Swing
USA 1998
Reviewed by Leslie Felperin
Synopsis
Our synopses give away the plot in full, including surprise twists.
Liverpool, the present. Having served time in prison for robbing a building society, Martin Luxford is released on parole. Inside Martin mastered the saxophone under the tutelage of his cellmate Jack. Determined to start a swing band, Martin recruits: as singer, his ex-girlfriend Joan, who married Andy, the policeman who arrested him; footballing wannabe Buddy on double bass; skinhead Oi on drums; and a brass section of Orange-Lodge members led by Mac. Although the band's first gig at a heavy-metal pub flops, their next at a posh hotel goes down swimmingly until police, led by the jealous Andy, 'provoke' a riot.
Disgusted with Andy's actions, Joan leaves him for Martin. At the group's next gig, at a venue owned by lottery-winner Arnold, Martin's dour parents dance together. But Martin argues with his brother Liam, the real instigator of the building-society job who robbed Arnold to pay the band. Martin returns to prison for violating his parole by street-fighting, but when he's released the band welcome him back. They play a triumphant gig, this time joined by Jack on saxophone.
Review
The swing-band standard of the same name preaches, "It ain't what you do, it's the way that you do it" - advice the makers of Swing ought to have meditated on before assembling such a lazily derivative effort as this. A Liverpool-based facsimile of The Commitments, incorporating a goodly wodge of trite 'let's do the show right here' tropes from countless musicals, Swing's narrative tiredness might have been more forgivable if the dialogue by its screenwriter and first-time director Nick Mead (co-screenwriter of Parting Shots) were better. As it is, the film's idea of humour barely rises above having a mother enjoin her daughter to bring her date in the house to "shag him" in Italian. Mead's pass at putting a lump in our throats consists of corny exchanges between the film's scally ex-con protagonist Martin his parents, girlfriends and bandmates, reaching an apogee of banality when Martin proclaims that swing "brings back a world of innocence and optimism". This clunker of a line is trumped with worse when someone asks if he thinks swing music can change the world. "No, but it can change the way you feel!" he replies.
This wilful naïveté seems imposed to make the film more palatable for a broader audience when, ironically, all the elements are in place to make something sharper and more intriguing. Boosted by a key scene in the movie Swingers where the protagonist finds his true love on an LA swing-club dancefloor, swing music and the big-band sound are suddenly moderately hip again, indexed by that measuring stick of commodified style, a Gap advert featuring the music. The final scene here features extras drawn from regulars at London's 100 Club, throwing impressive shapes on the floor. What a shame Swing didn't revolve more around this nostalgia-saturated subculture. Instead, Martin appears to have thought of reviving swing all by himself. It's not inconceivable that a jailbird from the city where everyone "thinks they can write [music] like Lennon and McCartney," would do such a thing. But such a choice needs more back story than that he shared a cell with Clarence Clemons' jazz Yoda figure.
Swing's overqualified cast of established thespians (Rita Tushingham, Tom Bell) and refugees from the soap opera Brookside struggle nobly with what they've got. Lisa Stansfield elevates the soundtrack elegantly with her gutsy singing and the film with her surprisingly competent acting. (Although it would have helped if she was allowed to show just a little nervousness as we're meant to believe that she hasn't sung since auditioning for Guys and Dolls at school.)
Mead speaks in the production notes of trying to create a sympathetic working-class milieu. It's a laudable intention, and perhaps explains the equally endearing, playing-to-the-balcony portrait of the police as moronic thugs. Perhaps explanatory footage was lost in the editing, but given that Britain is currently fraught with sectarianism and racially-motivated terrorist attacks, it seems especially ill-advised to release a movie in which every National-Front skinhead and (marginally more acceptable) Orange-Lodge member we meet comes up cuddly. And they don't even bat an eyelid when a black man joins their ranks at the end. Jazz has traditionally been a forgiving, colour-blind artform, but this overestimates its powers.
