Most Helpful Customer Reviews
22 of 26 people found the following review helpful:
1.0 out of 5 stars
If you are hoping to expose someone to the lifestyle, April 14, 2001
By A Customer
do not show them this film. The swingers in "The Lifestyle" are the senior citizen variety. Not middle age boomers, mind you. We are talking post-retirement folks. Don't get me wrong...God bless these seniors and their active libidos. It's just that I was hoping that somewhere between the world of the tan, shaved, oiled hard-bodied early 20's performance swingers (ummm... are they all east of the Mississippi?) and this group of more relaxed, experienced swingers that this film would focus on the 30-50 year olds who make up a big chunk of swinger demographics. The folks who have kids who are growing up, or gone, and beginning to focus effort/energy on their relationships. There was one couple in the film who were interesting on a number of different levels. You know... intelligent, attractive, thoughtful. Who end up leaving the lifestyle after it begins to have a negative affect on their marriage. Not exactly a ringing endorsement. Taken as a documentary on a fraction of this burgeoning sub-culture I would give it a much higher score. The one star vote is based on the disappointment I experienced when I realized that this isn't the film that I will pop in when we are entertaining friends and we would like to see if they would like to take our relationships to a deeper level.
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20 of 25 people found the following review helpful:
3.0 out of 5 stars
An O.K. documentary that misses the mark, December 19, 2001
This review is from: Lifestyle: Swinging in America [VHS] (VHS Tape)
It is nice to see someone "attempt" to make a documentary about the "swinging lifestyle"- unfortunatly, this one misses the mark. One walks away from this film thinking that "swingers" are all 55+ yrs old and the only young people in the film almost break up. The problem is simply that most younger, educated, attractive couples in the swinging lifestyle cannot go "public" and join in on a documentary. So what's left are people that misrepresent what's really out there. I hope one day someone can capture the excitement, diversity, variety and just plain fun that the swinging lifestyle provides. This film doesn't.
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20 of 26 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Remarkable film!!!, June 10, 2001
This review is from: Lifestyle: Swinging in America [VHS] (VHS Tape)
This documentary is not only very well made, but manages to push even the sexually liberated person's buttons by portraying for the most part swinging couples who for lack of a better term resemble most of our parents. The dichotomy between the middle class normality of these parental figures and their very liberated view of sexuality is most effective. I think if they had chosen to do a documentary using "the beautiful people" it would have been far less effective. It is a very spiritual, inimate portrayal of a a valid alternative to the marriage-divorce syndrome which is wrecking America's family life. Monogamy for life is not the only alternative any more for happy heterosexual couples. As a gay man who's sexual culture is so focused on physical beauty, it was refreshing to see normal looking people having good sex lives with other normal looking people and feeling sexy, desirable and fulfilled. Real life is neither Life With the Cleaver's nor a porn movie.
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