Saturday Night Fever
So called “Coming Of Age Dramas” are the films that over the years wind up becoming the most obscure, most forgotten of their kind for more than one reason, usually because the scripts and especially the directing itself is just so pedestrian all while telling a story that usually only holds any emotional resonance for the writer of said scripts, leaving the viewer completely bored and listless just from the THOUGHT of watching it. Making such a movie with so little in the way of real action or of any actual interest for the average person inevitably spells doom for the project and even fails to make it a staple of either the movie rental circuit or the cable TV rotations. In 1977 though, director John Badham managed to buck the trend by coming up with something that would retain its appeal both in its own time where it was a runaway smash hit as well as all the way up to today, first and foremost by being fully aware of the era that it was being made in and managing to successfully capture the zeitgeist of both the 1970s and the disco era that the movie was borne out of (thanks in no small part to the musical work of The Bee Gees, who saw this become both the top grossing album of all time until Michael Jackson’s Thriller and the top grossing soundtrack until 1992’s The Bodyguard), both bringing back memories for many and also acting as a time machine / time capsule for younger viewers to show them just exactly what that time and place was all about. In addition, the film smartly used a script and story that in many ways was universal and timeless in its appeal, working in elements of being stuck in a dead end life but actually wanting something better, pursuing your dreams by working diligently to get better at what you are already best at, and bucking the trends of pressure that can be applied by both peers and parents to live up to a preconceived notion of what they want you to be. Finally, it’s pretty clear that with the wrong lead actor here that the entire enterprise would have sunk to the depths of being completely forgotten, but fortunately Badham was able to secure the services of one John Travolta to be the star. Travolta, already a pop culture teen idol for playing the role of Vinnie Barbarino on Welcome Back Kotter, shot to superstardom and beyond in a role seemingly tailor made for him as Tony Manero, a poor, dumb, yet charismatic kid who stands out from any crowd consisting of his fellow Brooklynites. Getting girls isn’t a problem for him, but getting sophisticated is. Working in a hardware store where his older co workers can’t even stand up straight anymore but always setting his sights on the weekend where he can put on his best clothes and burn up the dance floors with his one of a kind moves and style (Tony openly admits to learning his moves from watching TV, while ironically Travolta in real life was given a crash course in dancing from Denny Terrio in order to prepare for this role). In his first major role here, Travolta does an amazing job of showcasing both Tony’s acute narcissism and chauvinism while still displaying a touchingly naïve vulnerability about the uncertainty of his impending future, earning a Best Actor Oscar Nomination in the process. The film is fully aware of its own irony having Tony’s bedroom be adorned with posters of such 70s cinema icons as Bruce Lee, Al Pacino, and Sylvester Stallone (as Rocky) all while Travolta himself (and the character) would also go on to become symbolic as an embodiment of that era. Even more interesting in Travolta’s favor is that the supporting cast almost entirely consists of also rans and one hit wonders (this movie being that hit) that are all overshadowed by Travolta’s star qualities and thus suffer a bit themselves in that regard (though the lower cast ranks do include Fran Drescher and future very short lived Saturday Night Live cast member / acquired taste Denny Dillon). The most notable of these co stars is the female romantic lead played by Karen Lynn Gorney as Stephanie, Tony’s dream girl and future dancing partner who in reality is just an ice cold bitch with an annoyingly nasal Brooklyn accent who nonetheless captivates Tony with her long winded stories about working in Manhatten and her constant (possibly untrue) name dropping about all the famous people that she’s gotten to meet and work with, and the fact that Tony falls so hard for her is even more ironic given the fact that the actress herself dropped completely off the radar despite the film’s success but did find the time to write and sing on a barely released album with songs detailing what her CHARACTER in this film felt deep down inside about her own life, but the fact is that her rude yet princessy veneer is more of a turn off than anything else even as both we and Tony find out that she is actually far less than perfect, especially in her personal life. Meanwhile, Tony is seeing some trouble on the homefront, as he constantly takes verbal abuse from his parents because they perceive him to be a bum while his older brother has gone on to become a priest, something just as prestigious to an Italian family in Brooklyn as raising a kid to be President it seems, but when his brother returns home to announce that he’s quit the priesthood, the family is devastated as meanwhile the brother confides in Tony that he never wanted that in his life and only pursued it under the duress given by his parents, leading to him accompanying Tony and his friends to the disco (where his social awkwardness is readily apparent) and after seeing Tony dance telling him how that’s the main and only thing that he should be pursuing in his life. And how that disco comes alive when the movie takes us in there, becoming a netherworld of music and social excitement under Badham’s energetic direction, and The Bees Gees’ musical contribution only serves to enhance that experience even for those who might actually hate disco music. The film’s screenplay wisely keeps most of the dialogue lewd, crude and fast, with even many of the lesser actors here coming off as being somewhat colorful, but only Donna Pescow makes any real impression as the sad eyed little tart with an insatiable crush on Tony only to be rejected by him and then allowing his buddies to gang bang her in order to “teach him a lesson”. The story does go off on a useless tangent here and there with a subplot about one of their own (who barely has any kind of a role) supposedly getting attacked by a Puerto Rican gang which leads to the others storming the gang’s hangout as a form of “retaliation”, but the real strength here is the almost total lack of any fear or reserve in allowing the characters (including Tony) to all come across as being completely unlikable, whether it be through hatred of gays, racism, or misogyny, as that only manages to contribute to the overall stark REALISM of the piece (despite the almost fantastical disco dancing scenes) and helps all of us who were cocky, insecure young males relate better to the situations at hand, especially with the junior member of the group (who also does all the driving) who constantly whines about having a girlfriend (who is never seen) whom he says he has gotten pregnant and is constantly soliciting everyone for advice (including the ex priest brother, who wants nothing to do with it) with the real subtext being the possibility that he has maybe fabricated the girlfriend that he always talks of while really secretly harboring a deep homosexual crush on Tony, Sal Mineo style. Ultimately the constant, almost retarded level of drama brought on by his friends leads Tony to realize that not only does he want a better life for himself, but he wants to be around better PEOPLE as well, causing him to make a beeline for the Gorney character and all of her worldly sophistication, while in real life Travolta would leave all of these other second rate no names in the dust en route to becoming an A list megastar. And no other film to this day that bills itself as a slice of life, coming of age drama exhibits this kind of vibrancy, energy, or charismatic leading man who gives a performance that somehow tapdances along the edges of caricature without crossing the line into it but yet still keeps viewers riveted to even the most mundane aspects of his everyday life with our full enjoyment and interest, thus proving that any type of movie can be done good enough to withstand the sands of time…
9/10