![]() ![]() I say tastes because Swing Shift also has to be one of the most notorious cases of artistic tampering, right up there with The Magnificent Ambersons or Terminal Station. ![]() It’s meant to be more than conventional romance and we get tastes of that. This I believe we can attribute to Jonathan Demme. Because sometimes it looks a bit like a TV soap, and the story doesn’t always fall together, and yet there is a broader sense of what this movie is and what the focal points must be. They are interconnected issues.īut I think this is the best compliment that can be paid to the story. War only works to exacerbate the clouded emotions of the day and that goes for all these relationships. And yet Lucky (Russell), when he’s not riding his motorbike or playing the trumpet, is a wounded soul in his own right. Because he is present, in the flesh, good-natured and available in a way her husband never was - even when he was around. It’s about a woman and a man who cannot contain the genuine feelings they foster for one another (In real life Kirk Russell and Goldie Hawn fell in love and never looked back). And yet life gets in the way - where time and space separates them - and makes the waiting and the worry all the more difficult. This isn’t what they were planning, but it’s happened and they move forward through the paces of it the best they can. It is about a husband (Ed Harris) and a wife (Hawn): one going off to war and the other staying behind - prepared to walk alone. However, sometimes it’s relationships like these that can suffer the most. Putting in a solid day’s work and then getting dolled up to go out on the town. They are by each other’s side through the thick and thin of friendship. It is about two working women: Goldie Hawn and Christine Lathi. There are several intentional and formative relational dynamics in Swing Shift. Things very rarely remain the same after something so cataclysmic. Our relationships become entrenched with a profound camaraderie and yet we can hurt the ones we love. War can simultaneously cause deep wells of tragedy and bring us the greatest joys. We understand the certain amount of independence women would have been allowed in this time, where they were given a part to play in the struggle against the Axis powers. The events of the war happen to them as they walk along the pier, sit in their living rooms, or do their work. But here this reality is put into practice in a manner that makes tangible sense. We read in our history books about Rosie the Riveter and women gaining a newfound freedom as they fell into work formerly held only by men. It effectively takes us back with the auditory cues of Glenn Miller, Hoagy Carmichael, and the rest. The soundtrack is also perfectly antiquated (sans Carly Simon) fitting the era and mood to add another definite dimension. Aside from films actually produced during the war years, I’m not sure if I can think of a film that highlights the homefront to the degree of Swing Shift. ![]()
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