Swing Kids is a film produced in 1993 and directed by Thomas Carter. The runtime is approximately 112 minutes. The film is considered as being part of the Lindy Hop revival of the 1980s and 1990s, and responsible for bringing more people to this dance form.[citation needed] 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 high school 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 Herr 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
The movie opens with Peter Muller and Thomas Berger entering a swing club, The Bismark. They move through the packed club and join their friend Arvid at a table. After not too long, Thomas and Peter get partners to dance with. After leaving the Bismark, Arvid, Peter, and Thomas urinate on a couple of Nazi propaganda posters. They are caught in the act by two members of the Gestapo, the German police. The Swing Kids are saved by slipping away while the Gestapo chase a man who tried to escape the scene.
The next morning, Peter, Otto, Thomas, and Arvid go to the river where they were the previous night and see the body of the man who ran being fished out of the river. Peter’s little brother, Willie, catches up to them as they are walking from the river. Willie wants to hang out with his brother and be a Swing Kid, Peter laughs at him and says "go home to mama". Willie then informs them that "a couple HJ’s are beating up a swing kid in the alley". They get there and challenge the HJs to a fight. Thomas fights one of the HJ one-on-one. The HJ had a knife and Thomas has his signature Swing Kids umbrella. Thomas successfully disarms and beats the HJ only to find that he was not defending a Swing Kid, but a Jew.
Willie and Peter go back to their home to find their mother in an argument with a Nazi. Not too long after they enter, the Nazi slaps her and Peter rushes to protect her. After a minute of tension, the doorbell rings. Peter answers the door to find Herr Knopp, the head of the local Gestapo. Herr Knopp dismisses the other Nazi, who leaves in a fluster. After several moments, it is obvious that Herr Knopp is very good with words and has a pleasant air about him. It also seems that he has an infatuation for Frau Muller. After cleaning a cut on her face, Herr Knopp asks Frau Muller if any of her deceased husband's friends have contacted her. She replies that she has not and he leaves.
Back in their room, Willie asked Peter if their father was taken away because he was a Communist. Peter says that he was not and doesn't remember why they took him away. Willie recollects that when their father came home after several months, he was sick, and he died. Peter tells him to stop talking about it and to go to sleep.
The next day, Peter goes to his job delivering books for Herr Schumler. He delivers one book to Frau Linge. When he hears her playing Beethoven music, he tells her that his father was the violinist. Peter then goes to the music store to listen to the song in a booth. While listening, he notices that the girl he likes, Evey, is looking at some swing music. He goes out to help her look for some music and discovers that she does not know much about swing. Peter shows her and album of Benny Goodman and tries to teach her to Jitterbug.
That night, Arvid performs at a Swing Club playing swing on the guitar. The music is stopped when they are warned that the HJ had just arrived. Peter notices that one of their old Swing Kid friends was one of the HJ that raided the party.
The next day, an HJ riding by Peter whistles "It Don't Mean A Thing", the Swing Kid signal. He goes down to their hangout at Arvid's house where they listen to swing music quiz each other about the musicians. Thomas accidentally slips and scratches one of Arvid's records. Arvid gets mad and starts yelling at Thomas. Thomas says that the only reason Arvid knows all the songs is because he can not dance to them because he is crippled. Arvid, smashing the album on the ground, orders everyone to leave.
Peter and Thomas steal a radio that they saw a Nazi steal from a "traitor's" home. Thomas is able to get away on a truck, but he is unable to help Peter on because of the weight of the radio. Thomas runs to Peter's home and notifies his mother. Peter is saved from going to a labor camp because of the efforts of Herr Knopp. Knopp informs Peter that he was able to save him by signing Peter up for the HJ. Peter at first protests but submits because of the pleas of his mother. On Peter's first day of HJ school, he sees a familiar face he did not expect. Thomas had joined the HJ to support Peter and to see that they were not split up. Thomas also thinks that it is the perfect cover to be an HJ during the day and a Swing Kid at night.
