Right Decisions In The Film Swing Kids, Directed By Thomas Carter

Swing Kids, a 1993 movie directed by Thomas Carter, discusses a historical event in Nazi Germany where Hitler was preparing for World War II. The movie is about a close group of high school rebels who are swing kids by night and forced to be Hitler Youth by day. During the time of Nazi Germany, the youth were pressured to join the Pro Nazi group called “Hitlerjugent(HJ)” or Hilter Youth. Their decision to join HG had quite of an impact on their relationship with their friends and families and ultimately placed their loyalty on test. Therefore, each member of this group faces some tough decisions about their attitudes and behaviors. However, this young group of rebels chose to challenge Nazi’s by listening to the American banned Swing music.

As for Peter and Thomas, they were both put multiple times on test for staying true to their commitments and eventually joined HJ. Peter was pushed into HJ mostly by his mother who used his respect and obedience to her as a tool and convinced him that joining HJ is the right decision. Persuasion through playing on emotions is a powerful tool and “A person who gained mastery both in the evocation of emotion and in the emotional framing of argumentation was believed to be among the most successful practitioners of persuasion” (Cicero, De Oratore, trans. 2001; Kennedy, 1994). Also, after being caught for stealing a radio, Peter and his family would be at risk if he didn’t join the Nazi group. As for Thomas, he was mainly pulled into the HJ group as compliance to his friendship with Peter. Also, Thomas wanted to disturb his anti Nazi father by joining the group. But one thing that is similar between the two characters is that their vulnerability is the main cause of their defeat against the Nazism persuasion techniques. According to Cialdini, the purpose of commitment strategies is to “get us to take some action or make some statement that will trap us into later compliance through consistency pressures”. After Thomas and Peter were pressured to enter the Hitler Youth and committed to be with them, they were complied to be consistent with their

He mainly pursued suicide when the HJ started bullying him and used persuasive appeals to convince him that his existence is not welcomed and that even his long term friends Peter and Thomas can flip on him and be against him. Nonetheless, all of the main characters experienced emotional roller coasters and cognitive dissonance. The most evident cognitive dissonance experience was the one Peter experienced. As he consistently felt the inconsistency between his hypocrite actions that HJ would force him to perform and his morals and principles. Stone & Cooper proposed that dissonance arises when people fail to behave in a manner consistent with self-standard values which is exactly what happened with Peter. At the end, we see that when the cognitive dissonance becomes unbearable for him, Peter bursts into tears and becomes a swing kid again. As for Thomas, he wasn’t experiencing the same level of cognitive dissonance as Peter wherein he had an aversive motivational state of dissonance that aimed at reducing the cognitive inconsistency (Festinger, 1957). Moreover, Thomas was pleased with his social status and the rewards that he received after joining HJ. His love to power and was above all the cognitive inconsistencies that joining HJ brought. Thus, that proves that Thomas didn’t process thoughts like Peter did. According to the Elaboration Likelihood Method, Peter