VIDEO REVIEW : Springsteen Anthology: More ‘Product’ Than Art

Bruce Springsteen’s “Video Anthology 1978/1988” contains enough striking concert footage to delight the casual Springsteen fan, but Springsteen’s greatness wasn’t built on merely satisfying the casual fan.

More than any other post-’60s figure in rock, Springsteen has found a way with each new album and tour to live up to the highest expectations of his most passionate and demanding supporters.

This 100-minute video retrospective--featuring mostly the promotional videos that have been aired to the point of exhaustion on MTV--falls discouragingly short of that goal. In fact, this anthology--which arrives in stores Tuesday--marks the first time that Springsteen’s name has been attached to something that brings to mind the word product rather than art .

Springsteen is a masterful record-maker and performer, but he has been a reluctant video star--so unsure of just how to fit into this new pop medium that he didn’t even appear in the first promo video made for one of his records (1982’s “Atlantic City,” which is included in “Anthology”).

When Springsteen did begin stepping in front of the camera in the videos, he seemed to turn himself over completely to the directors and the early results ranged from clumsy (his Method Actor mannerisms in the John Sayles-directed “I’m on Fire”) to embarrassing (the calculated, glamour-boy posture in Brian DePalma’s “Dancing in the Dark”).

Springsteen didn’t begin coming alive on video until Arthur Rosato concentrated in 1985’s “My Hometown” and 1987’s “Born to Run” on capturing the intimacy and celebration that this remarkable performer conveys on stage.

Even better, director Meiert Avis, represented by five videos on the new collection, found a way to reflect the darkness and doubt in Springsteen’s songs in ways that seemed an extension of the singer’s own artistic vision.

And Avis seemed equally effective on thematic videos (the grainy, black-and-white textures of 1987’s “Brilliant Disguise”) and concert videos (where the smoldering intensity of the duet between Springsteen and Patti Scialfa adds to the commentary of “Tougher Than the Rest”).

Rather than develop a complete video package with Avis or a meaningful concert history based on previously unavailable footage, Springsteen in “Anthology” simply puts in a gift-ready box (CBS Music Video, $24.98) the good and bad of his video past.

This type of video history is nothing more or less than most pop stars deliver, but Springsteen didn’t become one of the most inspiring figures ever in rock by simply going along with the herd. He has conditioned us to expect more. By his own standard, however, “Anthology” delivers less.