SATURDAY NIGHT FEVER: more than just 'pop culture'
July 6th 2010 16:39
For as long as I have been a film lover, Saturday Night Fever has remained a regular favourite of mine. Sure it’s remembered for John Travolta’s lively performance as the disarming and charming Tony Monero. It’s remembered for it’s music and the way Travolta knew his way around the disco floor, but for me it’s iconic pop culture status has always over shadowed the traits of it’s more intimate qualities, darker themes and personal tale of a young nineteen year old’s hopeless attempts at transcending the entrapments of his own life. Of course, the truncated PG version of this film, found so often in stores, doesn’t help this surprisingly honest film to shine through and neither does it's marketing. Saturday Night Fever’s character’s and their some times foul, sleazy behaviour earned the film an R-rating originally, and the cut kiddy version simply is a focus on the clothes and dancing rather than story line.
"Mr. Fusco: You get paid on a Monday, Tony, that’s it. That way you can save a little. Plan for the future.
Tony: Fuck the future.
Mr Fusco: No Tony! You can’t fuck the future. The future fucks you. It catches up with you and it fucks you if you haven’t planned for it."
While far from a perfect film, Saturday Night Fever has a couple of stand out features, so strong, that they transcend the film’s faults, and there are many. John Badham’s direction and camera work is severely problematic in areas, ranging from important scenes which are bungled in their editing, sloppy camera work at times and even the ruining of a scene or two that could have played better. What Saturday Night Fever does have, is something special - it’s script by Norman Wexler (Serpico, Raw Deal) is perhaps one of the greatest coming of age scripts ever written, I struggle to think of anything that comes close to it. It’s longing and growing self awareness in the main character, as well as it’s wickedly funny dialogue, reaches out universally, representing that time where the future that would soon hang over all of us, hadn’t yet reached it’s point of urgency.
Saturday Night Fever is about longing, but even more than this, it is about a parent’s expectations of their children and that child’s emerging expectations of them selves. Wexler’s script is at once harshly biting and beautifully sensitive, bringing out dimensions of behaviour and character that recall the writing of John Cassavetes’ films. We see the well meaning, positive qualities of each character enmeshed with all their ugly faults at once.
Another astonishingly resonant strength in Satuday Night Fever is John Travolta. This film truly is a reminder of why he was such an exciting, young actor to watch in the seventies. Travolta brings nuance and depth to the character that are not written on the page and when he hits that floor it comes alive, ranking along side one other performance he did in Brian DePalma’s Blow Out as his best ever. Travolta plays Tony Monero, he lives for looking good, he’s the kind of 19 year old who dresses up in his best clothes just to walk down the street. During the week he works in a paint store using his charisma to win over and please his boss and customers. He lives in New York, coming from a severely Catholic, working class, Italian American family. When the weekend comes he puts on those boogie shoes and the crowd at his regular nightclub, parts for him when he enters those doors, like the red sea as his feet hit that floor of flashing disco lights.
Watching Travolta dance is always awe inspiring but that plays more like the after dinner desert in this meaty and satisfying character study. He has a ritualistic process of getting ready for those Saturday nights out and all the characters in the film show up a different side of Tony, revealing him as a young man who becomes lost at sea. The one gift he has is dance and it’s how this frustrated, inarticulate character expresses him self best, but what else can he do? Tony’s view towards woman plays as one big obstacle for him also when he meets the one girl who makes him question his entire life and where it’s heading.
"You’re a cliché, who’s nowhere, going no place"
He meets Stephanie, who isn’t much better off than Tony, she just happens to have a giant superiority complex and when she talks, she doesn't know what she's talking about, we see her as ignorant, but he sees her as educated and fascinating, representing what he wants to be like. Saturday Night Fever opens with an extended shot of the Manhattan Bridge, as we see the cars and trains run across it. Tony knows everything about this bridge, it’s measurements, how it’s built and he has stars in his eyes as he sees it leading to a world he wants to be a part of, but doesn’t know how. The scenes between him and Stephanie, played by Karen Lynn Gorney, are wonderfully endearing, she doesn’t know what she’s talking about but she brags away and he soaks everything she says like he’s receiving an education. There’s no romance between them but something else that confuses him, he just hopes to pick up some of her worldly ‘class’. Stephanie points out Tony’s short comings, he retorts with a mouth full of food.
