Saturday Night Fever ENT Review

[KaneKungFu123]

I always assumed that this was a PG love story about a dance contest. I couldnt be more wrong.

First off, the movie borrows heavily from Martin Scorsese's early films about young male Italian Americans growing up in Brooklyn, machoism, their views towards women (there are only good girls and [censored]), and their self image.

It is very rare that you get to watch a movie with so much raw emotion, combined with a great soundtrack. The movie opens with a John Travolta strutting around Brooklyn dressed in Dico attire trying to make eyes at any girls passing by. We see him order two slices of pizza and eat them stacks on top of eachother getting sauce on his face. He looks like a kid in a Mans body.

He has an older more popular brother, and he has a bunch of hooligan friends. He has a dead end job at a Paint Store and mother who goes to Church to ask God to make Travolta's older brother "Father Frank Junior" call her. There is so much classic dialogue in this movie.

The movie is definitely flawed to some extent, but I still consider it a master piece and it is easily into my Top 20.

edit: The thing about this movie, is that Travolta and his friends are all very [censored] up. These days they dont make many movies about anti-heros. Its hard to imagine this movie being made today.

These days, Ed Norton's Racism in American History X is OK by Hollywood standards because it is not realistic. It plays like a fairy tale/Hollywood BS.

The racism in SNF is very real. The rape scene in SNF where a girl is more or less raped in the back seat of Travolta's car by his friends while he looks out the window holding back tears, feels realistic and is very painful.

The film is brutally honest.

[katyseagull]

I just saw this last week for the first time in like 8 years! Good review. This movie is just as you say, brutally honest, rare and flawed. I totally agree that it is an honest portrayal of young kids and it never shies away from the issue of racism. Very refreshing.

I love the opening scene. One of the best openings of any movie I can recall because it grabs your attention instantly and you want to know what's up with this guy Tony who's walking down the street with a paint can and acting like he's on top of the world. It's as if you know you are in for an amazing treat right off the bat. The casting of Tony was brilliant, the casting of Stephanie, in my opinion, was the major flaw of the entire movie. I just can't stand that actress and I don't think she's even all that good of a dancer. I completely don't get this casting.


This movie is weird because at times I was thinking it was really kind of dated, but other times I was amazed at how funny and realistic the script was, and amazed it could stand the test of time.

The scene in the family's home where they are eating dinner and Tony doesn't want to mess up his clothes is one of my favorites. I also like the scene where they are sitting on the bench looking at the bridge and Tony is explaining all about it. John Travolta is electric. What an amazing performance.

[Dominic]

I was in high school when this came out and I lived in New Jersey. All my older cousins were EXACTLY like Tony and his friends. Scary.

[posnera]

[ QUOTE ]
I always assumed that this was a PG love story about a dance contest.

[/ QUOTE ]

Actually, if you are old enough to have seen it in the theaters and young enough to not be able to see R rated movies, it was. The movie was simultaneously released in both an R and a PG version. I don't remember this being common practice at the time.

[diebitter]

Yes, good review. I've never seen this film in one sitting, but I'm pretty sure I've seen most of it [img]/images/graemlins/tongue.gif[/img]

Travolta is great in this, and in Grease, and in Blow Out too. After that, his career went in decline, but I always thought he was great, and was very pleased when he made a comeback in Pulp Fiction.