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‘Swing Kids’ a unique history lessonRebelling against the Nazi political title, dedicated swing kids come together on the dance floor.By Lou GaulCnlkms Newspapers Film CriticIn the eyes of today's teenagers, Nazis are simplistic villains who get outsmarted, outgunned and outmaneuvered by Indiana Jones in “Raiders of the Lost Ark and other simplistic action-adventure tales. For that uninformed youth audience, Swing Kids’4 is a grim history lesson on the horrors the Nazis inflicted on fellow Germans during Adolf Hitler's move toward world war in 1939.The PG-13 picture shows how Hitler’s philosophy centered on suffocating any spirit of youth and replacing it with a rigid view of the world, one that stressed ethnic cleansing, total conformity and no free thought. Even though “Swing Kids * falls short in a number of areas, it still provides a chilling reminder of the horrors that resulted from a ra* cist totalitarian view and offers young moviegoers a glimpse of a world that seems more frighten-ing than anything ever envisioned in a George Lucas Steven Spielberg fantasy epic.Screenwriter Jonathan Marc Feldman based the film on a little-known nonconformist youth movement known as the Swing Kids, German teens who were obsessed by British fashions, American slang expressions and toe-tapping swing music performed by artists like Benny Goodman and Duke Ellington. These teens spent their nights in secret clubs where the bands played the swing sounds and the dancers exhibited their youthful energy cutting a rug with athletic jitterbug moves.Tn Swing Kids/' 17-year-old buddies, Peter Muller (Robert Sean Leonard of “Dead Poets Society) and Thomas Berger (Christian Bale of “Newsies), and their crippled guitarist-friend, Arvid (Frank Whaley of Career Opportunities), headthe be-bop movement in their neighborhood. Although aware of the mistreatment of Jews and the rise of Hitler's military power, the three turn their eyes away from such realities and focus on swing sounds, an act they view as a form of protest against the status quo.It quickly becomes clear that toe-tapping musical notes and high-flying dance steps are no match for Nazi might.As punishment for a misguided prank, Peter and Thomas are assigned spots in the Hitler Youth movement, where they’re taught about the supposed, evils represented by minorities and Jews and instructed in ways to spy on loved ones.Thomas goes from saying, “It was the swingingest party ever!, to quoting Hitler as he responds to the Nazi doctrine and gets out of step with the other Swing Kids. Peter, whose father, a Jewish sympathizer, died while protesting the Nazi party movement, remains steadfast in his disdain for Hitler’s theories. That stance that brings him into conflict with a Gestapo agent (Kenneth Branagh of “Henry VM who has taken a fancy to the teen's widowed mother (Barbara Hershey of Beaches”).Thomas Carter, who helmed many episodes of “Hill Street Blues, makes his big-screen directing debut with “Swing Kidsand never really seems to grasp the material. He allows some scenes to drag on, and the young actors lack the intensity and charisma to maintain total viewer interest- The material is inherently compelling, but a director with a surer hand might have given the picture the urgent pace that it desperately needs.Swing Kids sparkles during the few dance scenes, with Carter using music as a metaphor for freedom and capturing the unbridled enthusiasm of the young Germans, teen-agers who naively believe that no one who likes swing can become a Nazi. Soon after, they will either sign up to fight in Hitler’s army or find themselves held in prison camps.The good-versus-evil elements may bo simplified to a comicbook level, but even with its shortcomings, “Swing Kids provides a history lesson that remains as timely as yesterday’s headlines.SWING KIDSGrade: CStarring: Robert Sean Leonard, Christian Bale, Frank Whaley, Kenneth Branagh and Barbara Hershey; written by Jonathan Marc Feldman; produced by Mark Gordon and John Bard Manulis; directed by Thomas Carter Running Time: 113 minutes. Parental Guide: PG-13 rating Violence, brief midity harsh four let ter pro-fanityj.
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Doylestown Intelligencer
Doylestown, Pennsylvania, US
Fri, Mar 12, 1993
Page 67
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