According to 'The Lifestyle,' more than three million Americans (in 1997) were involved in swingers' clubs. It's hardly a fad, and first-time director David Schisgall has made an interesting, even fascinating, film.
Despite the subject matter, you won't find much sizzling overt sex in The Lifestyle, but you will find a non-stop parade of talking (and often boring) heads. The people on display here are fascinating: they are not sleazy, but really quite ordinary and, dare I suggest it, they just might be as lonely and needy as the great armies of the repressed. They're corny, hokey, clubby, white-bread Christian folk who give us portraits of stereotypical middle-class conservative life.
The swing 'parties' in this film appear to be more social events than anything else. The participants talk about the best way to make coffee, the hot weather, current illnesses, the merits of propane, and their collection of crucifixes. Schisgall offers these moments of prosaic trivial pursuit without flair or comment, making it all the more effective.
These 'good time' folks don't seem to share any views that are close to 'liberal'. It's a marvelous contradiction. You would think swingers, by definition, would be far less traditional in their outlook -- swinging is ASSUMED to be about free sexual expression, about exploration of the soul, the search for the centre of one's self, etc., etc. Except for former porn actress/swinger Nina Hartley, a gruesome Tantric duo enraptured by 'sacred sexuality,' and a disenchanted younger couple, these characters seem to be 'family values' people who wouldn't be out of place embracing the 'America First' political sermons of Reagan, Bush, etc. (it's a long list). Reagan, Bob Hope, Gerald Ford, Richard Nixon, John Wayne and other high-octane American right-wingers are names that appear in this film, in some cases comically.
Most of the participants have well-ordered lives; they are between 50 and even 80 years old with grown children and grandchildren. We see a lot of flags and even nativity scenes, and I'm surprised we don't hear the national anthem before they all get 'down' in one of their quite lavish parties (the Orange County crew eschews the term 'gang-bangs,' because, well, that's what the blacks in L.A. call it, and they want nothing to do with, you know, 'those' people).
The film builds to a denouement that contains fleeting glimpses of not-very-explicit sex (more on the DVD extras). It is oddly refreshing to see older people in action rather than the usual nubile hardbodies who moan and groan on cue in hopelessly phony porn flicks.
In any case, if you're looking for sexual titillation, you're in the wrong place. The sex in The Lifestyle is more clinical than anything else. Participants even exchange trite commentaries while they're doing it.
This is an engrossing documentary, simply because most people just don't understand swinging or are too chastened to experience it. Several interviewees in the film say that many non-swingers fantasize about the 'lifestyle'. That may be true, but after viewing the boring, strait-laced attitudes of these people, I, for one, am not rushing to enlist.
Despite the subject matter, you won't find much sizzling overt sex in The Lifestyle, but you will find a non-stop parade of talking (and often boring) heads. The people on display here are fascinating: they are not sleazy, but really quite ordinary and, dare I suggest it, they just might be as lonely and needy as the great armies of the repressed. They're corny, hokey, clubby, white-bread Christian folk who give us portraits of stereotypical middle-class conservative life.
The swing 'parties' in this film appear to be more social events than anything else. The participants talk about the best way to make coffee, the hot weather, current illnesses, the merits of propane, and their collection of crucifixes. Schisgall offers these moments of prosaic trivial pursuit without flair or comment, making it all the more effective.
These 'good time' folks don't seem to share any views that are close to 'liberal'. It's a marvelous contradiction. You would think swingers, by definition, would be far less traditional in their outlook -- swinging is ASSUMED to be about free sexual expression, about exploration of the soul, the search for the centre of one's self, etc., etc. Except for former porn actress/swinger Nina Hartley, a gruesome Tantric duo enraptured by 'sacred sexuality,' and a disenchanted younger couple, these characters seem to be 'family values' people who wouldn't be out of place embracing the 'America First' political sermons of Reagan, Bush, etc. (it's a long list). Reagan, Bob Hope, Gerald Ford, Richard Nixon, John Wayne and other high-octane American right-wingers are names that appear in this film, in some cases comically.
Most of the participants have well-ordered lives; they are between 50 and even 80 years old with grown children and grandchildren. We see a lot of flags and even nativity scenes, and I'm surprised we don't hear the national anthem before they all get 'down' in one of their quite lavish parties (the Orange County crew eschews the term 'gang-bangs,' because, well, that's what the blacks in L.A. call it, and they want nothing to do with, you know, 'those' people).
The film builds to a denouement that contains fleeting glimpses of not-very-explicit sex (more on the DVD extras). It is oddly refreshing to see older people in action rather than the usual nubile hardbodies who moan and groan on cue in hopelessly phony porn flicks.
In any case, if you're looking for sexual titillation, you're in the wrong place. The sex in The Lifestyle is more clinical than anything else. Participants even exchange trite commentaries while they're doing it.
This is an engrossing documentary, simply because most people just don't understand swinging or are too chastened to experience it. Several interviewees in the film say that many non-swingers fantasize about the 'lifestyle'. That may be true, but after viewing the boring, strait-laced attitudes of these people, I, for one, am not rushing to enlist.