Saturday Night Fever
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| Saturday Night Fever | |
|---|---|
| Image:Saturday night fever movie poster.jpg US movie poster for Saturday Night Fever | |
| Directed by | John Badham |
| Produced by | Robert Stigwood |
| Written by | Nik Cohn (magazine article) Norman Wexler |
| Starring | John Travolta Karen Lynn Gorney |
| Music by | Barry Gibb Maurice Gibb Robin Gibb David Shire |
| Cinematography | Ralf D. Bode |
| Editing by | David Rawlins |
| Distributed by | Paramount Pictures |
| Release date(s) | December 14, 1977 1978 (PG rated version) |
| Running time | 119 min. 112 min. (PG rated version) |
| Country | Image:Flag of the United States.svg United States |
| Language | English |
| Followed by | Staying Alive |
| All Movie Guide profile | |
| IMDb profile | |
Saturday Night Fever is a 1977 film starring John Travolta as Tony Manero, a troubled Brooklyn youth whose weekend activities are dominated by visits to a local discotheque. While in the disco, Tony is the king, and the visits help him to temporarily forget the reality of his life: a dead-end job, clashes with his unsupportive and squabbling parents, racial tensions in the local community, and his associations with a gang of dead-beat friends.
The movie significantly helped to popularize disco music around the world, and made Travolta a household name. The Saturday Night Fever soundtrack, featuring disco songs by the Bee Gees, became the best selling soundtrack ever.
The film also showcased aspects of the music, the dancing, and the subculture surrounding the disco era: symphony-orchestrated melodies, haute-couture styles of clothing, sexual promiscuity, and graceful choreography.
The story is based upon a 1976 New York magazine article by British writer Nik Cohn, "Tribal Rites of the New Saturday Night." In the late-1990s, Cohn acknowledged that the article had been fabricated[1]. A newcomer to the United States and a stranger to the disco lifestyle, Cohn was unable to make any sense of the subculture he had been assigned to write about. The characters who were to become Tony Manero and his friends sprang almost completely from his imagination.
The film is also notable for being one of the first instances of cross media marketing, with the tie-in soundtrack's single being used to help promote the film before its release and the film popularizing the entire soundtrack after its release.
Taglines: Original: Where do you go when the record is over? PG: It is now rated PG... Because we want everyone to see John Travolta's dance performance... Because we want everyone to hear the #1 group in the country, Bee Gees... Because we want everyone to catch Saturday Night Fever.
Contents |
[edit] Story
The story of the film has Tony Manero connect with the aloof Stephanie (Karen Lynn Gorney) one night at the disco. Despite her initial frosty and superior attitude toward Tony, she agrees to partner with him in the dance contest after much urging. Tony had previously agreed to dance with Annette (Donna Pescow), who had actively pursued Tony, despite his obvious disdain for her. Stephanie has a job in Manhattan as a secretary for a magazine and is poised to move there and has more opportunities to work her way up. This awakens in Tony the need to transcend his working-class roots of Bay Ridge, Brooklyn. However, Stephanie herself ultimately reveals her own vulnerabilities.
Also examined throughout the film is Tony's relationship with his family (including an older brother - clearly his parents' favorite child - who abandons a planned career in the priesthood) and his association with his friends.
[edit] Versions and sequel
There were two theatrically-released versions of the film: the "original" R version and the PG "edited version." The R-rated version is 119 minutes. The PG-rated version was released in 1978 as an attempt to attract a more youthful audience. It is 112 minutes, with profanity replaced by separately-filmed scenes that substituted milder language that were initially filmed for the network television cut off the film (such as a scene where Tony's dad gets his old job back), and with several scenes shortened or cut. Both theatrical versions were released on VHS, but only the R-rated version was released on LaserDisc and later on DVD, and the DVD version is shown in widescreen only. (However, some of the extra scenes from the PG version were included as "deleted scenes" for the DVD release.) In addition, a network television version, based primarily on the PG version, contains several minutes of outtakes deleted from the theatrical releases. However starting in the late 1990s VH1 and Turner Network Television started showing the original R rated version. (Some of the language and nudity had edited out but including some of the innuendos from the original that had been cut out of the PG version.)
