Review of Swing Kids (1993) by Barry_Johnson — 25 Mar 2016

Swing Kids is a movie about three young adults and their rebellion against the Hitler Youth program in Nazi Germany. To give you an idea of what the story is like without giving important details away, think of it as three playground children trying to solve a Rubik's cube. At first, all three of them are huddled around it and eagerly trying to solve it with each other for the sole purpose of bragging rights. They get a little disgruntled after a while and begin arguing with each other over what move to make next on the cube. A playground supervisor comes around and tries to take the cube away from the kids and succeeds, but one of the kids happens to have a miniature version in their backpack. They continue for a little while, but then one of the kids gets disgruntled by another's bickering and decides to quit. The two kids left are now arguing over why he left, disregarding the cube almost entirely. The other kid walks off in annoyance, leaving the one child to solve it on his own.

This, in essence, is the simplified story of Swing Kids. Seeing as how one of the movie's main themes is victimization, I'll go ahead and compare the playground kids to what's called a "victimization triangle". In a victimization triangle, you have four main groups involved(sometimes five, but that fifth one isn't really relevant here): Bystanders, Upstanders, Perpetrators, and Victims. In this situation, you have these three kids who are trying to solve this Rubik's cube. They aren't doing very well, but are trying their hardest to solve it. They classify as victims because they are under the spell of the confusing device, but also as upstanders for trying to solve its riddle and beat it once and for all. The perpetrator is none other than the cube itself for perpetuating such a confounding puzzle. The bystanders are, naturally, those who refuse to do anything to help solve the cube. This is, of course, in the beginning.

By the end, the roles of the triangle have changed significantly. The bystanders and perpetrator remain the same. The only remaining upstander is the child left behind by the other two. The victims remain the same, minus the child who pestered the first into leaving. At this time, the friend group remains a shattered fragment of what it once was.

Ultimately, I feel that Swing Kids is an accurate depiction of playground behavior in a 1940's Germany environment.