YMMV / Swing Kids

• Awesome Music: Say what you will about the movie, but there is no doubt as to the amount of swing James Horner packed into the soundtrack.
• Harsher in Hindsight: Seeing Christian Bale getting brainwashed by Nazism, chewing out and threatening Arvid, not to mention at the end of the film when he attacks his former fellow Swing Kids, can be hard to swallow considering Bale's later infamous tirade on set of Terminator Salvation and being arrested just before the incident for assaulting his mother and sister in London.
• Moral Event Horizon: Thomas has several moments, including sending his own father off for speaking out against Hitler's policies, threatening to do the same to Peter, openly calling Arvid a cripple and spouting Nazi rhetoric which partly leads to his suicide, and finally assaulting Peter at the end of the film when breaking up a Swing Club. The end with Thomas shouting, "Swing Heil" to Peter rings a little hollow.
• Retroactive Recognition: This film feature is among the early works of Noah Wyle, Christian Bale and Wilson.
• Tear Jerker: Arvid's suicide can strike this chord, but even more so the scene involving Peter's delivery of a box. The Jewish mother is already holding a baby, but this scene is made even worse when the young daughter of the mother, who looks no older than 5, salutes Peter with, "Heil Hitler," as he leaves.
• Too Bleak, Stopped Caring: There's really no point in caring about what happens since we know that the Swing Kid moment would be stopped by the Nazis and several former Swing Kids such as Thomas would be inducted into the Nazi regime and gradually brainwashed by the ideology.
• The Woobie: Arvid and Peter.

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