Average Rating: 
Rating:  - Catch The Fever
Saturday Night Fever was not only the film that made John Travolta a superstar, but also it defined the style of a generation. Disco started to infiltrate the music scene as early as 1974 (with hits like "Rock Your Baby" by George McRae). Discos were wildly popular in New York City by 1976 and they provided an outlet for the youth of the city to escape reality and dance away the night amid drinks, drugs and sex. Inspired by an article in the New Yorker magazine that described the scene, producer Robert Stigwood wanted to capture it in a movie. He realized the music is what drove the discos and he recruited his biggest act, The Bee Gees to record songs for the film. This proved ingenious as the soundtrack and the movie are inseparable. Although the band does not physically appear in the film, they are the co-stars of the film with Mr. Travolta. The film and soundtrack became huge hits in late 1977 and into 1978 and disco moved from the urban cities to the heartland of America. The film itself seems a bit dated, but it is saved from being a complete period piece by Mr. Travolta's superb acting. He completely embodies the character of Brooklynite Tony Manero who works in a paint store during the week and lives to dance at the local disco on the weekends. At work and at home, he's a nobody, but at the disco, he is the king. The dancing scenes are classics and often imitated, but Mr. Travolta is the real deal on the dance floor. Mr. Travolta earned the first of his two Best Actor Academy Award nominations for the film and it was richly deserved. The soundtrack went on to spend 24 weeks at number one, spawn 4 number one singles and for a time was the biggest selling album in music history.
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: - Cool Disco classic
Seeing John Travolta dance is quite a treat. It's almost hard to imagine now that John Travolta could do what he did during the late '70s. The music was cool too, being a fan of almost all kinds of music (including oldies/disco) the songs, especially the Bee Gees songs, really captures the fun of what music used to be. I also like this film because I also like to dance, so it stimulates my interest in that aspect. Although I like the film, I also would not show this to a younger audience because of the graphic scenes of sex, violence, and family dispute. The darker side of the film does exist, the reality of how hard life could be when living in poverty and the abuse and mistreatment of women sends out a strong message to the audience, but suprisingly even with this, it still has that tint of hope for a brighter future for John Travolta's character which makes you want to believe he can escape his bondage of his troubled life and start fresh to a new beginning. So this isn't your typical feel good dance movie. It is still a classic although it shows the darker side of American pop culture in the late '70s. The film sends out a lot of messages, both the positive and negative , but the parts I want to remember most about the film is the parts when John Travolta hits the dance floor, it's magic.
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