Credits
- Producers
- Su Lim
- Louise Rosner
- Screenplay
- Nick Mead
- From a story by
- Su Lim
- Nick Mead
- Director of Photography
- Ian Wilson
- Editor
- Norman Buckley
- Production Designer
- Richard Bridgland
- Music/Music Arranger/Producer
- Ian Devaney
- ©The Kushner-Locke Company and The Alpine Releasing Corporation
- Production Companies
- A Tapestry Films and The Kushner-Locke Company presentation
- Executive Producers
- Donald Kushner
- Peter Locke
- Robert L. Levy
- Peter Abrams
- J.P. Guerin
- Production Supervisor
- Michelle Fox
- Production Co-ordinator
- Sally Ross
- Unit Production Manager
- Louise Rosner
- Location Managers
- Pat Karam
- Liverpool:
- Andy Holt
- Tom Sherry
- Post-production Supervisor
- Sherwood Jones
- Assistant Directors
- Francesco Reidy
- Matthew Sharp
- Marius Hamboulides
- Script Supervisor
- Lisa Vick
- Casting
- Ros Hubbard
- John Hubbard
- Aerial Photography
- Castle Air
- Camera Operators
- Ian Wilson
- Mike Miller
- Special Effects Wet Downs
- Dave Dean Associates
- Model Makers
- Jeanne Vianney
- Clementine Terramorsi
- Charles Barker
- Lucy Newman
- Art Director
- Niki Longmuir
- Set Decorator
- Penny Crawford
- Scenic Artists
- Stuart Clarke
- Sue Lawson
- Dick Keen
- Julian Saxton
- Sculptor
- Abbo
- Costume Designer
- Stephanie Collie
- Make-up
- Supervisor:
- Tory Wright
- Additional:
- Lou Burton
- Helen Lennox
- Titles/Opticals
- CFI: The Imaging Group
- Martin's Sax Played by
- Clarence Clemons
- Musicians
- Keyboards/Guitar:
- Ian Devaney
- Saxophones:
- Clarence Clemons
- Leo Green
- Chris 'Snake' Davis
- Richie Buckley
- Trumpets:
- John Thirkell
- Matt Holland
- Bass:
- Geoff Gascoyne
- Drums:
- Gavin Harrison
- John Wadham
- Kevin Whitehead
- Music Supervisor
- Steve Dagger
- Recording/Mix Engineer
- Aidan McGovern
- Soundtrack
- "Blitzkrieg Baby" by Fred Fisher, Doris Fisher, performed by Lisa Stansfield; "Watch the Birdie" by Don Raye, Gene De Paul, performed by Lisa Stansfield; "T'Aint What You Do" by Sy Oliver, James Young, performed by Lisa Stansfield; "Ain't Nobody Here But Us Chickens" by Alex Kramer, Joan Whitney, performed by (1) Lisa Stansfield, (2) Louis Jordan; "Baby, I Need Your Loving" by Brian Holland, Lamont Dozier, Eddie Holland, performed by Lisa Stansfield; "Mack the Knife" by Kurt Weill, Bertolt Brecht, English translation by Marc Blitzstein, performed by Lisa Stansfield; "Five Months Two Weeks Two Days" by Debbie Morris, Don Donaldson, performed by Louis Prima; "Gotta Get on This Train", "I Thought That's What You Liked About Me" by Lisa Stansfield, Ian Devaney, Richard Derbyshire, performed by Georgie Fame; "Why Do We Call It Love" by Lisa Stansfield, Ian Devaney, Richard Derbyshire, performed by Lisa Stansfield; "Il pranzo goloso" by Lisa Stansfield, Ian Devaney, performed by Michael Temperley; "Two Years Too Blue" by Lisa Stansfield, Ian Devaney, Richard Derbyshire, Nick Mead, performed by Lisa Stansfield
- Choreography
- Simon Selmon
- Sound Design
- Roger Savage
- Steve Burgess
- Sound Recordist
- Colin Charles
- Sound Mixers
- Dean Humphreys
- Tim Cavagin
- Dialogue Editor
- Alexandra Partridge
- Sound Effects Editors
- John Penders
- Ella Fairbaim
- ADR
- Mixer:
- John Bateman
- Stunt Co-ordinator
- Simon Crane
- Penguins/Cockatoo
- Animals Galore
- Hamster Wrangler
- The Silver Stallion
- Cast
- Hugo Speer
- Martin Luxford
- Lisa Stansfield
- Joan Woodcock
- Tom Bell
- Sid Luxford
- Rita Tushingham
- Mags Luxford
- Alexei Sayle
- Mighty Mac
- Paul Usher
- Liam Luxford
- Danny McCall
- Andy
- Clarence Clemons
- Jack
- Tom Georgeson
- Uncle Matty
- Scot Williams
- Buddy
- James Hicks
- Oi
- Nerys Hughes
- Maria
- Dermot Keaney
- Arnold
- Jon Huyton
- Terry
- Del Henney
- Colin
- Richard Buss
- superintendent
- Leo Green
- orangeman/sax
- David Spence
- orangeman/trumpet
- Gavin Watson
- orangeman/piano
- Chris Walker
- Screw
- Carl Chase
- Dig
- Tim Gallagher
- punter
- Eddie Webber
- Dominic Carter
- Steve Goodman
- Cockney wankers
- Simon Selmon
- Louise Thwaite
- young dancers from Matty's pub
- Henry Miles
- Elizabeth Davison
- old time dancers from Matty's pub
- Melissa Thomas
- Buddy's rocker diva
- Certificate
- 15
- Distributor
- Entertainment Film Distributors Ltd
- 8,766 feet
- 97 minutes 24 seconds
- Dolby
- Colour by
- CFI