(IMAGE: Reel Big Studios)
Reel Big Studios, 2022. Drama. 150 minutes.
Grade: 2 out of 4
Two and a half hours seems a reasonable running time for a historical epic, large-scale adventure, or adaptation of a novel. It’s a bit much of an ask, on the other hand, for a fairly simple tale of a high school band trying to make it to win a big competition. Knights of Swing‘s difficulty in this area is an inability to decide whose story it’s telling. Is it the story of gifted young student Giff (Curran Barker), who’s so good at big band music that he can write his own songs, and not just rely on old standards? Or is it a bit of historical fan-fiction about Glenn Miller’s less famous brother Herb (Richard Neil), who stepped away from music after World War II?
No doubt codirectors Emilio Palame (who also cowrote and acts in the film) and David M. Gutel (also a cowriter, along with Palame and Rolland Jacks) might ask, why not both? No reason, if it’s going to be a TV series like Cobra Kai, where the mentors and the students can both have primary storylines. For the sake of luring in anyone who isn’t already a big-band swing devotee, however, a tighter 90 minutes with one clear protagonist might go a long way. And in all honesty, Giff is a stiff. It’s hard to get excited about his obvious romance with a lead female singer, as compared to Herb’s messy, accidental courtship of a waitress who offers him rare compliments. Maybe that’s a function of my age, and perhaps teenagers watching this will prefer Giff. But it’s tough for me to imagine teenagers watching this particular movie by choice, unless big band has come back around to being hip again.
That’s not to say Knights of Swing is bad. It’s formulaic, and if you like this sort of movie and especially the music as well, it’ll work. Sticklers for historical accuracy surrounding Herb Miller ought to be clear that this is not, in fact, based on a true story, though it could be a bit of wish fulfillment.
Big band swing in the 1940s isn’t exactly like early rock n’ roll in the South – no preachers or angry parents loudly proclaim that it’s the devil’s music, because seriously, Glenn Miller is pretty inoffensive. Knights of Swing therefore has to force its antagonists a little bit – they’re just hopping mad because one of the band members, in an integrated high school, is black. Because this movie is clearly aiming at a family audience, it depicts racism of the most PG kind, which is to say almost everyone here is completely modern in their thinking except for a couple of baddies who might as well be called Karen Winemom and Evil James Carville (or, depending on your politics, More Evil James Carville). The latter is willing to risk his entire career to sabotage a band over one black kid being in it. The former is racist because her son died in World War II saving the life of a black man, and mad because the band didn’t pick her untalented daughter to sing.
And then there’s Giff’s older brother Wesley (Trevor Brunsink), who goes back and forth from scene to scene between being a bad guy and a good guy, often with different motivations. Music triggers his PTSD! No, wait, it’s distress over the death of his sister. Or it’s jealousy over his brother’s talent! Possibly an attraction to Karen Winemom. Does it matter? The moment he falls for a girl with disabilities, you know his good side will win out. His acting, like much of that in the film, is on the broad, soap-opera side of things. It’s not entirely convincing, but it’s entertaining. As far as the music goes, this style is hardly my forte, but it’s pleasant enough, with the female harmonies particularly strong.
Though it’s not overtly a faith-based film, Knights of Swing has a Christian theme running through it of praying for your enemies. One of the main characters is surprised to hear this quintessential teaching of Jesus in church – like many hardcore Christian movies, it imagines that key tenets of Christianity are somehow completely unknown by the masses (and, implicitly, need to be preached). Inevitably, the incorporation of this practice turns out to be transactional: pray for your enemies, and eventually they’ll come around to agreeing with you. Ah, if only it were that simple – do we not imagine the racists are out there praying for more non-racists to become “enlightened” too?
The movie’s other theme is that you gotta have a dream, and clearly this movie was somebody’s. That it’s a labor of love doesn’t inherently make it great, but the obvious commitment of everyone involved at least keeps it watchable. That said, if you aren’t being paid, you may find better uses of two and a half hours.