Swing Kids

[icepixie]

I watched Swing Kids tonight (because apparently I wanted to completely depress myself). So...did Robert Sean Leonard pretty much get typecast in the early 1990s as "sensitive teenager who grapples with moral dilemmas inherent in living in an authoritarian environment, and who has a buddy who betrays the rest of their little gang"? Granted, I'm only drawing on this and Dead Poets Society, but that's all I've ever seen him in, so, yeah.

(And really, was there any question that one of those kids was going to die, probably through suicide, and another would join the Nazis? I mean, it was good and affecting and all, but I could pretty much tell from the first scene that both of those things would happen.)

I realized (again) while watching this how deeply the Nazis = ultimate evil equation has sunk into popular culture, at least in this country. There were a crapload of swastikas in this movie, and the shudder of revulsion I felt upon seeing one never lessened at any point. Not that I would want it to--really, I find it hard to think of anything else that was both as truly vile as Nazism and as frighteningly widespread in popularity--but I do think it's interesting how we've latched onto WWII as kind of a controlling good vs. evil mythos. I can certainly see why we did; Hitler is about as close to a tailor-made figurehead of absolute evil as you can get. (Okay, I thought I was going somewhere with this, specifically somewhere about it being easier to teach this war rather than WWI because we can cast each side as unequivocably good or evil, instead of the mess that was WWI, but it's late, and I'm not, so I'm posting and going to bed.)

Comments

[sleepingcbw.livejournal.com]

And really, was there any question that one of those kids was going to die, probably through suicide, and another would join the Nazis?

Heheheh, this much I picked up from the combination Nazis + teenagers + Robert Sean Leonard, never having heard of the movie before in my life. :D

(aaaaaaaaaaaa it's one am and I'm up doing data entry aaaaaaaaaaaaaaa)

[icepixie]

Heheheh, this much I picked up from the combination Nazis + teenagers + Robert Sean Leonard, never having heard of the movie before in my life. :D

Yep. I didn't know he was in it until he showed up onscreen in the first couple minutes, and (once I realized why he looked so familiar) I immediately knew what was going to happen. It was just a matter of waiting to see which of the four boys died, which of them turned into a Nazi, and which of them rebelled. (The fourth one kind of disappeared halfway through the movie. Perhaps he got sent to a work camp off camera.)

[wildtiger7.livejournal.com]

We only teach the Hitler aspect of it, and completely ignore everything else, because, as many historians have noted, the ultimate fight in the war wasn't good vs. evil but evil vs. evil. But that's just a horribly depressing story all the way around, and who wants to focus on that?

[alto2.livejournal.com]

the ultimate fight in the war wasn't good vs. evil but evil vs. evil.

This is new to me and I'm curious. More, please? (Or a link to more if that's easier?)

[wildtiger7.livejournal.com]

Russia vs. Germany was the central theater of the war. Dan Carlin has a fantastic podcast called "Hardcore History" and he takes a look at the eastern front of the European Theater in a four-part series called "Ghosts of the Ostfront." I highly recommend it.

[alto2.livejournal.com]

Ah, thanks. For some reason I always tend to forget about Russia in WWII, though I always did think it was awfully convenient that we allied with them and then turned around and fought the cold war for the next 50 years..

[icepixie]

But that's just a horribly depressing story all the way around, and who wants to focus on that?

Heh. True.

6 days late, but...

[lilsurelybeans.livejournal.com]

With several viewings of Dead Poets Society and Swing Kids under my belt I probably read things into Robert Sean Leonard's House MD character that shouldn't be there. Just like when I see Christian Bale I instantly think of him singing "Santa Fe" in Disney's Newsies or being a Hitler Youth. Batman cannot be a Hitler Youth!
As a side note, Kenneth Branagh plays a Nazi in Swing Kids. He also plays one in 2 or 3 other movies. I find that a bit disturbing.

Re: 6 days late, but...

[icepixie]

As a side note, Kenneth Branagh plays a Nazi in Swing Kids. He also plays one in 2 or 3 other movies. I find that a bit disturbing.

I think it's the voice. He has that silky smooth register that can become kind on the surface, evil underneath.