Average Rating: 
Rating:  - The Disco Era Classic Film
In 1977 not everybody knew what the innovative disco music was, and to what extent night clubing was going on. This film depicts John Travolta as Brookyn's Tony Manero, hero to the dance floor. His dead end job at a paint store makes him live for The Saturday Night disco scene. Travolta meets Karen Gorney and enters a dance contest with her but she refuses his sexuall advances. Gorney sees herself going to Manhattan to move on with her life. Travolta sees her as a snob. One local girl played by Donna Pescow likes Travolta but is pushed away by him for Gorneys character since she's a better dancer and Pescow is considered boring. What underlies is Trvoltas often at odds relationship with his family. Racial gang wars and a friend you can't help but wonder about his sexuality. Not only did this movie imitate the era, it influenced the next seven years with it's record selling soundtrack and the great timing in which some of the best nightclubs in America remained open. The movies message is vague but lets you fill in the blanks as Travoltas (Manero) becomes fed up with his existing lifestyle. Moviegoers became so enthralled with it, it would continue into the mid 80's. A PG version was recut to feature the dancing and less social conciousness with virtually no explicit language. This movie had one of the biggest impacts of late 70's films!
Rating:  - FEEL THE FEVER!
Saturday Night Fever is an enjoyable dramatization of tough Italian-American New York life in the late 1970s. The film fascinates me because their rough urban working class lifestyle, and the exhilarating night club adventures, is another world to me. SNF is incredible during the first 30 minutes, when it's a dramatization of Nik Cohn's article, "Tribal Rites Of A New Saturday Night". Tony Manero finishes a dull week of minimum wage work, comes home, dons polyester and prepares for the "Saturday Night Fever". His trashy friends pick him up and they head to the 2001 Odyssey Disco. The disco scene is sexy, seedy, and inclusive to all. The Bee Gee's ultimate masterpiece, "Night Fever", sums it all up in an infectious and catchy groove. The music, especially tunes by the Bee Gees and The Trammps, is absolutely sensational; slick, fun, funky, melodic, and emotional. You can dance to them or just listen; they provide a perfect soundtrack for the drama. As most critics have noted, John Travolta's complex and ultra-cool performance is the highlight of the film. Travolta's dancing is really something else. Travolta's solo, danced to "You Should Be Dancing", is killer. Travolta is a better dancer than Michael Jackson could ever be. Travolta moves suavely with his masculinity intact. Women love him, and all men want to be able to be able to dance that well.
Alas Saturday Night Fever falters when it digresses into melodrama. The character of Stephanie MacDonald hurts the film. Although the audience can sympathize with her, she just isn't as interesting or charismatic as the other characters are. Her scenes drag the film into soap opera. The death of Bobby C., although a dramatic motivation for Tony to ditch his punk friends and their dead-end lifestyle, is a real downer and seems like a climax from an after-school TV special. Double J's rape of Annette seems out of character and contrived. Besides, why would Bobby C. and Tony let it happen? Every movie needs dramatic climaxes to propel the action and resolve the characters' dilemmas, and sometimes they have to be sad, but I would have liked something less manufactured and more thoughtful. After re-watching the film recently, I realized the film failed to live up to it's potential. The screenwriter could have delved deeper into the characters' blue-collar roots. Tony's family, his pathetic and cruel father, and his superstitious and ignorant mother, could have been fleshed out more. It's hard to believe people as intelligent and likable as Tony and his brother Frank have such difficult and frustrating parents. It would have been interesting to have seen parallels between Tony and his father. Another weakness is Badham's directing. His jerky style suits this particular film but the scene where Tony and his friends drive their car into the Puerto-Ricans' hangout is horribly shot, even for him. Slow motion is pretty lame. Overall Saturday Night Fever is a good movie but not the masterpiece it could have been.
Rating: - Still Flaming Hot
Unfairly dismissed by many viewers today as a relic of the disco era, "Saturday Night Fever" should more properly be remembered as the classic coming-of-age tale in which John Travolta exploded onto the big screen. The actor's character, Tony Manero, is a nineteen-year-old Italian-American still living with his family in Brooklyn who is stuck in a dead-end job and hanging around with a group of old friends who (like himself) have no real hopes or ambitions for the future. Manero's only true talent - and his escape from the world around him - is his prowess on the dance floor. It's a tricky role - the outwardly racist, sexist, homophobic, immature Manero is not the most sympathetic of characters - but Travolta imbues him with a aura of underlying decency and vulnerability that causes the audience to identify with him and ultimately, cheer for him. It's truly a knockout performance ... one that deservedly netted Travolta an Oscar nomination for Best Actor and won him the top male acting award from the National Board of Review.The 25th Anniversary edition DVD offers home viewers a great video and sound transfer. A VH-1 "Behind the Music" documentary offers an interesting look at the troubled production history of the film, as well as some interesting insights into the movie's impact on popular culture. Regrettably, the disc does not include the Original Theatrical Trailer; I found myself curious to see how the distributor (Paramount) promoted this film to theatregoers. This one minor flaw aside, the DVD offers a solid presentation of this 1977 classic, and is a video worthy of repeated viewings. Enjoy!
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