“You know how many times someone told me I was good in my life? Two! Twice! Two times! This raise today and dancing at the disco!”-Tony Manero
I know what you’re thinking, SATURDAY NIGHT FEVER?!! That disco movie?!?! Has he lost his mind??! No, I am happy to report that I am perfectly sane and yes SATURDAY NIGHT FEVER is a great coming of age story. Yes it has disco music but it is not is a disco movie. THANK GOD IT’S FRIDAY is disco movie. Before I begin my discussion keep these things about the film in mind. Travolta was nominated for an Academy Award and Golden Globe for Best Actor (lost to Richard Dreyfuss for both) and the film also received 3 additional Golden Globe nominations for Best Picture (lost to THE GOODBYE GIRL). The Bee Gees were nominated for Best Original Score (lost to Star Wars) and Best Original Song for How Deep Is Your Love, a song that gets regular play in my iTunes, but it lost to You Light Up My Life. No comment. The last major nomination was from the Writers Guild Award for Best Drama Written Directly for the Screen for Norman Wexler. Not bad for just a disco movie.
The movie was tremendous box office success and the studio did something unprecedented that to my knowledge has never been done since. The movie was re-edited and re-released a year later (1978) in a sanitized PG version which is the version I saw in the theaters and saw most of the time growing up. I did not see the R-rated version until I was in college. The PG version runs about 6 minutes shorter than the R version with all the movies edgier content de-emphasized or removed. If you have only seen this or the TV version you have NOT seen the movie as it was intended. There are so many “now I get it” moments when I watched the R-rated version that I felt robbed.
The film begins with the now familiar sounds of the Bee Gee’s Stayin Alive and the now classic opening sequence of Travolta walking down the street to this song. Although the character is not actually hearing the song it’s probably safe to assume that he is hearing the song (or some type of music) in his head. It’s a fun sequence complete with close up of his shoes, his rear, and even his bell bottoms. The walk includes a stop for a couple of slices of pizza, placing a shirt on layaway, his ill-fated attempt to hit on a woman. As great as the opening is it does serves a purpose and not just a showcase for the star but to actually get us into the movie and introduce Tony’s job in a hardware store which is one of two places where he is made to feel important. At a later point in the film Tony is told that the job is his future. You can tell by the look on his face that it is not a prospect that he is happy with.
Next we are introduced to Tony’s home life where he lives with his out-work father, homemaker mom and his younger sister. It is obvious from this quick introduction that his home life is not a happy one. However one would assume that since he is the “breadwinner” of the family he feels an obligation to stay. After the brief intro to the family we are present with Tony’s Saturday night ritual which is him getting ready to go out with his buddies to the disco. Set to the sounds of the Bee Gee’s Night Fever we get the idea that this is something he does every Saturday night. One of the interesting things that occurs is that the director gives us a glimpse into Tony’s thoughts by showing what he is thinking as he is getting ready, which is of course the disco. It’s a wonderful moment which leads to a hilarious scene at the dinner table. After he has gotten dressed his father tells him that he has to eat. He sits at the dinner table wrapped in a sheet so he does not get any spaghetti sauce on his shirt. It’s funny that no one mentions it so one can assume that this is not the first time that he has done this. It is also during this time that we find out that Tony has an older brother, Frank Jr, who is a priest and is obviously the favorite of the Manero children.
Next we are introduced to Tony’s friends, Double J, Joey, Gus and Bobby. To say these guys are low lives is an understatement. They are vile, racists, and sexists including Tony. However in the PG version their language is toned down and the effect is lost. Once they arrive at the disco, The 2001, it is obvious that Tony is the leader of this bunch and they are regulars since they have a table reserved for them in what appears to be an very popular place. We are also introduced to the two women who will play an important role in Tony’s life Annette and Stephanie. It is also in this portion of the film that showcases one of my favorite sequences which is the Night Fever dance. This scene has been parodied and copied so many times but it still a joy to watch. One of the interesting things about is that it’s not a sequence that is built around Travolta. He is the one that one that starts the dance however as other joins him he just becomes another dancer on the floor as everyone is joined in the uniting dance. Tony maybe king of the dance floor but in this sequence everyone belongs. The sequence also takes on a dreamlike quality as well with the addition of dry ice that overtakes the dance floor. It is truly a magical sequence.
The sad home life is further illustrated when he receives a raise at work and reluctantly tells his father about it. His father tells him in a matter of fact way that his raise, from $2 to $4, is not good enough. This is when Tony tells his dad that the raise is the second time in his life someone told him he was good. This is the theme of the movie in that Tony does not really feel that he belongs anywhere other than dancing at 2001 on Saturday nights. He longs for a better life but he does not know how to obtain it. Enter Stephanie, an older woman, the he had spotted previously at 2001. He sees her again at a dance studio he frequents and he tries to talk to her but she wants nothing to do with him. Her reason is simple; she knows his type and knows that he is going nowhere. Upon arriving home his is told that Frank Jr is upstairs in his room. Given the way is treated you would expect it not to be a happy occasion but as it turns out there is no hostility between the two brothers. Frank tells him that he is leaving the priesthood. Once again you would expect that Tony would not be happy with the news but in fact he is supportive. This is an important scene because we learn that Frank Jr became a priest not because he wanted to but it was because it was what their parents wanted him to be. It is at this point that Tony understands that he must pursue his own dreams, whatever those are. Later when Frank JR disappears Tony is blamed for his disappearance because since they slept in the same room he MUST have said something to him. This causes Tony to explode with anger in what is probably years of pent up anger and frustration. This could be the root cause of the issues with woman.
