Swing Kids

One of the basic reasons I like this movie is because it was one of the first movies I watched with my older brother that we both enjoyed. I don't have a lot in common with him, but this one movie opened up lots of opportunities for other movies.

Other than that, I love this movie for its unique point of view. We always get the movies like Saving Private Ryan or Pearl Harbor, which are very important stories in themselves (and good movies of course) but how often do we get a movie about people who were part of the war from the beginning. people that didn't necessarily have a direct threat, but were still greatly affected. The story of Peter and Thomas and Arvid are wonderfully done. Peter is the kind of person any girl would like. Thomas, the rich brat that speaks his mind too much, helps put internal conflict in the group. Arvid seems to be the voice of reason, seeing what the Nazis are doing and doesn't want to be a part of it.

The acting is great, of course. Peter, played by Robert Sean Leonard, is portrayed as soft spoken, confused, and even a little bitter. Thomas, played by the beautiful Christian Bale, is the kind of people that drive me nuts - just "go along with it. We can have it both ways." It is virtually impossible to have it "both ways." The guy who plays Arvid is a lovely actor, obviously talented, and shows emotion so well you'd think he went through this himself. The history of the movie might be a little tweaked to make a few interesting scenes, but to see what the Nazis were doing to the youth of their country, brainwashing them and telling them to spy on people, is appalling. No wonder a few former Nazi soldiers still think they were right.

The music is like a whole nother character. This movie is what really got me to enjoy listening to swing music. Even though I can do very few steps, I realize now the feeling they got when they heard it and I get the same feeling, just not quite as strong probably.

All around, this movie is wonderful. I love showing it to my friends, and it is very interesting and jerks at your emotions.

Ok for you people who refer to all the Germans as "worthless human beings" and talk about how this movie didn't focus on the holocaust, etc....WAKE UP! The point of this movie was to give another perspective on the war. Not all Germans were souless killers. Throughout the movie you could see the consciences of the main characters being pushed and pulled about what was happening. Over here in Western culture, everything is portrayed in black and white: all the Germans were completely evil, and we were the good ones. No one is denying that the Germans committed some horrific atrocities, but there were some who resisted doing those crimes, and others who actually believed that they were morally in the right because of centuries of ingrained anti-semitism. Geez, North America was anti-semitic then too! Swing Kids looks at Germany from the inside, and the different forces that were at work. Everyone knows what happened during the Holocaust....this movie wasn't about that. I think people should look at all different viewpoints before classifying all the people in a certain group (ie all of the German nation) into one cubbyhole of evil.

I have always been a very big fan of swing music and am a "Hollywood Jew". I.e., not very religious or observant of the ancient traditions, but still a Jew in humor and emotions. So this movie never fails to make my tear up. To imagine a time and place where not only your seeming friends turn on you, but you can't even listen to your kind of music is a special kind of hell on earth.

The dance and music sequences are wonderful and I can't see or hear them enough. Solid sounds, daddio! However, the film wisely preempts the reverie and jerks you back to the Nazi repression each time. It suggests how those poor "Swingkleine" must have felt. The sweet and sorrowful blend here.

Someone criticized this picture for not showing enough death. I think the boxes of human ashes and the random Brownshirt raids show enough of that! This picture isn't about the Holocaust -- it's about trying to survive when your society goes seriously wrong.

I will always think of "Swing Kids" when I hear the truism: "It don' mean a thing if it ain't got that SWING. Do-wah do-wha do-wah do-wah do-wha do-wha do-wha do-WHAAAAA".

I really don't understand a lot of these reviewers. The movie far from trivializes anything about the Nazis, it simply tries to portray a moment before the bloodiest war in history on a smallish scale.

Would it be better to just have a movie that says "Nazis are bad and they killed six million Jews."? No, because that wouldn't be a movie.

It's like when people complained that a mini-series about Hitler's life that was supposed to be shown on TV would "humanize Hitler". Well, news flash, he WAS a human. That's the worst part, a human could do that sort of thing. What good is it to call evil-doers monsters and then leave it at that? When "Swing Kids" succeeds is when it's portraying the conflicts of youth as their country goes mad. Can anyone honestly say they feel NO sympathy for those who were forced to join the Hitler youth? It's easy to say you would have done different.

And the idea that the music being key somehow trivializes the events of WWII, um, it's based on an ACTUAL subculture, swing kids. There were lots of them and at first they were fairly lacking in politics, but later in the 40s when they were cracked down on more so by the Nazis some were more active.

It's not like the movie makers pulled the concept of kids, Nazis and swing out of their asses, which is what people seem to think.

And at least it was something, at least it wasn't giving in totally. Remember these were young kids, high-school age, nobody can expect them all to be Sophie Scholl.

Where "Swing Kids" lacks is its occasional excessive heavy-handedness. The ending is a bit excessive, something more subtle would have been better.

But as I say, the conflicts between the three main leads are fantastic and bring up questions of what you would do in such circumstances. I think the boys's indifference in respect to the Jew being beat up in the beginning of the movie is a good touch. This is NOT about the holocaust, because it was just starting and was largely unknown at the time. I hate when people can't lose what they know to watch a movie.

I recommend everyone to read some swing kids history, just look them up, it makes the movie much better and more interesting to know the facts.

This is a fairly good movie with very good acting, great great music and costumes, a great story that was influenced by deeply interesting history, and too much heavy handedness.

But seriously, who can resist a movie put out by Disney that includes the line of dialog "You're turning into a f*cking Nazi!"?

This movie does a great job of showing a different angle on the WW2 time period. The struggles the youth of Germany went through during that time were portrayed very well. People complain that this movie doesn't show the horror of the holocaust and the awful persecution the Jews faced, but that is not what it's trying to do! We all read or hear about what the Nazis did to the Jews (& other minorities) and think that the Germans must have been horrible people to have even gone along with this. But this shows how the propaganda they were constantly fed--as well as the activities & sense of belonging the HJ (Hitler Jungen) experienced--could slowly twist their minds to the Nazi way of thinking. One of the excellent things about this movie is how it shows how the main characters change. The changes in Peter & Thomas come very slow and natural, and only when you get to the end (and maybe re-watch it) do you realize how drastically they have changed their views. (Thomas especially)

There were some not-so-great things about the movie, like some characters or scenes which, when you think back, seem to have been included for an unknown reason. But the good points of the movie out-weigh the minor nit-picks. The swing music and dancing in the movie was awesome, and I thought all the characters were acted very well by the actors. They did a good job of showing the confusion that the young Germans must have felt, not knowing who was right. All in all, I really enjoyed this movie, and I think it makes you think as well.