The R-rated version contains scenes of profanity, nudity, drug use and a date-rape scene which has been de-emphasised or completely removed from the PG version.
A sequel, Staying Alive, was released in 1983. It starred John Travolta and was directed by Sylvester Stallone.
The story was also produced as a musical stage production in London, Sydney and on Broadway.
[edit] Cast and roles include
- John Travolta - Tony Manero
- Karen Lynn Gorney - Stephanie Mangano
- Barry Miller - Bobby C.
- Joseph Cali - Joey
- Paul Pape - Double J.
- Donna Pescow - Annette, a former girlfriend of Tony, still in love with him
- Bruce Ornstein - Gus
- Julie Bovasso - Flo Manero, Tony's mother
- Martin Shakar - Frank Manero Jr., Tony's brother
- Sam Coppola - Dan Fusco, paint store owner, Tony's boss
- Nina Hansen - Grandmother
- Lisa Peluso - Linda Manero, Tony's sister
- Denny Dillon - Doreen
- Bert Michaels - Pete
- Robert Costanzo - Paint store customer
- Robert Weil - Becker
- Shelly Batt - Girl in disco
- Fran Drescher - Connie
- Donald Gantry - Jay Langhart
- Murray Moston - Haberdashery salesman
- William Andrews - Detective
- Ann Travolta - Pizza girl (Travolta's sister)
- Helen Travolta - Lady in paint store (Travolta's mother)
- Ellen March - Bartender
- Monti Rock III - The deejay
- Val Bisoglio - Frank Manero Sr., Tony's father
- Roy Cheverie - The wrong partner (uncredited)
- Adrienne King - Dancer (uncredited)
- Alberto Vasquez - Gang member (uncredited)
- M. J. Quinn - Dancer (uncredited)
- Chuck Norris - Dancer (uncredited)
- Joe Macera - Gang member (uncredited)
[edit] Soundtrack
Track listing:
- "Stayin' Alive" performed by Bee Gees - 4:45
- "How Deep Is Your Love" performed by Bee Gees - 4:05
- "Night Fever" performed by Bee Gees - 3:33
- "More Than a Woman" performed by Bee Gees - 3:17
- "If I Can't Have You" performed by Yvonne Elliman - 3:00
- "A Fifth of Beethoven" performed by Walter Murphy - 3:03
- "More Than a Woman" performed by Tavares - 3:17
- "Manhattan Skyline" performed by David Shire - 4:44
- "Calypso Breakdown" performed by Ralph MacDonald - 7:50 (*)
- "Night on Disco Mountain" performed by David Shire - 5:12
- "Open Sesame" performed by Kool & the Gang - 4:01
- "Jive Talkin'" performed by Bee Gees - 3:43 (*)
- "You Should Be Dancing" performed by Bee Gees - 4:14
- "Boogie Shoes" performed by KC and the Sunshine Band - 2:17
- "Salsation" performed by David Shire - 3:50
- "K-Jee" performed by MFSB - 4:13
- "Disco Inferno" performed by Trammps - 10:51
(*) "Calypso Breakdown" and "Jive Talkin'" were not contained in the film.
- The novelty song "Disco Duck" was played in the film, in a humorous scene, but was not included on the album.
[edit] Filming locations include
- Verrazano Narrows Bridge
- 2001 Odyssey, which was later renamed Spectrum (a Gay club) in 1987 before being demolished in 2005. The club was located at 802 64th Street, Bay Ridge, Brooklyn, New York.
- Six Brothers Hardware and Paints formerly located at 7309 5th Ave in Brooklyn was the backdrop for Tony's place of employment. The store was owned and operated by 6 Brothers, became a popular tourist stop after the release of the movie. The owners have since sold the store and have retired.
[edit] Notes
| Trivia sections are discouraged under Wikipedia guidelines. The article could be improved by integrating relevant items and removing inappropriate ones. |
- Saturday Night Fever was the favorite movie of the late film critic Gene Siskel, who claimed to have seen it 17 times. He liked the movie so much, he bought the famous white disco suit (worn by Travolta in the movie) at a charity auction for $17,000.
