Swing Kids

A film about young people listening to swing music in Nazi Germany. Hamburg, the late 1930s. Peter, Thomas and Arvid are friends. All three listen to American jazz records, grow their hair and dance in secret clubs. The music is banned; the regime counts it as degenerate and the police raid. As punishment Peter and Thomas are forced to join the Hitler Youth. The plan looks simple: wear the uniform by day and keep dancing at night. But the uniform changes a person. That divergence is the real subject. One discovers how easy conforming is and finds a channel for the anger inside him; the other tries to resist. The friendship cannot hold it. The narrative takes up a real movement. Young people who listened to swing were catalogued in Germany and some were sent to work camps. Robert Sean Leonard plays Peter, Christian Bale plays Thomas and Frank Whaley plays Arvid. Kenneth Branagh appears in a small role. Thomas Carter directed. The music and the dance sequences are the film's strongest element. An interesting subject for anyone who likes historical drama and youth stories built on music. For a viewer expecting a realistic period film, the narrative slides into mainstream shapes in places and the characters are separated too neatly.