A waste of 90 minutes of my life

In truth, there is barely enough story here to make a film.

This is a small, humorous movie in some ways, but it has a huge heart. What a nice experience.

The story, direction, characters, and writing/dialogue is akin to taking a tranquilizer shot to the neck, but everything else was so well done.

6/15/18. Once again I got a chance to see how underappreciated Robert Sean Leonard is as an actor. I liked him so much in House, as he gave that TV series its soul and decided to catch movies Leonard has been in. He did an excellent job as the protagonist who as a young German teen is trying to make sense of the growing changes brought on by Nazism. It is somewhat unclear what this movie's center was. Was it a coming-of-age movie? A friendship movie? A war time period piece. Or, just a pre-WW Ii drama taking place in Germany. While it contained all these elements, it didn't provide any closure to some of the things that were going on. I am guessing, then, that it was the rise of Nazism in Germany, and how its need for blind allegiance was tearing existing relationships apart. The only reprieve was the joys of adolescence living life through music, in this case, swing and jazz. Unfortunately, the music is taken to represent the Jewish artistic sensibilities that is another reason to draw the line between the growing numbers of Nazi Germans and Germans who didn't want to be involved and just lived their lives. I suppose these are the themes, but one never knows except to say that Bale's character was one of extreme fanaticism that grew out of fear of an unknown future so much so it ruined his friendship with Leonard. Worth catching despite the lack of clarity in the plotting.

People do not seem to realise that this IS a historically accurate film, if they had made it any other way it would have not done justice to these genuine people who really existed and really fought the evils of National Socialism (swing music was the rock n roll of the day and because of its American, often Black roots, the Nazis despised it). The ending of the film is very very poignant if you know anything about the history of the Third Reich. Do yourself a favour and read some history before claiming this is a 'boring' or 'typical' story. Whilst the characters are fictional the whole feel of the film is very genuine and representative of the difficult decisions people had to make to survive. I actually found it to be a very moving film, and I am always 'that guy' who picks up on any historical inaccuracies; this one was genuinely fantastic, I would give it 8/10 for truly capturing the feel of Hamburg (one of the least 'nazified' cities in Germany at the time) just after the annexation of Austria and the Sudetenland and just prior to the invasion of Poland. Don't watch if you only like ridiculous Hollywood action war movies full of explosions. Do watch if you like beautiful movies brimming with emotion, seething with anger at a seemingly unbeatable foe that has become the norm and overall celebrating the immense courage and spirit of humanity even in the face of such evil. The Swing Youth need to be remembered, Other reviewers do not seem to realise that this wasn't a ridiculous little organisation that didn't mean anything. Swing Kids would be sent to concentration camps or simply executed as early as 1937, and were almost always sent to death camps once the war started, yet they carried on fighting the good fight. Swing Heil!!!

Taking the biblical reference, in this story we have a Peter "The Rock" and a "Doubting" Thomas. It is 1930s Germany and the teenagers have latched onto banned music, "swing" music, much of it by Jewish-American musicians like Benny Goodman. But Germany also wants its young men to become members of Hitler's Jugen (HJ) as a way of preparing them to become Nazis when they grow up.The nominal lead character is Robert Sean Leonard as Peter Müller. But the best performance here is by Christian Bale as his close friend Thomas Berger. They are part of the larger group of "swing kids" who gather to play swing music and dance. A risky activity at this time.The core of the story centers upon Peter who recognizes the evil of the Nazi propaganda, and resists it, while Thomas resists at first but eventually is swayed. The two friends increasingly are at odds, culminating in a fight near the end.This is both an entertaining movie, even though it involves a very serious subject, and also a historically significant one, as it relates to the Nazi doctrine. I suppose, looking at it now, it was the severe viewpoints, the "supremacy of the race", that got more and more Germans to turn against it and resist. As well as most of the rest of the world.

The music is fabulous, the dance scenes won awards, and kids can identify with these teens --or at least sense the joy their own grandparents (or more likely, their great grandparents) felt when dancing or playing 1930's Swing music. THIS FILM (SLIGHTLY EDITED) WOULD BE A GREAT TEACHING TOOL FOR GRADE SCHOOL ON UP...!With minor editing of swear words, vulgar sexual comments about young women, (including the teen boys' discussion of hiring women in the red light district) and a few of the PG 13-to almost R dance shots of young womens' undergarments replaced with milder shots of women in the otherwise joyful dance segments...SWING KIDS could be used to SHOW KIDS how the Nazis COULD QUICKLY transform the innocent ................into the guilty. Teachers could use clips from this film to ALSO teach persons about the almost FORGOTTEN Holocaust against the disabled..."Arvid was a cripple. He didn't belong..." says one TEENAGER. Everyone KNOWS the Nazis persecuted the Jews. But the Nazis also persecuted - the DISABLED, like the character Arvid, (a great SWING musician) who is driven to extreme action - in part maybe because he was disabled. One senses these teen boys - and their fellow teen companions - love their music and dance as much as teens do today. They deal with the steady, sometimes seductive, sometimes violent, advance of Nazis into their world...partly thru dance. (PS this film is based on actual German teens who loved swing music)