- Madonna's video for her 2005 hit single "Hung Up" is an homage to a scene from Saturday Night Fever, when Tony first approaches Stephanie at the rehearsal studio. In the video, Madonna is wearing almost exactly the same leotard and tights set that Stephanie wears in the film, and there is wood paneling and a wooden barre much like in the rehearsal space Stephanie uses for this scene. Madonna also did a remix during the Confessions Tour in 2006, following her successful album Confessions on a Dance Floor. The remix was the instrumental of "Disco Inferno" from Saturday Night Fever mixed with Madonna's hit song "Music" from 2000. Madonna's appearance and dance moves during "Music Inferno" were similar to Travolta's in the film.
- The song "K-Jee" was used during the dance contest with the Hispanic couple that competed against Tony and Stephanie. Some VHS cassettes used a more traditional Latin-style song instead. The DVD restores the original recording.
- Tony Manero was the name of a real American golfer.
- John Belushi parodied the film as "Samurai Night Fever", one of his "Samurai" sketches. O.J. Simpson appears in this sketch as the Samurai's brother.
- The 1980 film Airplane! contained a parody scene, with Robert Hays mocking the famous pose and the clothing shown on the poster and album cover, to the tune of "Stayin' Alive" slightly sped up (the actual song used for that scene in Saturday Night Fever was "You Should Be Dancing").
- The Goodies parodied the film in their Saturday Night Grease episode.
- The original working title for this film was "The Tribal Rites Of Saturday Night".
- In Anurag Mathur's book The Inscrutable Americans, the protagonist Gopal is inspired by the way Travolta dances and refers to Saturday Night Fever as an 'educational' movie about America.
- John Travolta still has the pair of high-heeled shoes he wore during the opening and dance sequences of the film (as depicted in the poster). He says he sometimes takes them out of the closet, but claims he doesn't wear them.
- This film is banned in Malaysia.[1]
- The Children's Television Workshop published a record album of music from Sesame Street under the title Sesame Street Fever, the cover of which featured a picture of muppet Grover wearing the white three-piece disco suit in the famous Travolta pose.
- The film was one of the inspirations for the short-lived sitcom Makin' It, whose main character was a devotee of the film.
- In the club, a woman begs to kiss Tony and gushes, "I just kissed Al Pacino!" Later, while looking at a poster of Al Pacino in the mirror, Tony comes out of his room shouting, " Attica! Attica! Attica!" from the famous Al Pacino film, Dog Day Afternoon.
- The male human dance and parts of the male dwarf dance in the MMORPG World of Warcraft are taken from this film.
- The illuminated dance floor was inspired by one Badham had seen at "The Club", a private supper club in Birmingham, Alabama.
- Amy Irving auditioned for the role of Stephanie, which was later won by lesser-known soap actress Karen Lynn Gorney.
- The first shots of Stephanie dancing are actually of a stand-in dancer and not Gorney, except for the close-ups.
- The music video for "Dang" by The Jon Spencer Blues Explosion begins with a direct reference to the opening of Saturday Night Fever as lead singer Jon Spencer is shown walking down a New York City street with a paint can in one hand, exactly as Tony does in the film.
- Spanish Disco-Funk band "Fundación Tony Manero" ("Tony Manero Foundation") is named after the main character.
- The video game Gex: Enter the Gecko has a martial-arts themed level named "Samurai Night Fever".
- The debut album by avant-garde metal band Polkadot Cadaver, Purgatory Dance Party, has cover art that is a reference to the film poster.
- Bee Gee Robin Gibb admitted to BBC News on 15 December 2007 that he has never watched this film.
[edit] Academy Awards
| Award | Person | |
| Nominated: | ||
| Best Actor | John Travolta | |
[edit] See also
[edit] External links
- Saturday Night Fever at the Internet Movie Database
- http://www.script-o-rama.com/movie_scripts/s/saturday-night-fever-script-transcript.html Saturday Night Fever film script
- http://www.beegees-world.com Bee Gees World
- Right On
- Dancin’, Yeah -- Article on the 30th anniversary of the film
- [2] -- Artilce on the re-mastered 30th Annversary DVD.
[edit] References
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