Before reading anything else about "Swing Kids," it's important to recognize the film for an immediate award:
Possibly the most Hollycrapulous telling of Tale of the Nazi Era
With cute-as-a-button actors and the worst acting anywhere short of a Michele Bachmann tent revival, this movie delivers its full measure of awful. There is a bit of observation of the social anomie that came from the prospect of becoming HJ's (Hitler Jugend or Hitler Youth) but it's relatively shallow and predictable.
The only character with much depth is Arvid, the kid with a club foot but a blazing ability to play like Django Reinhardt. There are two live Django sets (i.e. Arvid covering him) and these are outstanding. He also delivers a very special speech prior to his climactic moment but it's ludicrous to believe he truly would have been able to speak like that without a Nazi putting a boot in his face. Nevertheless, the words are powerful.
(Ed: so why in the world would I watch it?)
The dance, young jitterbugger, the dance. This was the last time in history that dance had real elegance but I don't believe things will stay that way as you know how that story goes from "Footloose." People need to dance, the trouble is so many don't know how to do it. The kids in the movie knew the steps, all of them. The dance scenes in this movie are exceptional, twerkers need not apply.
And the music. Swing may be the most naturally-exciting music there has ever been as they used almost no electric instruments. Symphony orchestras have more power ... but they don't got that swing.
Note 1: Charlie Christian was one of the first to play an electric guitar and he did it for Benny Goodman.
Note 2: The review doesn't give any indication of modern performance of the Django Reinhardt tunes and it appears all the music for the soundtrack was under license from the original artists.
My ol' Dad was a Swing Kid as he was sixteen in 1939. He wasn't in Germany but swing was global or at least as much as the Swing Kids could make it that way. My ol' Dad was quite the scientist but he loved swing and, man, that cat could dance. The movie focuses on the Swing Kids of Germany and really not very well but it does give a glimpse of the revolutionary aspect of the era as so much it's thought everyone just rolled over and that's just not true.
(Ed: you're telling me there's Christmas in Nazis?)
Noooo. There's Christmas in Swing Kids. In the end they won, didn't they.
Possibly the most Hollycrapulous telling of Tale of the Nazi Era
With cute-as-a-button actors and the worst acting anywhere short of a Michele Bachmann tent revival, this movie delivers its full measure of awful. There is a bit of observation of the social anomie that came from the prospect of becoming HJ's (Hitler Jugend or Hitler Youth) but it's relatively shallow and predictable.
The only character with much depth is Arvid, the kid with a club foot but a blazing ability to play like Django Reinhardt. There are two live Django sets (i.e. Arvid covering him) and these are outstanding. He also delivers a very special speech prior to his climactic moment but it's ludicrous to believe he truly would have been able to speak like that without a Nazi putting a boot in his face. Nevertheless, the words are powerful.
(Ed: so why in the world would I watch it?)
The dance, young jitterbugger, the dance. This was the last time in history that dance had real elegance but I don't believe things will stay that way as you know how that story goes from "Footloose." People need to dance, the trouble is so many don't know how to do it. The kids in the movie knew the steps, all of them. The dance scenes in this movie are exceptional, twerkers need not apply.
And the music. Swing may be the most naturally-exciting music there has ever been as they used almost no electric instruments. Symphony orchestras have more power ... but they don't got that swing.
Note 1: Charlie Christian was one of the first to play an electric guitar and he did it for Benny Goodman.
Note 2: The review doesn't give any indication of modern performance of the Django Reinhardt tunes and it appears all the music for the soundtrack was under license from the original artists.
My ol' Dad was a Swing Kid as he was sixteen in 1939. He wasn't in Germany but swing was global or at least as much as the Swing Kids could make it that way. My ol' Dad was quite the scientist but he loved swing and, man, that cat could dance. The movie focuses on the Swing Kids of Germany and really not very well but it does give a glimpse of the revolutionary aspect of the era as so much it's thought everyone just rolled over and that's just not true.
(Ed: you're telling me there's Christmas in Nazis?)
Noooo. There's Christmas in Swing Kids. In the end they won, didn't they.
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