User Reviews

WWII star-vehicle for Goldie Hawn, here cast as a Rosie the Riveter-type who goes to work in an airplane-parts factory after her husband reports for duty. Poor beginning and hastily-filmed conclusion redeemed somewhat by bright moments in the middle. Hawn seems to realize she's being upstaged by Christine Lahti (as a "tramp" who lives in the same housing complex) and the final moments flip-flop trying to restructure the film's focus in Goldie's favor (check out that final shot). There's nothing wrong with that--Goldie's a wonderful presence and she's very appealing in parts of the movie--but her character as written just isn't all that interesting. As the men vying for Hawn's affections, Kurt Russell and Ed Harris are handsome and serviceable. As for Lahti, she indeed shines, obviously relishing the chance to play against type. I just wish the interaction between Lahti and Hawn had been explored with more depth, but it isn't. This is the fault of the screenwriter (the non-existent "Rob Morton", who is really Bo Goldman, Ron Nyswaner, and Nancy Dowd, here doing a WWII variation on "Coming Home", which Dowd also had a hand in) and also Goldie Hawn, who reportedly fought with director Jonathan Demme over control of the piece. They are all to blame for the slim box-office receipts "Swing Shift" struggled to bring in. **1/2 from ****

Nice period feeling and an interesting premise that doesn't get a lot of attention, women's role in the workplace during WWII. They should have focused on that and left the weak love story out and would had a better film. The problem is that Goldie's and Russell's characters are not really people you can feel much empathy for, she's spoiled and selfish and he's really rather a jerk whereas the more interesting and relatable characters played by Ed Harris and Christine Lahti are kept too much in the background. Christine Lahti however steals every second she's on screen apparently pre-release tinkering cut some of her best work to throw the spotlight more Goldie's way, perhaps costing her a best supporting actress Oscar although she was nominated. You'll spot Holly Hunter early in her career as one of the factory girls. Not without its merits and attractions but less than it could have been.

An easy-to-watch look at the Rosie the Riveter culture during WWII, "Swing Shift" is nothing special but passes. Goldie Hawn is her usual self as housewife Kay Walsh, who goes to work in the factories after her husband Jack (Ed Harris) goes off to fight in the war. If anything weakens the movie, it's something that we only recognize in the 21st century: the fact that Goldie Hawn and Kurt Russell met on the set (Russell plays her new love interest). Since then, stories of movie stars meeting on movie sets - and possible breaking up marriages - have become so commonplace that it makes our eyes roll.

But the movie itself is pretty interesting. Maybe it's not any kind of masterpiece, but it's fun to watch. Also starring Christine Lahti, Fred Ward and Holly Hunter. Jonathan Demme was certainly demonstrating the talent that he would later bring to "Silence of the Lambs", "Philadelphia" and "Beloved".

A quiet first-rate film that has Goldie Hawn at a factory to produce military goods during World War II while husband Ed Harris is off fighting the war. Hawn would have never thought that she would fall for co-worker Kurt Russell in this fine motion picture. Christine Lahti (Oscar-nominated) shines as another co-worker who has a bad reputation and Fred Ward gives another fine performance in a small supporting role. Directed by Jonathan Demme, "Swing Shift" is one of those diamonds in the rough from the 1980s. A good film. 4 stars out of 5.

This is the movie that led to Goldie Hawn's romantic real-life involvement with Kurt Russell. I didn't find him to be the charmer he usually plays but their relationship is believable after he finally convinces her to acknowledge it. At first Kay resists his advances saying she's married but then after several months gives in and seems to fall hopelessly in love with him. Needless to say, her husband then surprises her by coming home unannounced. I won't give anything more away but I will say that I was not too thrilled with the ending.

Goldie Hawn did a great job and manages to play her character with vulnerability as well as believability. Like I said, Kurt Russell is not his usual charming self but is still believable as the feisty musician Lucky. Great supporting work here from Christine Lahti who plays Kay's wild singer friend Hazel. Ed Harris plays Kay's husband and Holly Hunter also has a small role. Carly Simon sings the opening theme song. The vibe is there between them because it is real. But this movie just doesn't hold up in the long run. It's fun, but it's nowhere near what Russell and Hawn can do together.

Overall rating: 7 out of 10.

Goldie Hawn plays Kay Walsh and Ed Harris plays her husband, Jack, who enters the service in the aftermath of the attack on Pearl Harbor. Left alone, she--like many women who responded to the need for stateside "manpower"--takes a job at a factory and learns of the joys of hard, meaningful work.

A coworker named Lucky (Kurt Russell) tries to get Kay to go out with him. After many months, she succumbs to his attentions and they embark on an affair.

