Swing Kids (1993)

Best movie of this year hands down!

Absolutely the worst movie.

This film is so real. It treats its characters with so much care and sensitivity.

One of the most extraordinary films you will see this year. Take that as you want.

6/15/18. Once again I got a chance to see how underappreciated Robert Sean Leonard is as an actor. I liked him so much in House, as he gave that TV series its soul and decided to catch movies Leonard has been in. He did an excellent job as the protagonist who as a young German teen is trying to make sense of the growing changes brought on by Nazism. It is somewhat unclear what this movie's center was. Was it a coming-of-age movie? A friendship movie? A war time period piece. Or, just a pre-WW Ii drama taking place in Germany. While it contained all these elements, it didn't provide any closure to some of the things that were going on. I am guessing, then, that it was the rise of Nazism in Germany, and how its need for blind allegiance was tearing existing relationships apart. The only reprieve was the joys of adolescence living life through music, in this case, swing and jazz. Unfortunately, the music is taken to represent the Jewish artistic sensibilities that is another reason to draw the line between the growing numbers of Nazi Germans and Germans who didn't want to be involved and just lived their lives. I suppose these are the themes, but one never knows except to say that Bale's character was one of extreme fanaticism that grew out of fear of an unknown future so much so it ruined his friendship with Leonard. Worth catching despite the lack of clarity in the plotting.

What does a good man do when the evil around him is overwhelming and he doesn't have access to the higher corridors of power that can help him act at least to some extent against it?He succumbs to the propaganda. He compromises in order to survive/for his family. He kills himself before they kill him. He goes down fighting, standing upright for what he believes in.This movie is a profound look at the options honorable Germans had in a Germany going the Nazi way. It is an introspective look at the options we all have when things go this way around us."All that is needed for evil to triumph is for good men to do nothing."Peter Muller did what he could to resist evil. He was powerless to change anything. He went down fighting the way so many unsung Germans did. They deserve for the world to know their story. It is the extreme of heroism, because they died, not for themselves or by persecution. They died for others, they died for their 'friends'.Thank you, film-makers, for this wonderful film. It will never be a commercial success because the public at large wants victorious endings, but I am glad you remained true to the truth of those times. I am glad you did not flinch in showing us the true fate of these swing kids. It has brought home to us just what it cost these people to 'swing' with all their hearts.

Robert Sean Leonard, Christian Bale and Frank Whaley give stature to the "Swing Kids", a movement of German teenagers who rebelled against the Nazi-ideology by playing an dancing to swing music in clubs( forbidden for being 'black and Jewish music'). The threesome comes from substantially different standing and differ as night and day in personality as well. Bale brings to life another extrovert character(Thomas), dancing tightrope on that slim line between self-confidence and arrogance. Whaley's character (Arvid) is intelligent and musically gifted, yet bruises like a peach, his emotional fragility a result of a crippled leg which condemns the artist from ever dancing to the music he loves and plays (the tragedy of the deaf composer and the blind painter all over again). These two characters occupy two ends the scale, and are both dangerously unstable, unlike our third and main 'kid': Robert Sean Leanord's character (Peter), an ambitious and idealistic youngster, a type commonly referred to as a 'golden boy', the whole world awaiting to be conquered by him. Yet he also has an Achilles' Heel: his father's death early in his childhood. As often the bond between the gang seems stronger than it is, everyone gets along great when there isn't a care in the world, theirs only consists of smoking cigarettes, guzzling drinks and dancing with girls in hip clubs. When they try to lift a radio in another one of their mischievous antics, Peter gets captured and his hand is forced into joining the 'Hitler Jugend', Thomas happily tags along stating 'we can have the best of both worlds, HJ by day, Swing Kids by night'. Arvid, the most insightful of the gang, warns them of the dangers of getting brainwashed by Hitler's foul propaganda but it could not be helped, soon Thomas takes a turn for the worse and tension in the once so close-knit group mounts. Playful remarks regarding Arvid's handicap turn into insults of impurity, Thomas is so caught up in the world of cool HJ gadgets and perks that he neglects to notice he's being manipulated.The thriller elements don't form the core of the movie, they're useful as a means to an end, to keep the viewer focused so he doesn't miss a second of the interesting characters, the interactions and dialog are really what matters the most. The lack of attention for politics makes 'Swing Kids' special in the war-drama genre. It's a bold yet smart choice. This approach (and the soothing swing club intervals) made it easier to watch than most in the genre, which I think keeps the movie from alienating young audiences. It's pleasant to watch the history of pre-war Germany through the eyes of rebellious young citizens and subsequently (as a young man) being able to identify more with and relate to the characters. The government in place at that time was accepted, just like we accept the supreme command now, it's highly plausible kids could see more light in standing up for a sort of symbolic value namely 'Swing Music' (rather than forming political movements), which of course is connected with freedom of arts...and so forth with freedom of expression. 'Swing Kids', though certainly engrossing and accomplished, is fairly uneven and at times loses the audience's attention with gratuitous melodramatic scenes. Near the end the focus strays from intelligent dialog and interactions towards silent melodrama. Paired with Robert Sean Leonard's underwhelming performance (yet again), it's a small blemish on an otherwise highly recommendable film.

I do love swing music and love the music and artists from the era. So did my parents who were contemporary with it. But they had the good fortune to love it in the USA. It was a dangerous thing to like Benny Goodman, Count Basie, Duke Ellington and most of all Arthur Shawronsky who the authorities did know was Artie Shaw. But these squares were the Gestapo and Swing Kids is about the youth who loved American swing music at considerable cost.Robert Sean Leonard, Christian Bale, Frank Whaley are three friends who are into American swing at a time in their country when such "jungle" music was Verboten. Swing Kids is the story about how all three were dealing with the growing strangulation of culture. One of the opening scenes takes place at a forbidden swing club where the kids are cutting a rug to Benny Goodman when word comes the authorities are near. Without a beat the band turns into a typical German Oompah band, the kind of music Herr Schicklgruber deemed acceptable to German youth.Which was being swallowed up by the Hitler Youth and the social pressures to join are enormous. Something that we in this country cannot fathom. I'm not a big fan of the current Pope, but about the only thing I'll give Benedict XVI a pass on was joining the Hitler Youth. At a certain point the wiggle room got less and less. Barbara Hershey as Leonard's mother gives a good performance as a woman keeping company with a Gestapo official for a little more comfort. Her husband and Leonard and David Tom's father had been arrested by the Gestapo a few years back and died as a result of their custody. The Gestapo official is played by an unbilled Kenneth Branagh who took no billing for his part deliberately.Swing Kids has a timely lesson for today if some in federal authority will care to learn it. The fundamentalist Moslems just as the Nazis hate our decadent culture. The answer is keep importing it into places like Iran by the cargo ship load. Don't bomb them to death, just send them our music and films.By the way our own fundamentalist Christians hated that music as they hate the music of today. Something about authoritarianism of whatever stripe just hates contemporary culture, whatever it is at the time.Swing Kids is a valuable lesson about freedom of expression wrapped up in a good entertaining package.