Then there’s the uglier side of Tony, when he’s around his friends, he’s boorish, chauvinistic and foul mouthed, all of the characters have shades of grey to them and the dialogue is sensational, it’s street smart coarseness brings out hilarious exchanges that speak to us on the most personal level, representing that time in your life where you chose, for better or worse, to head in one direction over a possible other choice. As Tony spends more time with Stephanie he grows weary of everyone around him, we are witnessing a young man trying to evolve in his own way but never sure if he is on track.
The other woman in Tony’s life is Annette, who desperately hounds him for hook ups, and for the most part just serves to annoy him. As he takes her for granted, constantly being rude to her, we see the other side of the coin. He sees Annette as a step backwards and someone like Stephanie as a step forward in him finding a guiding figure in his life. I love how Travolta plays Tony, he adds in notes of dopiness to his character which make it hilarious to watch him. A lot of what he says can make you crack up with laughter in one way or another. He also adds the appropriate grace notes of sensitivity during silences, never over playing his flashes of vulnerability.
I love how easy it is to connect with this story. If I revisit it, I usually can’t turn it off. What's appealing is what’s found just under the surface in the film, it’s got an abundance of soul. It could have been shorter perhaps, some of the scenes with Tony’s friends after a while seem repetitive and cause a regression that you thought he should have moved past by now. The character of Annette, who chooses to stick around him and his friends and constantly be abused causes me to scratch my head at times, she even gets pack raped at one point.
Then finally we have the music – while there is the retro fun for some, at best, many of the songs bring out possibilities of emotions which are yet to become a reality. At times they play simply on the escapist level, taking you into an appreciation over Tony escaping the rat race for one night. Ultimately they highlight the theme of longing I previously mentioned. The dancing between Stephanie and Tony play like love scenes at times, revealing intimacy and imagined promises to each other.
There’s a whole lot going on in Saturday Night Fever, it’s warmth and humour guides you through a tender and emotionally honest coming of age story, which still after ridiculous amounts of repeat viewings I have a soft spot for. Saturday Night Fever isn’t a guilty pleasure, but in fact a work of art.
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Comment by Matt Shea
Comment by JohnDoe
Film & TV on DVD
Also the only time that Fran Drescher didn't deserve a bullet to the head.
Comment by ShaunK
Screen Adventure
JD - hahahahah - I was waiting for your comment about Drescher - I knew it would be about her! man oh man - they certainly pick the perfect woman for John Travolta to absolutely stomp on. I love how rude and insulting he is to her as annoyingly refers to her self in the third person - best and funniest quote in the whole film
Thanks for reading
Comment by Deni
Abstract Magick
Cinema Herald
"Would you watch the hair - you know I work on the hair a long time and you hit it!"
Great review Shaun! I love how Tony's mind evolves but it just doesn't come out when he talks yet. He's figuring it all out.
How about that sequel?
Comment by ShaunK
Screen Adventure
The funniest thing in the entire film , aside from being mean to Fran Drescher, is when Stephanie says, "I'm tired of jerk off guys who aint got their shit together" and Tony replies with a mouth food, "Oh come on that's easy, all you do is get a potato masher and a salad bowl" (starts making stirring movements), "and there, you got your shit together" hahaha - cracks me up every time.
I'm glad JD isnt the only one who appreciates the more interesting elements of this film, the way you described that, about his 'mind starting to evolve' is such a perfect way of describing it.
Haha - as soon as you started mentioning the sequel, I cracked up , what a fantastic dud. Leave it to Stallone to shave down Travolta and put him on Broadway. So so funny!
bahahaha
Comment by Deni
Abstract Magick
Cinema Herald
It's mind boggling and brainless!