause.

This is to be expected of The Boss at this point, but it is not normal. It is remarkable.

Let’s put it this way: This critic is significantly younger than 75, has seen Springsteen at five shows on this tour, and has made each one more exhausted than the man himself.

Hulu’s “Road Diary: Bruce Springsteen and the E Street Band,” the latest documentary from Springsteen’s longtime collaborator Thom Zimny, takes an in-depth look at how the musician continues to do this. It goes behind the scenes of the ongoing tour, which began on February 1, 2023, after a year-long hiatus for Springsteen and the band that was extended more than planned due to the pandemic.

MY SAY There’s no need to pretend: The person writing this review has already admitted to spending enough money on Springsteen shows to practically need a second mortgage. So you don’t get the passionate feeling of an unbeliever.

One should not expect a film that asks too many difficult questions. The words “ticket prices” are never mentioned. Bassist Garry Tallent makes a small joke about the slow tempos at the start of the rehearsal, and another about a younger Springsteen’s famous precision, but that’s about it as far as anything critical goes.

But oh my, is it exciting to go backstage with Bruce and the band, to see the rehearsal process, to see the set list take shape and to better understand the story Springsteen wants to tell, a meditation on the ever-closer mortality that he says “gives some clarity to the idea.”

Zimny ​​makes a series of smart choices that enhance the portrait of the band coming together to serve this vision. A key example: He creates a sequence that focuses on key parts of the jazz-laden opus “Kitty’s Back,” which was taken out for the tour in no small part to give the immensely talented men and women who back Springsteen a chance to shine.

The filmmaker gives the portrait of the band on the road more shape by incorporating their memories from the earliest touring days, which included stomping it on long car rides, sleeping on couches and tables, and playing some truly bizarre gigs.

Springsteen began most of the early shows on the tour with his song “No Surrender”. Its presence at the top of the set may have been a comment on the return to this kind of communal experience after the dark pandemic days without live music. But it’s just as easy to understand as a testament to the spirit of the band itself, captured so expertly in “Road Diary”: Decades later, everything has changed, but they’re still standing on that stage performing what Springsteen has called his magic trick. No retreat, no surrender.

BOTTOM LINE It’s a must for fans. But you knew that.