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American Swing (2008)
It’s no secret that one of the things that I’ve come to love over the years is New York City and more specifically 42nd street films and culture. If you get into these things you start to learn a lot about how the city was at the time and what the norm there was. Upon getting into all of this stuff you obviously learn that one of the biggest draws on 42nd street and Times Square were the porno theaters. Not only that but this area had a high number of prostitutes and hustlers all over the place. Around this time in New York City the sex business was at an all time high, which of course brings me to the film I’m talking about here “American Swing”.
“American Swing” is a documentary about Larry Levinson and the legendary Plato’s Retreat in New York City. For those unaware of this Plato’s Retreat was a swingers club that started in 1977 in the basement of the Ansonia Hotel. It was a take off on all of the gay bath houses that were in the area at the time only it was designed for straight couples to go there and basically wife/husband swap with other couples. There was a membership fee and people went in and did their thing, which of course had very few limitations. The club had one rule however and it was on any given night if a man walked into the club, he had to have a female companion. All of these things combined made Plato’s a one of a kind place that only would have existed in the annals of New York City at this time.
I first learned of Plato’s Retreat when I was doing research on New York City and it’s sleazier days. Then I remember seeing the place on a few things that I had seen in the past. I remember there was a VH1 documentary about Sex that actually showed footage from the club (most of which can be seen on the Blue Underground Midnight Blue series) and talked about Larry Levinson the owner. Then I managed to track down the Midnight Blue DVDs that were released and there was even more on there (including commercials that Larry used to run on the old NYC cable access show).
I’ve always found Plato’s to be quite the unique thing and it actually amazes me that it took someone so long to make a movie about it. It’s very well made and researched and director’s Jon Hart and Matthew Kaufman did a great job on this one. They managed to show the good and bad side of Larry’s life, Plato’s and swinging in general. I thought that this would have only covered things when they were looking up but they really did cover mostly everything they needed. The only thing that was a bit strange to me was the fact that they hardly covered what happened to the club once Larry was out of the picture. Porn star/director and star of “Last House on the Left” Fred Lincoln actually took it over and none of that was ever covered. What makes this even stranger is that Lincoln himself is actually in the documentary and is barely featured. I’m not sure if they just chose not to cover this part, they didn’t have enough visuals to add into it or simply didn’t care. Either way, it’s a part of Plato’s history that they never bring up or talk about at all.
Overall I would HIGHLY RECOMMEND this as something for fans of NYC culture to check out. Even if you’ve never heard of the place I’m sure you’ll find it interesting in some way, shape or form. It’s a well structured documentary with enough interesting film techniques that it’s actually flashy for the eyes and isn’t boring for a second. Personally I LOVED this one and outside of the exclusion of the Fred Lincoln stuff it’s virtually a perfect documentary.
Rating - ***1/2
-Ed Demko