He convinces Stephanie to have coffee with him and this is where Stephanie shows her true colors and comes across as a bit of a snob. She feels that she has to put others down to make herself look better. She feels that she has “made it” because she has landed a job in Manhattan which when you live in Brooklyn that is considered success. She even takes to ordering her tea with lemon. The reason, because that’s how other women in her office orders it. Her rational if she acts like the people in her office she will become more like them. This scene is interesting because they are both trying to be something they are not. She name drops several celebrities she has come into contact with and Tony obviously has no idea who she is talking about but act like he does. She sees in him what she used to be and he see in her what he wants to be. But we understand that they like each other. In the most quiet sequence of the film is when he helps her move to Manhattan and he learns something about Stephanie that she failed to mention before which is that she had a previous live in boyfriend. She didn’t share it with him because she didn’t feel it was important. The guy was just another step on ladder in removing herself from her Brooklyn roots. The section of the film concludes with him them sitting looking at the Verrazano-Narrows Bridge there is an unscripted moment in the film that occurs. He tells her that he comes there to think about his future. There is a moment where she kisses him on the cheek just as his eyes well up with tears. In reality Travolta had just returned from the funeral of his girlfriend who had died of cancer and this was the first scene he shot upon his return. The director had the camera rolling as they were getting ready to begin the scene and the actress playing Stephanie gave him a kiss for encouragement. Travolta was not Tony at this moment, he was himself. It is one of the best scenes in the film.
His relationship with Annette is completely different. She likes him and wants to be with him. He sees her as a dancing partner only. He feels that a physical relationship with her will complicate their “dancing relationship”. He clearly does not respect her but he doesn’t dislike her. To him she is just another girl from the neighborhood that are a dime a dozen. When he does decide to have sex with her it is not because he wants to but because she threatens to have sex with someone else. However it is her character arc that will cause him to make some life changing decisions. More on that later
At the 1:01:44 minute mark begins the film’s and Travolta’s crowning achievement. It is the You Should Be Dancing dance solo. Travolta worked 3months on this sequence to get it just right and in a word it is amazing. However Travolta was so unhappy with the rough edit of the sequence he threatened to walk of the film. The reason was because it was edited in tight close-ups rather than full body shots. It wasn’t uncommon for films that featured dancing for the shots not to include full body shots of the actors because a lot of the actors could not dance. For examples see FLASHDANCE or FOOTLOOSE. Travolta only wanted one close up and that is the shot of him pointing. My only complaint of the sequence is that it is not done in an unbroken shot. Although there are cuts each shot is a full body shot so my complaint is a minor one and it does not take away from the greatness of the sequence.
The third and final dance sequence is the Tony and Stephanie’s dance contest set to the Bee Gee’s More Than a Woman. This sequence is all about their relationship and an expression of it. They get lost in the moment and share their first kiss. While the kiss is something special it is the looks they exchange afterward that says it all. And the slow motion that occurs right after that helps illustrate that point. A lesser movie would have ended the movie with the dance contest but this film has much more important things to say about their characters. They in fact lose the contest to a Hispanic couple and it infuriates Tony because he feels in his heart that the couple was better than they were. He knows the only reason they won was because of who he is. He can’t believe that his friends don’t see that as well. He leaves and vows never to return.
Once to the car he turns his frustrations onto Stephanie and tries to rape her after she rejects him. She leaves just as his friends are coming out of the club and Annette is now with Joey and seeing this makes him upset as well. They all leave the disco together and in the backseat Annette and Joey have sex (unprotected). Now something that the PG version omits and ends up being a pivotal point for Tony’s transformation is that once Joey is done the pull over the car and Joey “allows” Double J to have sex with her as well. Annette has been popping pills and drinking all night but she clearly does not want this. The PG versions only contains her having sex with Joey and since we had seen the two of the them together earlier it does not make since why she was so upset and why Tony calls her a cunt(its “pig” in the PG version). Hearing this from Tony causes her to become inconsolable despite Tony’s best efforts. The group is now at the Verrazano-Narrows Bridge where group had visited earlier. This is where Bobby, the wimp of the group, is upset with Tony because Tony had agreed to call him and discuss problems Bobby has with his supposed pregnant girlfriend. I say supposed because although she is discussed quite frequently by Bobby you get the sense that she does not insist. I believe that she is made up so that he can feel like he fits in when he obviously does not. This leads to what can be interpreted as either a suicide or an accidental death. I lean towards an accidental suicide if that makes any since.
This incident leads to an all night subway ride by Tony when I’m sure some serious soul searching took place. In the morning he ends up back at Stephanie’s apartment. She knows that he is not a bad guy and agrees to let him into her apartment so they can talk. He tells here that his never going back to his neighborhood. He tells her that he wants to get a job and a better life. But the most important thing is that he determines is that he and her can be friends. When she asks him if he can stands being friends with a girl his response is truthful. He says “I don’t know but I can try.” That ladies and gentlemen is the growth of Tony Manero. Unlike most movies of this type the movie does not end with a kiss but with a handshake and a hug.
As I stated the start this movie is more than just a disco movie. If you have only seen it with that frame of mind see again and if you have only seen the PG or the TV cut by all means see the R-Rated version and you will discover things about the film that you may not have known before. I hold this movie in high regard, hence its appearance on my list. I would rank the movie higher but it does have several continuity errors that I have spotted over repeated viewings. I won’t reveal them but they are there. As is stands Saturday Night Fever is not only a great documents of the late 70’s and the disco era but it is one of the best coming of age stories ever made. What does the future hold for Tony Manero? He doesn’t know but he can try. That’s all any of can do in life.
The Poster For The PG Version
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