Saturday Night Fever (1977)
The film Saturday Night Fever is about a young Brooklyn teenager named Tony Manero, who aspires to be more than what his character shows. He feels his only chance to truly succeed in life is being the king of the disco floor. He goes to the local disco Saturday nights, where he is considered to be the king of the dance floor, because of his nice moves on the dance floor. Tony lives with his parents that treat him like a kid. They always compare him to his brother the priest. Tony meets Stephanie Mangano at the disco. She was playing hard to get at first, but then she decides to dance with him in a competition. She then moves to Manhattan, and at the end, Tony wants to do something with his life besides being the king of the dance floor, and he and Stephanie decide to be just friends and start fresh.
Tony in the film is this cool young man who has a lovable personality. He is this stylish guy that you would want to hang out with and be friends with. The opening shots set the tone, focusing mainly on his shined shoes while he walks down the street. You could see how confident he is with his look, his walk and the soundtrack that comes with it says it all. In that scene, you could also see how he looks at people and smiles at them, and the shots were taken in a way that the viewer could see other people walking by just like Tony is seeing them.
My favorite scene in the movie is the conversation between Tony and Stephanie, sitting on a bench near a bridge. Tony is telling Stephanie how he knows everything about that bridge, how big it is, how workers died on it, and so on. In that scene, he is a different person from his immature character that he is playing. He seems kind and caring. The film is funny and entertaining but something about that scene is different and special. There is no loud music during that scene as per usual, it is just the two of them talking, the wind is blowing, and the shots were just perfect.
The film mainly focuses on Tony’s story. Yet there are some other characters that stood out more than others. Like Bobby who has a pregnant catholic girlfriend, and he convinced himself he was ready for adulthood, but he was not. He ended up dying on the bridge. Through that scene, we were able to see how it all happened, the sound of music that came with it was scary, and most importantly what surrounded that bridge, his friends and their reactions to the incident. Stephanie and Annette are also the only 2 female characters of importance in the film. Annette is a girl that Tony only takes advantage of. His friends rape her in the film, and she does not say anything to anyone. This shows that these boy characters are not adults yet, as they behave in an irresponsible, reckless and immature way. Stephanie is the dancer that Tony attacked once, but he likes her too much that he is willing to be just friends with her. She aspires for greater things, so does he after meeting her.
In the end, I feel like the film is not just about disco, rather it is about growing up. Tony’s character was racist and horrible to women at first. But he then changed and wanted to be a better person. According to Nathan Rabin, “Saturday Night Fever is remembered today as a feel-good disco movie, it’s actually a bracingly honest exploration of what it means to be young, horny, broke, and filled with intense feelings you can’t express and don’t understand.”
References:
https://www.vanityfair.com/news/2007/12/saturday-night-fever
https://www.vanityfair.com/hollywood/2017/05/saturday-night-fever-40th-anniversary-john-travolta