The film focuses on Kay and Lucky, but it is really about the social upheaval that occurred during WWII. By necessity, great strides were made in blurring the lines between the standard gender roles. After the war, there was some regression to prior roles, but the genie was already out of the bottle. It was the beginning of lasting changes.

Likewise, some rules of (moral) behavior were blurred or bent. In the film, the affair of Kay and Lucky is portrayed as a happy thing, though Kay surely feels guilt. But we also see that the friends and coworkers who surround them also accept their relationship--not necessarily on a permanent basis, but at least for the duration of the war, which to some extent has suspended the conventions of society. When Jack comes home on 48 hour leave, she says, "I'm not the same. And neither are you."

The film is not very subtle, but it really captures the era of the forties. The acting is solid but, as others have noted, Christine Lahti as the neighbor and coworker, Hazel, really stands out. For a more compelling film of this era, see "The Way We Were".

There is a goof that would only be noticed by someone about as old as I am . There is a scene where a car pulls up to a stop sign. In fact the camera puts a rather big part of the stop sign in a brief scene. Now, currently we all know that stop signs have a standard coloring of white lettering on a red background. But in the 1940s, during World War II and perhaps into the 1950s stop signs had black lettering on a yellow background. This is probably not realized by many people born in and after the 1950s because so much of the photography back in those days was in black and white. So, you don't often see a an old magazine photo of a street scene in color so even if a stop sign was in the hypothetical magazine photo it would have to be in color to be noticed. So, the movie showed the stop sign as white on red but to be accurate for the time period it should have been black on yellow. I remember being perhaps 8-10 years old (born in 1942) when the standard stop sign color scheme was changed to present white on red. This was reported to be easier to see by drivers so traffic safety was increased. So, I want to register this blooper by the makers of the film. Moe in Iowa

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.

"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. Living in modest California bungalows, Kay Walsh (Goldie Hawn) and her husband, Jack (Ed Harris) live a simple and enjoyable life. 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.

Jack enlists immediately as do many of the couple's neighbors and friends. 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. She strikes up, awkwardly at first, a friendship with neighbor Hazel (Christine Lahti), a woman with a nightclub-owning boyfriend. Jack had made some nasty not sotto voce cracks about her before he left for war.

Kay takes to the assembly line and enjoys being productive. But she's also lonely - it was a long war. Her "leadman," a sort of foreman, is "Lucky" (Kurt Russell). 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).

Lucky is a 4-F. That meant he was "physically, mentally or morally unfit" for military service. In his case - phew - it's a latent heart condition.

The affair goes through various stages, punctuated by Jack's surprise arrival on a forty-eight hour pass. 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. Harris's portrayal is of a man on the cusp of a social change he feels but can't really identify.

There are a lot of ups and downs in this story but Hawn and Lahti in particular deliver strongly emotional and convincing performances. This was long before women could rise to general officer or flag officer rank and assume major wartime responsibilities. Hawn is Rosie the Riveter, the patriotic but largely uneducated and unskilled patriotic American female. There were tens of thousands of such women employed in every type of industrial work.

Obviously the absence of husbands and the surfeit of available albeit older or not totally fit men aided the initiation of extramarital affairs. But "Swing Shift" also subtly conveys the reality that the women who went to work were empowered by the global conflict. 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. The political, economic and social reverberations would be felt for decades. "Swing Shift" is fine entertainment but it's also a chronicle of an important aspect of America's Home Front.

A fine movie. Available on DVD in a good transfer with no real special features.

9/10.

When watching this movie, in the beginning I found it difficult to believe Kay Walsh really was Goldie Hawn. This Goldie-movie is not the most typical one, but the character sure has similar characteristics in her life than the other roles Goldie has done in her other, later movies. The way Swing shift differs the most from the other Hawn`s movies, is that this one seems to describe the time the events took a place: the time when USA was in the war with Japan and what happened to the lives of women and men in that time. So what I´m trying to say, there may be some historical value, too - not only entertaining meaning, but a telling purpose.

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.

It's no secret that star Hawn and director Demme clashed during the filming. Unfortunately, it shows. Still, the story remains intact; and thanks to Oscar-nominated Lahti, it's immensely re-watchable.

My only nitpicking issue with this film is its artistic direction, particularly hair styling, costuming, and makeup. It's as though someone from the 1980s tried to replicate the 1940s time period without enough budget to pull it off...or enough experience. I fault Production for this.

