SATURDAY NIGHT FEVER

THE STORY: A Brooklyn youth feels his only chance to get somewhere is as the king of the disco floor. (via IMDb)

THE WORD: I never thought I would watch this film. However, due to the recent blow-up of it among my film friends, I decided to give in and watch the damn thing. Saturday Night Fever as a film doesn’t work. It tries juggling too much - the job, the parents, the girls, the brother, the boys, the gang - and loses it’s direction. However, I didn’t see Saturday Night Fever as much of a film as it is an exhibition of this particular lifestyle: disco. Not that the piece only revolves around disco, because it is quite an opus of affairs seen through the eyes of Manero. As I said before, it doesn’t juggle half the relationships well enough. However, the film has this uncompromising vision that makes everything the characters do, say, feel seem absolutely irrefutable. A conviction as sharp as Saturday Night Fever’s is rare, and really does elevate the film from a previously possible mediocrity to an incredibly stunning character drama. It’s dark too, really dark. The misogynistic angle was unexpected and much of the dialogue and actions towards the women in the film is very masochistic and unforgiving at times. One notable scene being post-double coitus on the bridge, “Are you happy-” Tony says to Annette, “you’re a cunt now.” From the murky, poorly lit city streets to the LED filled disco clubs, Badham’s New York is one of my personal favorites portrayals I’ve seen thus far. I would have liked to have seen more between Tony and his brother, Frank, but I could see why Stephanie’s character would take precedence over the two. I was a bit unsatisfied with the ending, given the fifteen minutes prior to the denouement I was anticipating more of a woeful conclusion. I don’t have many complaints with the film, it really was a pleasant surprise. Travolta really is Tony Manero and commands every damn scene he’s in. The disco club/dance scenes are pure eye candy and sort of alleviate the pressures Tony faces only to bring them back full force after every sequence (a great dramatic technique here, in my opinion). Without a doubt, a landmark of the ’70s. 

THE VERDICT: 89/100

INFO: John Badham | USA | 1977 | 1.85:1 | 118min

  1. crypticelluloid posted this