spencer-w-hensley Review of Swing Shift

Swing Shift (1984)

Watchable and decent; but should have been a masterpiece considering its cast and director

[5/10 · 7 November 2019]

I was never aware that Goldie Hawn and Kurt Russell made another movie other than Overboard so when I heard about this and heard it was directed by the late Jonathan Demme who won an Oscar for directing the masterpiece The Silence of the Lambs, this was a definite must see for me and I had high expectations. Maybe mine were too high. This is only a decent, watchable film at best with a lot of missed opportunities at worst. Hawn and Rusell's performances are just fine and they do a good job with their roles, it was also nice to see a young Ed Harris as Hawn's husband in a typical excellent performance, but the performances regrettably are not enough to make up for the shortcomings in the script. The movie seems uncertain if it wants to be a comedy or drama for a while and the ending basically is a poorly done character study to emphasize how World War II had a tragic affect on so many. That character study would work well for Demme seven years later when he attempted to enter the minds of demented, disturbed serial killers in The Silence of the Lambs, but for a movie that focuses more on the cute side of romance amidst a World War II setting, at the end the payoff is pretty weak. Additionally this movie doesn't know who it wants to root for or if the ending should be happy or not. I think the movie would have worked far better if it had focused on Hawn and Harris' marriage, shown Harris actually in combat and then try to give a message at the end about the horrors of war, and parallel that to Hawn's swing shift work at the factory and have Russell be a smaller character. That would have been a really effective movie. But instead this movie is never clear who it wants its protagonist to be or how it wants its viewing audience to feel about it. Also why was Christi Lahti nominated for an Oscar for her performance here? Her character really has no backstory or personality, and is very generic. If anyone should have been nominated it should have been Harris for Best Supporting Actor. Also the great character actor Fred Ward is sorely underused here and more scenes with him would have made a much better film, same for Demme regular Charles Napier who has very little to do. The performances are good, but Demme should have had clearer focus on his characters and focus on what would have made a stronger story. While not a bad film, it is easy to see why when Hawn and Russell's names are mentioned Overboard comes up before this somewhat redeeming but mostly forgettable flick that needed a better script and clearer direction.