Swing Kids

Swing Kids is a 1993 American drama film directed by Thomas Carter and starring Christian Bale, Robert Sean Leonard and Frank Whaley. In pre-World War II Germany, two high school students attempt to be swing kids by night and Hitler Youth by day, a decision that acutely impacts their friends and families. Historical background In the 1930s, some young German teens favored American and British pop culture; they hung out in secret underground clubs where bands played swing music and listened to contemporary music by acts like Benny Goodman and Duke Ellington. The film's screenwriter, Jonathan Marc Feldman, based the film on this eponymous Swing Kids (Swingjugend) movement. Plot In Hamburg in 1938, Peter Müller and Thomas Berger join their friends Arvid and Otto at a swing club called the Bismarck. They have a good time, dancing and enjoying the music. Peter goes home to find his mother in an argument with the Nazi Blockleiter (block leader). Herr Knopp, head of the local Gestapo, arrives and curtly dismisses the Blockleiter. Herr Knopp begins asking Frau Müller questions about some of her late husband's friends. Herr Müller had been accused of being a communist, and his health was irreparably damaged by an interrogation at the hands of Nazi agents.