Swing kids film. Swing Kids (2018 film) 2022-10-05

Swing Kids movie review & film summary (1993)

On the one hand, massive propaganda and strict rules were used to keep swing at bay. The swing kids hence raised many red flags with Nazi authorities, most shockingly, they tended to welcome Jewish teenagers into their midst. All the actors did a good job. Also, my son really likes swing music. Jackson is the person that introduced tap dance to Kisoo. I watched today for the first time since and had no idea how conflicting it was and very captivating.

Swing Kids (2018)

Title Artist Length 1. These teens and young adults that mostly knew each other from school or leisure activities, shared a love for swing, Anglo-American style and culture and were much more interested in self-indulging activities than the uniformity, military drill, and ideology of the Hitler Youth Hitler Jugend, HJ for short or the League of German girls Bund Deutscher Maedel, BDM for short. The uniformity and military style of the Hitler Youth the Swing kids detested. Swing music per se, however, was never completely outlawed. This is the kind of movie that gets to the bottom of the human psyche, of the mechanics of war, and how riled up armies don't "win" ANYTHING but a false sense of power. Teenagers, the most ardent followers of a new musical trend, were also hard to regulate and for some of them the anti-jazz propaganda had the exact opposite effect. Their rebellion came more from a teenage desire for self-expression than a resistance mindset.

"Swing Heil": Swing Youth, Schlurfs, and others in Nazi Germany

We see a few Jewish men beaten or carted away, mostly in long shots, and a few " In an attempt to show Nazi propaganda at work, the film does include some of Hitler's anti-Semitic propaganda, which is reproduced in such great detail and with such fidelity to its sources that I grew uncomfortable. Measures and sanctions against swing kids varied based on location. Visually they could not have been in starker contrast to typical Hitler Youth style. Retrieved December 10, 2019. Not all fared so well.

Swing Kids (2018 film)

It's just a few people at the top using these cruelties to get what they want. It had an everlasting impression on me as my parents did not remember it, I identified with the young boy and could remember him at the end yelling for his brother. To close, I asked my son, "what did you think of the movie? Jazz as a musical form appeared in Germany in the 1920s and, as was true globally, became popular as the soundtrack of the Roaring 20s. The film stars Swing Kids was screened at The 2019 1st PyeongChang International Peace Film Festival on August 18, 2019. This is a movie to watch, reflect, and discuss with family during our own troubled times. Thoughts come to mind about the deck band on the Titanic. If the Swing Kids had evolved into an underground movement dedicated to the overthrow of Nazism, we might be onto something here.

Swing Kids Movie Review

I would love to rewatch it again in the future. Usually, movies in a war setting are heavy on tactical or political but Swing Kids focuses mainly on tap dance. It is also helpful to contrast how young people have used music to resist other political movements. War casualties are not power, dead bodies are not strength, and torn nations are not trophies. When I watched the trailer, it got myself thinking too how did this one ended up as musical movie? The movie focuses on the hero, Kisoo and how he fell in love with tap dance.

Show more I seen this as a kid when I was 4. Yes, the dark humor is always grotesquely funny because humanity survives even war and plague. In their heart of hearts, they were teenagers who loved American popular jazz connected to ideas of freedom, self-determination, and self-expression. Some flocked to the cinemas to catch anti-American propaganda reels that showed Americans dancing the Lindy Hop so they could learn to imitate the movements. The music was necessary to accompany the tap dance. I love swing and it's modern contributions to Hiphop, SWING HAIL! All the characters were fighting their own fights. Photo courtesy of the German Federal Archives.

Most were sent home at one point or the other, their jazz records confiscated and hair cut short. It was a beautiful journey to watch his character development. Retrieved May 18, 2020. Their rebellion was in the forms of visual cues, their dress and behavior, but not so much in subversive political action. Did anyone consciously decide that today's kids would like a movie about young German music fans of the 1930s, but would be turned off by too much politics? Did you know much about "Swing Kids" before you saw this movie? I do not know what became of the older gentleman I danced with that evening. Clearly intending to show similarities to later and better-known youth culture movements, the characters grow their hair long, get into fights with authority figures, obsess about music, and try to copy the style, attitude, and slang of their favorite musicians. There are moments here where the movie seems to believe Hitler was bad, not because he mapped genocidal madness, but because he wouldn't let the Swing Kids dance all night.

A title card at the end of the film informs us that some of the kids died at the hands of the Nazis, and others were forced into the German Army and killed in battle, but that some survived, and after the war there were still Swing Kids in Germany. One of the peculiar elements of this film is that the Kids don't seem very political. It's a nice opportunity to see how history is so much more than the dry facts of a textbook, but rather, a way to see the connections and similarities linking the past to the lives we lead today. A cool and laid-back demeanor, modeled after Hollywood movies, went hand-in-hand with a desire to just hang around with no particular aim or goal. Reference made to masturbation.

Infectiously rhythmic, this Korean War POW camp tap dance extravaganza will have you yearning for old-school Hollywood showmanship and begging for more when the curtain falls. Through Peter, this decision of whether to openly rebel because it's the right thing to do, to look the other way to avoid trouble, or to take advantage of the current system and become a member of the Hitler Youth is brought into clear focus, as good a representation as any of the decisions teens in Nazi Germany had to make. This movie is certainly different from the others. In an ambiguous scene early in the film, the Swing Kids hear that Hitler Youth types are beating up on a fellow Kid in an alley. Further, a key element of their culture was a laissez-faire outlook on life. Restrictions on the music and its dissemination came gradually.

You can't hide history from kids and it's up the parent to interpret and describe how the movie compares to history. Show more My eleven year old son and I watched this movies during a "guy's night" because I liked it when I was young and he's a WW2 history buff so he really enjoyed some of the historical references. Sergeant Jackson also recognizes the immense talent Rho Ki Soo has for dance. Propaganda Minister Goebbels knew that music was a necessity in keeping morale up. But I do hope he still dances wherever he may be. The good and the bad people, the honest and the one with ulterior motives.