I wanted to like this movie. Heck, many of my friends and I performed as background dancers for it. Some of the scenes were shot in our favorite club, Broadway Studios of San Francisco.
The cast was pretty good. Jonathan Winters was hilarious in his supporting role. Sadly, the script was pretty bad. It's basically an ABC After School Special retelling of the Saturday Night Fever story, which doesn't really work. Saturday Night Fever worked as a story because its conflicts felt authentic and had an edge. Swing's conflicts lack the urgency and edge to involve the viewer.
Another puzzling feature of the film is that the main character is entranced by swing dancing and music. However, his own band doesn't play swing and he exhibits no interest in playing any kind of jazz. They play a lot of folk rock.
The only people that have rendered good opinions on this film have a vested interest in it. All of my friends who attended the cast/crew screening were disappointed.
The cast was pretty good. Jonathan Winters was hilarious in his supporting role. Sadly, the script was pretty bad. It's basically an ABC After School Special retelling of the Saturday Night Fever story, which doesn't really work. Saturday Night Fever worked as a story because its conflicts felt authentic and had an edge. Swing's conflicts lack the urgency and edge to involve the viewer.
Another puzzling feature of the film is that the main character is entranced by swing dancing and music. However, his own band doesn't play swing and he exhibits no interest in playing any kind of jazz. They play a lot of folk rock.
The only people that have rendered good opinions on this film have a vested interest in it. All of my friends who attended the cast/crew screening were disappointed.