That being said, I watch it every time it airs, no matter what channel. A must for Hawn fans.

i liked this romantic drama set during World War II.the gist of it is:the American men had to go and fight the war,and the women are needed to take their place working in the the factories,building equipment for the War Effort.for one woman,romance comes into her life as a result.one thing i found interesting(though not surprising)is how these woman were treated like second class citizens and how little respect they got for doing their hard work.it's indicative of the time,but it's also shameful,like many other things in history.Goldie Hawn heads the cast along with Kurt Russel.Ed Harris and Fred Ward also star.but i thought Christine Lahti put in a terrific performance and stole any scenes she was in.regardless,this is a great little drama.for me,Swing Shift is an 8/10

I have watched this twice since it's release in 1984. The most recent was over new years 2022, and the verdict remains the same.

An uninspiring story that lacks authenticity and purpose.

The story is jumbled and other than Christine Lathi's compelling performance, the film has no deeming value.

Goldie Hawn would star in other, better executed storylines.

This film is not one of them.

I wish the directors cut of this film was available as I have read several stories by those that had the chance to see it and that appears to be story that the late Jonathan Demme wanted to tell. Demme was an excellent filmmaker and it appears that his version was overrun by Hawn who was the executive producer of this mess of a film.

I expected Swing Shift to be a fun romantic comedy. However, it wasn't that fun. This movie takes itself way too seriously. It also wasn't romantic. I had a difficult time rooting for Kay Walsh (Goldie Hawn) and Lucky Lockhart (Kurt Russell) to be together, because Kay was married to Jack (Ed Harris) and he wasn't a horrible, abusive jerk. In fact, he kind of seemed like a decent guy. I did think Christine Lahti did a good job in her performance, though. And finally, this wasn't a comedy. It's a melodrama, and not a very good one. So you could say that Swing Shift let me down in almost every aspect.

Goldie Hawn is married to Ed Harris, but then WWII comes along and Harris is off. Hawn takes a job in an aircraft manufacturing plant to help fill up her lonely days, and she ends up befriending her nightclub singer neighbor Christine Lahti, who works at the same plant, and has an affair with co-worker Kurt Russell.

I suppose it easy to look at this as a lightweight slice-of-WWII nostalgia comedy, but I would suggest this is an actively bad film. Since I know about the conflict between Demme and Hawn and that this cut of the film is drastically different from his (he apparently considered an Alan Smithee credit, which I think he should have done), it's hard to say how much my opinion is coloured by this knowledge. That said, looked at fairly impassively, this is a bad film that fails to build meaningful characters and ends up having nothing to say about Hawn's war time experiences.

If you follow Demme's career arc, you can tell that we wouldn't have made a film filled with side character's that get virtually no screen time, but just abruptly pop up for big moments that mean nothing since we know nothing about them. He wouldn't have Harris mysteriously just know about Hawn's affair. Most crucially, he wouldn't make a film where Hawn's affair with Russell and friendship with Lahti culminate in her ending up as exactly the same person she was when the film started.

I think it's fairly clear that Hawn got cold feet about playing a woman who experience of independence lead to her having an extramarital affair that she didn't regret, so she recut the film to make her more remorseful and just return to Harris and the status quo. It ends up robbing her character of growth and the film of meaning.

I thought the film was excellent -- not only did it accurately depict what was going on during the war, but the interactions of characters was excellent as was the storyline -- it examines friendship, adultery, remorse and a wide range of other emotions.

The chemistry between Hawn and Russell is so thick you could cut it with a knife -- this was, in fact, the film where they met and began their life together as a couple off-screen as well.

Adultery was an all too common reality of war that should not be ignored -- this is one of the few films that shows what happened on this side of the ocean, rather than concentrating on the bloodshed and adultery on the servicemen side.

In the end, the film takes the heartache and remorse and reaffirms the ability of people to choose to forgive, go on with their marriage and re-establish the love.

"Swing Shift" is a film about two women working in a defense plant during World War II. Much of it centers on the women's free time...and the things they did to stave off boredom and loneliness.

"Swing Shift" was apparently a big box office bomb. And, while I think the plot was pretty realistic, it also isn't one that impressed audiences. After all, it's a film about women in a WWII defense plant and the leading lady is committing adultery when her husband is serving abroad. This isn't exactly a crowd pleaser plot. Realistic? Probably so...and I am sure a lot of marriages dissolved thanks, in part, to the war and long separations. It's just folks probably didn't want THAT much realism. Another problem is that despite being a Goldie Hawn film, it really isn't a comedy...and I am sure that disappointed a lot of folks as well. Not a bad film...but also one that could have been better and would have benefitted from more likable characters. It also might have benefitted if it had more characters...some choosing to sleep around and some choosing other outlets and having different stories.