Swing Kids (1993 film)
From The Art and Popular Culture Encyclopedia
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Swing Kids is a film produced in 1993, directed by Thomas Carter and starring Christian Bale, Robert Sean Leonard and Kenneth Branagh. The runtime is approximately 112 minutes. The film is considered as being part of the Lindy Hop revival of the 1980s and 1990s. The soundtrack includes a combination of swing music and the film's score.
Synopsis
In pre-World War II Germany, Swing music becomes the underground movement of young people. Two college students, Peter Müller (Robert Sean Leonard) and Thomas Berger (Christian Bale), attempt to be Swing Kids by night and Hitler Youth by day. The impact of this decision is felt acutely by their friends and families. Soon dancing and fun lead to more difficult choices as the Nazis begin tightening their grip on Germany. A seemingly charming but intimidating Gestapo officer, SS-Sturmbannführer Knopp (Kenneth Branagh in an uncredited role), insinuates himself into their lives. Each member of the group is forced to face some tough choices about right, wrong, and survival. This is the story of one group of Swing Kids and how Nazi rule and persuasion tore them apart and set them against each other.
Plot
Template:Plot Set in Hamburg, Germany in 1939, Peter Müller and Thomas Berger join their friends, Arvid, who is a big-band fanatic and swing guitarist, and Otto at the Bismarck, a swing club. They have a good time dancing and enjoying the music. Leaving the club, it is shown that Arvid has a club foot and can barely keep up as the other boys run off. After he catches up, they laughingly stop to urinate on Nazi propaganda posters. As they prepare to head home, they see a man being chased by the Gestapo. They are only mildly shocked, even when he jumps off a bridge and is shot in the river.
Peter goes home to find his mother, Frau Müller, in an argument with a Nazi officer. Herr Knopp arrives, head of the local Gestapo; he curtly dismisses the officer. Knopp questions Frau Müller regarding some of her late husband's friends- Herr Müller had been accused of being a communist, and was irreparably damaged by an interrogation at the hands of Nazi agents. Peter never understood what happened to his father, and evades his younger brother Willi's attempts to question him on it. One day when Peter and Thomas go to visit Arvid, Thomas accidentally scratches one of Arvid's records and Arvid goes off on Thomas, resulting in Thomas suggesting that he and Peter leave so that Arvid can go "jack off to his records". In an attempt to apologize to Arvid, Peter and Thomas decide to steal a radio out of a bakery in the marketplace. Peter knows it was stolen by the Nazi officer from a ransacked Jewish home. Thomas is able to get away, but Peter is caught. Herr Knopp, who has become attracted to Peter's mother, intercedes for him, but in return Peter must enroll in the Hitlerjugend (HJ). On Peter's first day of HJ School, he finds Thomas wearing the HJ uniform and a broad grin. The funloving Thomas notes that it is the perfect cover; "HJs by day, Swing Kids by night!"
Arvid is walking home one day and is confronted by some HJs who take a Benny Goodman record from him, smash it, and beat him up. Emil, a former friend and Swing Kid turned HJ, deliberately stamps on Arvid's fingers, damaging them severely. Arvid wakes up in the hospital, and is terrified at the sight of HJ uniforms until he realizes it is only Peter and Thomas. He eventually cheers up a little, saying he can learn to play with two fingers. At HJ school, Thomas is boxing with Emil and it turns rough. Thomas accuses Emil of selling out to the Nazis, to which Emil says "I wised up." Emil and Thomas become friends again as Thomas, seduced by the power and the perks, begins to buy into the Nazi philosophy.
Meanwhile, Peter, who has a job delivering books, is asked to spy on his boss whom the Nazis suspect is working against the Reich. He peeks into a book he is to bring to Frau Linge, who had known his father, discovers incriminating papers hidden inside, and becomes even more frightened of the Nazis than he had been before. Working at a jazz club, Arvid refuses to play a "German" song, lashing out at the club's patrons for being blind to the Nazi agenda. Peter is sympathetic but Thomas loudly argues the Nazi side, saying Arvid should watch out because "we're coming for you next" referring to the Nazi policy of executing the handicapped. Shocked and angry, Peter shouts, "You're turning into a Nazi!" to which Thomas bluntly responds, "So what if I am?". Arvid suddenly realizes that there is no future for him in Germany and no hope of escape. He goes home and commits suicide in the bathtub, slitting his wrists with a broken record.
In HJ school, the boys are encouraged to spy on their friends and families. Thomas, whose father despises him, tells that his father had insulted Hitler, hoping to cause a little trouble for him. But even Thomas is a bit unnerved when the Nazis arrive at his home and take his father away. His subsequent attempts to resume his friendship with Peter and to get him to "go along" with the Nazis are tinged with fear.
Peter is sent by the HJ leaders to deliver identical small packages to three different families. Peter hears screams from the second house as he walks away, so he decides to open the third one. He finds ashes and a wedding ring inside. Horrified, he runs to Frau Linge. She gives him a letter that his father wrote to her husband about the anti-Nazi work he did, and Peter finally understands what really happened to his father.
Peter abandons his uniform and dresses in his most fashionable clothes to go to a club, knowing that it is slated for attack. Thomas finds him and begins to beat him, but suddenly comes to his senses and begs Peter to run. "They won't let it go this time!" But Peter almost willingly mounts the truck taking him and others to a labor camp. Thomas calls out to him, "Swing Heil!" and Willi, who has followed, defiantly yells the phrase through tears.
Cast
- Robert Sean Leonard as Peter Müller
- Christian Bale as Thomas Berger
- Frank Whaley as Arvid
- Barbara Hershey as Frau Müller
- Tushka Bergen as Evey
- David Tom as Willi Müller
- Julia Stemberger as Frau Linge
- Kenneth Branagh as SS-Sturmbannführer Knopp
- Noah Wyle as Emil Lutz