Arvid is stopped by two HJs while he is bringing a new record home. The HJs take the record and smash it and continue on to beat up Arvid. Then Emil comes and beats Arvid up worse, breaking his fingers so he will never play again. Arvid wakes up in the hospital to find that his friends are there with him. He realises that he now has the same broken fingers as his idol, the guitarist Django Reinhardt. Then he tells them that Emil did it to him.
The opportunity for revenges come quickly. In HJ school, Emil is giving a boxing lesson and asks for volunteers. Thomas fights Emil and gets several good punches in while taking a bad beating. Thomas only quits after he can no longer stand up.
That night, Peter and Thomas go to a Swing Dance at the Cafe Trichter. The dance is raided by HJ and Peter, Thomas, and Evey barely escape out the back door. When Peter is walking home, Herr Knopp greets him stops him before entering his home. Knopp tells Peter that he is pleased with his progress in the HJ. Knopp also tells Peter to keep and eye on his boss Herr Schumler.
Peter goes to work the next day to try to find out if his boss is doing anything illegal. Schumler gives peter a book to deliver to Frau Linge. Peter opens the book and finds forgeries of birth certificates. While at Frau Linge's home, Peter discovers that her husband was a student of Peter's father. At HJ school, Thomas tells his teacher that his father is speaking ill of Hitler. Peter tells his teacher that he has nothing to report in order to protect Frau Linge.
At a club Arvid is playing at, three Nazis like his style and want him to play one German song. He refusing saying that there are no more German songs, only Nazi songs. He tells the people in the club that by just sitting there, they are as much murderers than the people in the death camps. He storms out and goes home. There, he gets in the bathtub and slits his wrists with a broken record.
Herr Knopp buys a large dinner for the Muller family and asks them to eat with him. Peter mockingly criticises him saying that the food isn't all from Germany, so they should not eat it. Knopp sees that he is not welcome and leaves. Peter's mother reprimands him for being so cruel to a man who is so good to them.
Thomas, like Peter, watches the Nazis take his father away. But unlike Peter, he ratted his own father out to the Nazis. Thomas does not show any sign of regret when his father realizes he was turned in by his own son and looks Thomas straight in the eye.
Thomas and Peter have a bitter argument. Thomas urges Peter to forget about Arvid and move on. Peter get angry and shouts, "He was our friend". Peter tells Thomas, "If you side with the Nazis, we are at war." Thomas says, "Don't make me report y...".
Peter is sent to deliver 3 boxes to families. Peter gets a funny feeling after delivering the first two and decides to open the third one. He finds ashes inside. He looses control of himself and runs to Frau Linge. He tells her what happened and she gives him a letter his father wrote to her husband. Peter's father said he needed to do something to protect those he loved and his fellow man, Peter then knew he had to do the same.
Peter realizes he has to keep going to Swing Clubs to fight the Nazis. The next Swing Club Peter goes to, he goes alone. During a song, a bunch of HJs, including Thomas, unload out of a truck in front of the club. They break in and start beating up people. Peter does not run to escape capture, he starts fighting every HJ he find. Eventually Thomas find him and throws the first punch. Their vicious fight takes them outside where Thomas almost strangles Peter to death. At this point he tells Peter to run away and save himself, but Peter's main reason for going to the swing club remains his sole purpose and does not run away as Thomas wants him to. Peter is about to be thrown into a truck when Herr Knopp pulls up and asks to see him. Herr Knopp says, "Such a waste. Such Promise". Peter responds with, "It don't mean a thing, if it ain't got that swing! Do wop do wop". Knopp then has him put in the truck. Thomas see all of his friends getting taken away and just as Peter is being taken away, he yells, "Peter! Swing Heil." As the truck is driving Willie runs up crying, "Peter, Swing Heil Peter!".
"In a world on the brink of war, you either march to one tune or dance to another."
Cast
Kenneth Branagh is uncredited in the role of Herr Knopp — he refused billing after being told he'd be billed above the younger stars, saying that the boys were the real stars of the film and it belonged to them only. Branagh had worked with both Robert Sean Leonard and Christian Bale previously in Much Ado About Nothing (with Leonard) and Henry V (with Bale).
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