1001 Movies You Must See Before You Die- Saturday Night Fever

#651- Saturday Night Fever (1977)
Starring: John Travolta, Karen Lynn Gorney, Barry Miller
Directed by: John Badham


Plot Summary: Tony Manero is a 19-year-old Italian American living in Brooklyn, New York. Tony works a low-level job and puts up with his dysfunctional family life, and is rewarded every Saturday night when he is able to go to 2001 Odyssey disco club with his friends. As "king of the dance floor," Tony is looking for the perfect partner for an upcoming dance contest. At first, Tony settles for Annette, who constantly hangs around Tony and his friends, but is captivated by a woman at the club named Stephanie Mangano. Stephanie agrees to be Tony's partner, but only if they keep it professional. At the same time, Tony's brother, Frank Jr., comes home to let the family know that he has left his profession of being a priest. Encouraged by his brother and no longer feeling like the black sheep of the family, Tony believes he can do great things as a dancer.


As far as '70s pop culture goes, there is nothing more important than disco (except for Star Wars, but I'll review that later). In the world of film, no disco movie is more important than Saturday Night Fever. I was really hoping to get an overall enjoyable experience here, but instead I got a movie that can be more classified as "hit and miss." The things I expected to like, I did, and the things I knew nothing about I found absolutely distracting from the entirety of the film. Does that mean that I didn't like the movie? Or were there enough positives to keep the movie stayin' alive (you know I couldn't pass up a joke like that)?

John Travolta has one of the defining roles of his career as Tony Manero. There's not much I can say about this role that many others haven't said. It's John Travolta putting on a stellar performance as Manero, who is vain mainly from his lack of confidence and his insecurities. Most of that stems from his dysfunctional relationship at home and his pinhead friends (we'll get to them soon). He channels a lot of his insecurities and focuses his frustrations on his roller coaster relationship with his dance partner, Stephanie Mangano, played by Karen Lynn Gorney. The best thing he knows how to do is dance, and everyone tells him that, but he has no confidence in himself to take it seriously. The only real time I was ever against Tony was in his treatment of women, particularly Annette, played by Donna Pescow. It's clear to see that Annette is into Tony and that he does not feel the same, but man does he string her along for most of the movie. You feel completely sorry for her because she's actually pretty harmless and all it is is a game of "he's just not that into you," but you would hope it could be done with a little more compassion. Despite all that, Tony is still a very sympathetic character, amplified by Travolta's likability and charm.

His friends, on the other hand, are anything but likable and charming. Joey (played by Joseph Cali), Double J (played by Paul Pape), and Gus (played by Bruce Ornstein) feel completely interchangeable. Gus is taken out by a gang early on in the film, and I didn't even realize he was missing until they actually address it near the end of the movie. Joey and Double J really feel like they could have been the same character (Double J could probably stand for "Joey Junior").  The biggest exception in Tony's group of guys is Bobby C, played by Barry Miller. You can tell that he's the punching bag of the group and he's sick of it. All he wants to do is show his worth and have friends that genuinely care for him. When he gets a girl pregnant, he's sincerely looking for help, but no one is taking the issue seriously. The only person Bobby C trusts is Tony, which admittedly is one of the stronger relationships in the film.

The biggest problem with Saturday Night Fever is that it is full of distractions. I hear a lot of people cite the film as a "feel good" movie, which left me scratching my head by the end of the movie asking "how am I supposed to feel good?" Aside from Tony's dysfunctional relationship with his family and his struggling relationship with Stephanie, we have two scenes where rape is implied (only attempted in one scene, but the second scene has it happen back to back), a large story arc dedicated to pregnancy and abortion, and to top it all off we have a suicide near the end of the film. HOLY COW! It's a good thing Travolta is charismatic and the Bee Gees are catchy or else this movie would be depressing film from start to finish.

The biggest impact through Saturday Night Fever is in its music and dance sequences. Nowadays, it's common for people to mock the disco era, but when you see a movie like this dedicated to depicting the movement, you can't help but enjoy the style of music that might appear "cheesy" in modern discussions. The Bee Gees were arguably the biggest names in disco, and their biggest hit "Stayin' Alive" is used in the film's opening sequence (which is also arguably one of the most iconic opening scenes in film history). The rest of the songs are used fantastically to create a time capsule of the popular music movement occurring during the film and at the time of its release.


Rating: 3 out of 5 stars

The most memorable qualities of Saturday Night Fever are Travolta's star making performance and the quality of the soundtrack, and it's probably best to keep it that way. The rest of the characters and dysfunctional themes that occur are not worth direct association to this film. Give it a weekend rental if you like John Travolta and the Bee Gees.

Comment below to share your thoughts on the movie or to discuss a topic that I left out of my review 

Saturday Night Fever and movie images are copyrighted by Paramount Pictures