8/7/2023 0 Comments Swing shift 1984![]() The political, economic and social reverberations would be felt for decades. Despite an ending that affirms the women's promise and duty to relinquish employment to returning veterans (the promise was unnecessary since both law and custom insured their rapid dismissal), American women were fundamentally changed by the liberating reality of serving their country by working (often for the first time) and earning money. But "Swing Shift" also subtly conveys the reality that the women who went to work were empowered by the global conflict. Obviously the absence of husbands and the surfeit of available albeit older or not totally fit men aided the initiation of extramarital affairs. There were tens of thousands of such women employed in every type of industrial work. Hawn is Rosie the Riveter, the patriotic but largely uneducated and unskilled patriotic American female. This was long before women could rise to general officer or flag officer rank and assume major wartime responsibilities. There are a lot of ups and downs in this story but Hawn and Lahti in particular deliver strongly emotional and convincing performances. Harris's portrayal is of a man on the cusp of a social change he feels but can't really identify. Whatever suspecting his wife is having it on with Lucky may do to him, he's also both bemused and confused that as a "leadman," (she's been promoted) she earns more in a factory than he does serving in the Fleet. The affair goes through various stages, punctuated by Jack's surprise arrival on a forty-eight hour pass. In his case - phew - it's a latent heart condition. That meant he was "physically, mentally or morally unfit" for military service. He and she begin a friendship that culminates in one of those wartime affairs that happened very often and is realistically portrayed by Hawn who is torn between marital fidelity and loneliness (and, obviously, dealing with separation-enforced abstinence). Her "leadman," a sort of foreman, is "Lucky" (Kurt Russell). But she's also lonely - it was a long war. Kay takes to the assembly line and enjoys being productive. Jack had made some nasty not sotto voce cracks about her before he left for war. She strikes up, awkwardly at first, a friendship with neighbor Hazel (Christine Lahti), a woman with a nightclub-owning boyfriend. Alone, bored and motivated by genuine patriotism Kay goes to work at an aircraft plant that builds the tough, reliable SBD carrier-borne dive bomber. Jack enlists immediately as do many of the couple's neighbors and friends. Everything is suddenly changed with the Sunday afternoon announcement of the devastating assault on the Pacific Fleet and the Army Air Corps bases in Hawaii. ![]() Living in modest California bungalows, Kay Walsh (Goldie Hawn) and her husband, Jack (Ed Harris) live a simple and enjoyable life. "Swing Shift," director Jonathan Demme's sensitive story about women who went to war with a rivet gun, begins the night before the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor. ![]()
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