Swing Shift (1984)

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1. 

   Siskoid

   Famously, Jonathan Demme did not get final cut on Swing Shift, and I would have hoped TCM was showing the later-released director's cut. Alas. I hear only good things about his original vision, but as shown, it's more interesting for what was happening behind the scenes than on. Producer Goldie Hawn fighting with the director, reducing Christine Lahti's role for being a scene stealer (she still got an Oscar nom, oops!), and of course the first inkling of a Goldie Hawn-Kurt Russell romance. Too bad. I mean, doing a movie about women during World War II is a worthy subject (and not dissimilar to Demme's Married to the Mob four years later), and you can sometimes see what he wanted to do with it when we see how this first female work force was treated. But his fast-moving structure, covering years and jumping through time, does not serve the straight romance Hawn wanted to make. Emotional turns seem to come out of nowhere as a result, the edit jumping over scenes crucial to that kind of story. It's not unpleasant, but every time it has something interesting to say, it swerves to avoid doing so. 5 years 9 months ago
2. 

   ucuruju

   This is a gem. Maybe someday we'll get that mythical director's cut but I find that this works exactly as it is-- the ending had me crying. It does move fast, but you still get the sense of Hawn's romantic dilemma and how important and liberating her friendship with Lahti is, no matter how much they hated each other behind the scenes. What's more, this is a quintessential Demme picture, filled to the brim with music, colorful extras, quirky behavior, little details that make the movie feel alive the way other Hollywood films aren't. I loooooved this.
   
   EDIT: OK-- so here's the link: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1-03XYb-JS3DBtIhJyVR9Ymrad9QMDNjg/view
   
   After watching an hour of it and glancing through the rest I can assure you it is not dramatically different from the theatrical cut (it's the same length, for one thing). We can only watch it in this piss-poor VHS work-print so I'll take the regular version any day of the week. I can stand the jazzy score and the minor softening of Hawn's character. I will say the original cut has more Demme touches (mainly scenes involving Holly Hunter and little details from the rest of the girls) and maybe the final shot of the friends at the beach is better than the freeze-frame Goldie Hawn gave us, but in the end it's not the tragedy people would have you believe. It's not comparable to what happened with The Magnificent Ambersons, except perhaps in that we got a great movie in the end, studio interference or not.
   
   For more info, this is the hyperbolic Sight & Sound article that started the hubbub over the Demme version. It thoroughly details most (if not all) of the changes: https://www2.bfi.org.uk/news-opinion/sight-sound-magazine/features/swing-shift-making-of-jonathan-demme-directors-cut-comparison 2 years 1 month ago

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