Physical Address
304 North Cardinal St.
Dorchester Center, MA 02124
There has been a long split between what is popular with general audiences and what is popular with the Academy Award voters. Popular Directors, Dear As Alfred Hitchcock Famously Oscar never wonFor example, just like actor Samuel L. Jackson never won one Despite staring in every big film ever. One particularly fun example of this phenomenon with Kurt Russell’s film in 1984 “Swing Shift,” came a box office bomb that crocheted $ 6.6 million on a $ 15 million budget.
Why did he bomb? The general consensus was that the film failed to commit its promising default. The film related to the shortage of labor during World War II, where women found unexpected power in the workforce before being pushed back to traditional roles of the moment the war was over. The movie grabbed the feeling of time well and consisted of a few striking seconds, but did not nail it in the road “League themselves” would be a decade later. “The subject of a ‘swing shift’ is so rich, you hate to see it pressed this way,” writing Sheila Benson of The La Times.
Critics highlighted the conflict behind the scenes affecting the story; Not only was the script rewritten several times, but forced Warner Bros. worth a 30 minute reshoots on the film against director Jonathon Demme’s wishes. The visions made conflict behind the film pleading to the film itself, as multiple critics seemed to notice. “It’s wise from a movie, with vague aspirations to be moving, and I got the impression that there was never a very strong script,” writing Pauline Kael for the New Yorker. “There are no high spots, no exciting moments. The picture goes popping from one recessive scene, undeveloped to the next.”
Whatever issues had people with a swing shift, ‘Christine Lahti was not one of them
Despite the mixed reviews and box office disappointments, “Swing Shift” almost won an Oscar thanks to Christine Lahti. Goldie Hawn may have played the main character, Kay Walsh, but it was Lahti as her new friend, Hazel who stole the show. Even in the reviews that crossed the film, Lahti drew plenty of praise. As Kael wrote about her:
“Goldie Hawn and her filmmaking team have also made a fundamental mistake in the strategy: they have given Christine Lahti’s hazel the wisdom. Course, Vanessa Redgrave, she is a heroic female.
The Academy also arose on this buzz, which is why they nominated Lahti alongside Glenn Close, Peggy Ashcroft, Lindsay Crouse, and Geraldine Page for the best actress in a supporting role. Unfortunately, Lahti did not win – the prize went to Ashcroft for “A Passage to India” – and Lahti was still being left waiting for the retiring role that she would have hoped for her “shift swing”.
“I still don’t think I’ve had a real innovative role,” she said in an interview in 1985. “Every time I think this is the one, but it’s not.” Speaking of the reception to “swing shift,” he admitted, “I was very surprised and very depressed. The movie seemed to have everything going for it.”
