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Best movie of this year hands down!

Let's be realistic.

As Good As It Gets

Absolutely Fantastic

The story of Swing Swift was probably played out several thousand times during the World War II years. While the men went to war the women did their bit in industries to keep America's industrial machine running. No doubt they developed itches that needed scratching. One such was Goldie Hawn, the protagonist of this story.On Pearl Harbor Day Goldie was the happily married wife of Ed Harris, who's nice enough, but a bit on the thick side and a regular alpha male. Harris goes into the navy and Hawn who doesn't want to live on just his allotment checks takes a job in an aircraft factory. She goes to work with her neighbor Christine Lahti whom she and Harris never really socialized with that much, but now they become best of friends.An even better friendship develops with musician Kurt Russell who because gigs are getting fewer and farther between also takes a job in the same aircraft factory. He still blows his trumpet at some clubs in the wee small hours of the morning after the Swing Shift. He's also a quite legitimate 4-F due to a heart murmur.Try as she might Hawn is unable to resist Russell's persistence. Then when Harris gets leave and returns all the issues come to a head.Swing Shift which has a nice score of 40s era music which is my kind of music would never get a bad review from me if for that alone. But director Jonathan Demme really does well capturing the mood of the 40s when we were a people united trying to save the world from one nasty brutal tyranny. The women are shown to have a really tough time both mastering the defense jobs they were doing and taking a lot from the men still working there.As we all know until recently Kurt Russell and Goldie Hawn were the happiest unmarried couple in the history of Hollywood. That comes right through in Swing Shift and that carries a great deal of the film.Christine Lahti got Swing Shift's only Oscar recognition with her nomination for Best Supporting Actress. She was one sassy woman who takes nothing off no one in the human race. It's also left her sad and a bit bitter. Before Pearl Harbor she was a nightclub singer and that world has left a mark on her. But she does have the right stuff in the end.Swing Shift is a marvelous film recapturing a bygone era of a truly United States of America.

It's 1941 Santa Monica. Kay Walsh (Goldie Hawn) is happily married. Her fisherman husband Jack (Ed Harris) enlists after Pearl Harbor. Kay gets a job at the aircraft plant despite Jack's objections. Their lounge singer neighbor Hazel (Christine Lahti) is tired of her manager Archibald 'Biscuits' Touie (Fred Ward) and doesn't like the Walshes either who often snicker at her. Eventually, the two women become best of friends at the sexist plant on the swing shift from four to midnight. Kay starts to fall for her supervisor trumpet player Mike 'Lucky' Lockhart (Kurt Russell).He's a player hound-dogging a married woman. She doesn't come off that well either. There has to be a higher degree of douchness from Jack to excuse her cheating on him. He is a male chauvinist but not necessarily worst than everybody else including Lucky. As a rom-com, it's very awkward. I really couldn't take the bad romance. For this to work, this has to be a darker drama. All the lightness has to go. Goldie Hawn is the wrong person to go there. There is a wrong tone to the movie. I don't know which version I saw although I suspect it's not the director's cut.

Jonathan Demme directed this period piece set during World War II, where women were recruited to take over from men in airplane making factories, because the men had to serve(unless they were declared 4-F).Goldie Hawn, Christine Lahti, and Holly Hunter play the women, while Ed Harris, Fred Ward, and Kurt Russell play the men. The women must overcome the sexism and skepticism from management, and some of the men left behind. With their husbands gone, the women find that their increased responsibility makes them more involved with the world, but also gives way to some temptations as well...Surprisingly bland, even lifeless film feels longer than it is, though it does have a good cast, story doesn't hold viewer interest much, and it feels like a wasted opportunity to portray an important part of the home front aspect of the war.

When you have 24-hour jobs in any industry, the 3 shifts are commonly called Day shift, Swing shift, and Graveyard shift. This movie deals mainly with the relationships of a cast of characters working the swing shift in a military airplane manufacturing plant on the west coast during World War Two. Since most of the able bodied men went off to war, the ladies were given the construction jobs. The movie has another item of interest, it was made about the time that Kurt Russell and Goldie Hawn began their long relationship which persists today, about 23 years later. Goldie Hawn is Kay Walsh, young housewife whose husband Jack (Ed Harris) goes into the Navy. With no skills at all, she begins working in the factory. She learns fast and does well, and after the bravely pushed a co-worker out of harm's way when an overhead engine was falling, she was promoted to 'leadman.'Kurt Russell is 'Lucky' Lockhart, a trumpet player who is 4F but also working the swing shift. Even though Lucky knows Kay is married, he persists in a romantic pursuit.Another swing shift member is played by Christine Lahti as Hazel, part time club singer. She, Lucky, and Kay work together and become fast friends. Her love interest also goes off to war, Fred Ward playing 'Biscuits' Touie. A young Holly Hunter is Jeannie , another member of the work crew. SPOILERS. Lonesome, Kay eventually gives in to Lucky's pursuit, and they develop a not so secret relationship. Husband Jack returns unannounced, is greeted by Kay, Lucky, and Hazel, and it is clear to Jack what was going on. Disappointed in Kay, he leaves again. Finally in 1945, when the war ended, Jack came back after Jack and Kay had called it quits. She apologized for her infidelity, they began to work things out. Probably realistic of how things were back then.