Backswing

TELEVISION FREQUENTLY creates a glorified American mythology, portraying applepie slices of the past and nostalgically recalling simpler days. Winners the "Kool-Aid" Mom, who gratefully remembers how her own mother used to serve tall glasses of juice to the thirsty kids on the block. Although these black-and-white flashbacks of Americans are tolerable in 30-second packages, their flat sentimentality cannot sustain an audience for two hours. Swing Shift, the film that professes to tell what happened when "the men went to war and the women went to work," completely fails to represent the dynamic period of World War II America.

Director Jonathan Demme behaves like the "Kool-Aid Mom," only simplistically examining the entrance of thousands of woman into the workforce--an event that was to have a profound effect on the initiation of the women's movement two decades later.

Swing Shift tells the story of a young woman Kay Walsh (Goldie Hawn), who marries her high-school sweetheart, Jack (Ed Harris), only to find her blissful newlywed life disrupted by the reality of World War II. With the outbreak of war, Jack immediately enlists in the Marines. When Jack leaves, Kay gets a job at a factory which makes fighter planes and works the late swing shift with hundreds of other newly employed women. At the factory she meets and eventually falls in love with one of the line leaders. Lucky (Kurt Russell), who was turned down by the Army because of a bad heart.

It's about time that a filmmaker portrayed not the soldiers on the battlefield, but the people--particularly women--who created the weapons that enabled the United States to win the war. Unfortunately, screenwriter Rob Morton and director Demme have not succeeded in portraying the largely unacknowledged effort of the "folks back home."

The portrayal lacks all conviction. Kay's co-workers come off as little more than cardboard characters in vintage clothing. And the strong feeling of unity that energized the home front--a force that inspired thousands of people to donate clothing and kids to give their dimes to help American soldiers--is not captured in the film. When the film shows people donating pots and pans in a neighborhood collection drive the donors look about as enthusiastic as the audience itself.

Nor is the personal tragedy of the war, including the loss of family members and the struggle of women to support their families, handled with any sense of urgency or credibility. As Goldie Hawn stands in line for her job interview, a woman wearing white gloves and looking as if she just emerged from the beauty parlor turns to Kay and says. "I really need this job, I've got a kid to feed."

Even the factory scenes lack excitement or a spirit, despite the fact that the airplanes created there played a major role in the war. When Eisenhower's announcement of the invasion of Normandy is broadcast to the factory workers, there is only a weak, forced sense of enthusiasm. The workers simply cheer for several seconds, then resume drilling metal with unconvincing looks of fervor.

Many of Swing Shift's characters are simply stock "types" rather than convincing people. There is Kay's husband Fred, the high school athlete with a strong patriotic sensibility. When the enlists in the Navy he tells his distraught wife that "They've started it, we've got to finish it." In addition, there are Kay's fellow factory workers who, as the movie progresses, become recognizable by face, but never by a distinct personality.

It is the performances of Hawn, Russel, and Christine Lahti, who plays Kay's best friend, that offer the only real enjoyment in the film. Kay develops a close friendship with an ex-singer and fellow factory worker named Hazel (Lahti) and the two become inseparable. Through her relationship with both Hazel and Lucky, as well as her newfound independence. Kay changes from a prudish Kewpie- doll like character to a more assertive, sensitive woman. Goldie Hawn's earnest and expressive face frequently compensates for the film's many weaknesses.

Although Hawn, Russel and Lahti are effective together--playing, carousing, even arguing -- even their camaraderie does not escape the contrived manipulations of the film. Why does Kay finally decide to go out with Lucky after she's turned him down every week for the last month? Her awkward explanation. "You know I think you're really swell" is hardly a sufficient clue. Was her initial reluctance coy, or indicative of some inner moral turmoil?

It's a question left unanswered both at the beginning of the film and when Kay's husband returns in the final scenes. The choices are real, but Kay--like most of the film never is