American Swing

2008

Documentary

5
Rotten Tomatoes Critics - Rotten 49% · 22 reviews
Rotten Tomatoes Audience - Spilled 49% · 5K ratings
IMDb Rating 6.2/10 10 818 818

new york city free love swinger club 1970s nightclub sexual revolution

Plot summary

Chronicles the rise and fall of 1970s New York City nightclub Plato's Retreat.

Director

Jon Hart Photo
Jon Hart

Top cast

Ed Koch Photo
Ed Koch as Self
Irwin Corey Photo
Irwin Corey as Self
Melvin Van Peebles Photo
Melvin Van Peebles as Self
Ronald Reagan Photo
Ronald Reagan as Self
720p.WEB 1080p.WEB
743.17 MB
1280*720
English 2.0
NR
Subtitles us  
23.976 fps
1 hr 20 min
Seeds 1
1.35 GB
1920*1080
English 2.0
NR
Subtitles us  
23.976 fps
1 hr 20 min
Seeds 7

Movie Reviews

Reviewed by doubledayS 5 / 10

Come for fun, Stay for lust, love

It was a very grounded movie of course built in the concrete slabs of New York's Bad Side. The very notion of swinging poses a threat to individuals sturdy in there long term relationship. However that's how it began a complacent experimentation with couples into a daring position of new romance. To me it showed the germlike possesiveness that spread into heavier waves throughout the time-span of wreckage and renewal. All planned by one destroyed businessman - yet love is diverse in it's care and steams of fanatiscism do carry the broken to a position of identity.Conservatives will know this as a beautiful ephemeral trash building of eternal reclamation.
Reviewed by jotix100 6 / 10

Plato's Retreat

The infamous Plato's Retreat, where everything sexual took place, had a tragic death as the AIDS epidemic swept New York. It was a victim of its own success. Plato's was, after all, where couples willing to swing went to fulfill their dreams of having intercourse with different partners. The founder, Larry Levenson, boasted his joint gave him the opportunity to have sex with about ten different women each night. Soon after the initial success, as the club attracted a different type of crowd, prostitutes and other element invaded the premises.As anything trendy in Manhattan, Plato's Retreat had a quiet beginning, but after word got out that orgies could be had for a relatively small amount, there was standing room only. In interviews with some of the people who participated in the activities inside, we are told what the place meant for different swingers. In retrospect, how much of the accounts that come out in the documentary are real and what are not.Directors Jon Hart and Matthew Kaufman try to concentrate on the life of Larry Levenson, the founder of Plato's. When all is said and done, Mr. Levenson was a victim of the club's own success. He had a high price to pay serving time in jail for tax evasion, something that usually get a lot of promoters in high waters. Mr. Levenson came from a modest household in Queens. After the club opened, he became the big shot he probably was looking to be most of his life. Plato's Retreat was a good way to lose one's own inhibitions, after all, everyone that went to have a good time was no different from everyone else. It is pointed out how ordinary people felt great because they went only for the sex, not beauty, something that is not the case in most other venues in the city where beauty and style is the dominating reason of being seen at those places. Plato's Retreat only lasted a few years at the Ansonia, then it relocated to a 34th Street location, but by then all the hype and the fear of contracting AIDS took a heavy toll on the people that went there for the anonymous sex that could be found there.
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