The story of a close-knit group of young kids in Nazi Germany who listen to banned swing music from the US. Soon dancing and fun leads to more difficult choices as the Nazis begin ... See full summary »

Willie: Swing Heil! Swing Heil, Peter! Swing Heil!
Thomas Berger: We can't let them split us apart.
Peter Müller: You're turning into a fucking Nazi!
Thomas Berger: Oh so WHAT if I AM?
Thomas Berger: How's this for a cover? HJs by day, Swing Kids by night?
Emil: Lesson's over, swing heine.
Thomas Berger: Hey! It don't mean a thing if it ain't got that swing. Do wah, do wah, do wah, do wah, do wah.
Peter: [turning down a cigarette] Can't, they smell your breath.
Arvid: Then we better not listen to this music, they may listen to your ears.
Peter: You can't listen to this and not dance!
Thomas Berger: Look who we have here, Peter's priss. Have you talked to her yet?
Peter Müller: Who says I'm interested?
Thomas Berger: Your tongue was on the floor.
Evey: How do I look?
Peter: Like gold.
Peter: I know who my friends are. I'm not alone.
Peter: You said they'd never split us apart.
Thomas Berger: I'm a cowboy, and you're a pansy.
[Peter has been arrested]
Herr Knopp, Gestapo: Such a waste. So much passion, for nothing.
Peter: It don't mean a thing, if it ain't got that swing! Do wop do wop
[Peter is taken away]
Arvid: You think that just because you're not doing it yourself, you're not a part of it? Well, I'm sick and tired of doing my part.
Peter: If you side with the Nazis, Thomas, then we're at war.
Herr Knopp, Gestapo: How I envy the young. For them everything is so clear. Things seem to be either one way or another. It is only with a little age that you begin to see life as a series of compromises. But even in compromising one must draw a line.
Peter Müller: You can still get Count Basie... they probably think he's the head of some country.
Emil: I am not a traitor. I just wised up. You will too.
Arvid: No one who likes swing can become a Nazi.
H.J. Thug: You call us pansies. Even my girlfriend doesn't wear a hair that long.
Herr Knopp, Gestapo: Comfort is the curse of age.
Peter Müller: When I was a boy about half past three, my daddy said son come here to me. He said things may come and things may go but this is one thing you ought to know:
Peter Müller, Thomas Berger, Arvid: Tain't what you do it's the way that you do it. Tain't what you do it's the way that you do it. Tain't what you do it's the way that you do it. That's what gets me through.
Arvid: Ma ma ma ma!
Arvid: I would rather belong to any one... ANYONE, than belong to the Nazis like you do.
Thomas Berger: That's because you have everything backwards. Nazis go anywhere they want, do anything they want, everyone gets out of our way.
Arvid: Quiz time. Got your glasses on.
Thomas Berger: What?
Arvid: It means you don't know who your friends are.