The Thom Zimny-directed “Road Diary: Bruce Springsteen and the E Street Band,” which premiered on Hulu last week, documents the current Springsteen tour that began in February 2023, swung through Denver in March of that year and continued with a show in Montreal on Halloween night.

It’s a behind-the-scenes documentary with an emphasis on how the tour — Springsteen and the band’s post-pandemic return to the road — comes together, from the rehearsal hall to the arena and stadium stage. It’s plotted to dramatically present Springsteen — who turned 75 last month — a half-century into a career, belting out life-affirming, three-hour-plus performances supported by the same core band since the musicians were scrappy Jersey Shore musicians in their early 20s.

“Since I was 16, playing live has been a deep and lasting part of who I am and how I justify my existence here on Earth,” Springsteen says in his voice-over narration. “A lot of it comes together when I count off the band.”

Along with footage shot during rehearsals before moving on to 2023 indoor dates in the U.S. and stadium concerts in Europe, “Road Diary” also spends some time routing the history of the E Street Band.

All 18 band members are interviewed at least briefly, including Springsteen’s wife, Patti Scialfa, who revealed that she was diagnosed with early stage multiple myeloma in 2018.

That news explains Scialfa’s absence on most dates of this tour, and renders the duet between the singer and her husband on “Fire” which is included in the film, all the more tender.

It also adds resonance to the theme of mortality that courses through these Springsteen shows, which muse on Springsteen’s advancing age and take their carpe diem cue from 2020’s “Letter To You.”

That album’s “Last Man Standing” and “I’ll See You in My Dreams” were written in response to the death of George Theis, the leader of Springsteen’s teenage rock and roll band, the Castiles.

The theme of mortality is presented in “Road Diary” in somewhat spooky interview segments with E Street’s two deceased band members, organist Danny Federici, who died in 2008, and sax player Clarence Clemons, who died three years later. And the passage of time is written on the faces of longtime band members Steven Van Zandt, Max Weinberg, Roy Bittan and Garry Tallent, and Springsteen himself.

The key to E Street’s longevity, Springsteen joked in a post-screening panel discussion at the Toronto International Film Festival in September, is that he runs a “benevolent dictatorship.” “It’s hard enough with two guys. Simon hates Garfunkel, Sam hates Dave, Hall hates Oates,” he said.

The movie’s deeply concerned with the mechanics of the tour — how Springsteen chooses the set list and why, how band members react to his cues, from recent arrivals like singer Ada Dyer and percussionist Anthony Almonte to guitarist Nils Lofgren, who jokes that with only 39 years in, he’s still “the new guy” in the core band.

But the movie, which gives much screen time to Springsteen’s manager Jon Landau as the narrator, doesn’t function as a day-to-day account of life on tour. And with the exception of the news about Scialfa’s health, the movie doesn’t get into many personal details.

Thanks to “Road Diary,” we now know that Springsteen stays “lean and mean” by only eating one meal a day, and that Forbes “got that real wrong” when they reported that Springsteen is a billionaire.

But those things aren’t revealed in “Road Diary.” They came out during the press tour to promote the film, the fifth Springsteen film directed by Zimny.

The two big issues that surrounded the tour are the outrage expressed by fans at the sky high cost of some tickets due to Ticketmaster’s dynamic pricing, and Springsteen’s peptic ulcer disease that caused him to postpone many shows. Neither topic comes up in “Road Diary.”

The performance footage is often electrifying, starting with “Letter To You’s” “Ghosts,” in which Springsteen and Van Zandt make a shared vow that “by the end of the set, we leave no one alive.” It’s fun, too, to see Springsteen’s super enthusiastic and often young European followers interviewed, though curiously, no U.S. fans are included.

Springsteen has spoken about his reticence to capture the band’s early years on film, saying that he was “too superstitious,” obsessing about living in the moment. Thankfully, some of those performances have survived, such as the “Hammersmith Odeon, London ’75” concert film and “The Legendary 1979 No Nukes Concerts.”

“Road Diary” is a must-see for fans who want to relive the inspiring performances that Springsteen and the E Streeters are still delivering on a nightly basis, while also getting a backstage perspective. But it also comes across as an in-house production in which nothing is revealed without the final approval of the Boss.