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Saturday Night Fever

Saturday Night Fever

List Price: $14.99
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Product Info Reviews

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Rating: 4 stars
Summary: Saturday Night Fever is Timeless
Review: I have seen Saturday Night Fever many times but I had a greater appreciation for the music because I had watched the Bee Gees Biography recently. The story line was fun and I liked the comradery among his friends. The movie is timeless and John Travolta definitely made his mark as an actor and entertainer in this movie.

Rating: 3 stars
Summary: Not necessarily conventional
Review: Due to its popularity, this 1977 release is often hailed as a disco landmark or ultimate dance flick. To me, it has certainly great value in those categories. What struck me more than just the Bee Gees was its intense realism although cast in the popular formula of boy meets girl. This movie was clearly marketed for the youth and shares a place among like films such as "Star Wars" (1977), "Superman" (1978) and "Close Encounters" (1977). The claustrophobia of the working-class Brooklyn neighborhood Bayside is subtly interwoven in the spectacle of bell bottoms and gyrating hips. But the film has, in my opinion, a clear psychological dimension: frustration, meaningfulness and the pains of growing up with limited mobility. Interestingly this movie is almost the opposite of, say, "Grease," which is nothing else than a large over-iced birthday cake. "Saturday Night Fever" reminded me of sentiments I felt when watching "Midnight Cowboy" or even "Rocky"! Go see it.

Rating: 3 stars
Summary: The Greatest Movie Of All Time
Review: No movie captures a period as well as SNF does....and since it was produced during the time that it covers (the disco era of the late 70's) it's right on...An amazing performance by JT...with the most popular soundtrack of all time....a real keeper for anyone who grew up going to clubs...or anyone who wants to know what life in the buroughs was like in the late 70's....my favorite move of all time...i've seen it 100 times.

Rating: 4 stars
Summary: The darker side of pop culture
Review: Were people really knocked out by the dancing when this film was first released? Seen today, it is really not very impressive and the whole 70s disco-scene is ridiculous anyway. However, this only serves to improve the dramatic aspects of the film, making the little world of Tony Manero a little bit sadder and seedier than it may have seemed when the film first came out.

John Travolta is excellent as the 19-year-old kid who doesn't realize how empty his life is until his world is rocked by a traumatic series of events that forces him to see everything in a new light.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: Disco -- and a social commentary
Review: Yes, Saturday Night Fever symbolizes the best of the disco era in music, dance and fashion.

But the story line and the characters are worth noting on their own merits. The nighttime music and clothes stand in contrast to the degrading and uncivil reality of young urban life that is captured in the R-rated version of the film.

The supporting roles, while a bit caricatured, should not be ignored.

Donna Pescow's character, Annette, seeks to prove her sexiness to Travolta in all the wrong ways, until she finds herself trapped in the middle of a veritable gang rape. Today, teen women and men make the same mistakes -- young women boasting of their sexual availability when all they want is affection, and young men treating women as raw meat because they have little clue how to relate to women sensitively as equals and adults.

Barry Miller's character, young Bobby C., is trapped between the shock of full-blown adult obligations to a pregnant girlfriend, his family's devout religion, and his own severe self-doubt and insecurity. A tragic outcome sparks the final revolt by Travolta's character against the seedy reality of young adult life in the ghetto.

Saturday Night Fever unapologetically captures the cultural vibes of the late Seventies -- including the really bad ones, without glorification. Some today may wonder, for better or worse, how times have really changed.

The sequel, predictably, failed miserably when it forgot what made the original movie stand far apart from other dance flicks.

Rating: 3 stars
Summary: Definitely not a family favourite
Review: There is something gruesome about "Saturday Night Fever," something unexpected and raw which, quite frankly, still plays on one's nerves so many years later. To say that the movie is without value is taking it a bit far, but one is troubled to find room for sincere praise. Apart from the ugliness it portrays, apart from the disdain, to some extent, that continued to be shown to women in the 1970s, the film has a hidden cultural reality which you almost have to make excuses for. It is as if the film itself never found the right voice.

Perhaps as a caricature of the times, the "fever" of an age rolling out of the rock of the 50s and 60s does affect us moderately, but this is no medium lightweight in terms of scenario and dialogue. No apology is being made here. Minorities, as much as women, have their backs to the wall, and we are left wondering if director John Badham intended us to see more, or feel more, as though we could just as well watch the film with our eyes closed. So while it is hard to recommend the film, it's also impossible to discount it completely. Just be aware that it is unlikely to become a "family favourite."

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: Electric!
Review: There's just something about John Travolta in a white polyester suit and black shirt dancing at the pulsating music of the Bee Gees that has become part of American Pop Culture. But it is also a realistic look at the lives of troubled characters in the disco 70's. Heavy language and adult situations may offend some. John Travolta gives one of his best performances as Tony, the guy who works 6 days a week awaiting saturday night to let loose on the dance floor. Good drama and interesting characters. But the real star of the movie is the dances, the Bee Gees' music is electric and the dance numbers are very well staged. A movie that defined an era. From a scale of 1-10 I give this movie an 8!

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: Believe it or not, this film is timeless!
Review: I hear so many young people saying that Saturday Night Fever is dated and it frustrates me. Sure, disco may have been a passing fancy, but the theme of this film is timeless. It's about a young man who feels his life in Bay Ridge, Brooklyn is going nowhere. He's got a dead-end job, friends with no plans for the future and a very disfunctional family. The only thing that Tony Manero(Travolta) is good at, really good at, is dancing. His Dilema? How can you make a future out of dancing? When paramount released the PG version of this film, it cut exactly what "SNF", was all about. The harsh language, the sex, the drugs, this is the world Tony Manero lives in. Watch the R version.

Rating: 4 stars
Summary: ALWAYS WORTH REVISITING
Review: For those of us who were part of the disco era, this film is a classic and always worth returning to. Read Roger Ebert's touching more recent review of the film for better insights into it.

Apparently a DVD is in the works and well worth wating for.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: great film
Review: what a movie and what a time period? this film has had a long and lasting impression on many including myself.the music fit perfectly with the story line.it took on issues such as class,sex,race,and a sense of belonging.the kind of film that spike lee would make.it still holds up after all these years.


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