SATURDAY NIGHT FEVER: Disco Lives!

   How good was this movie?  And how good were the Bee Gees?  Consider this:  In the 70’s and 80’s, it was considered VERY un-cool to profess to be a fan of disco music.  And show me another legendary band in history that has been treated with more disdain than the Bee Gees.  And yet, NO band in the history of music, has had a #1 hit in the four decades of the 60’s, 70’s, 80’s and 90’s.  They were never accorded the same respect as given to the Stones, the Beatles or other big rock and roll acts.  In many ways, their success contributed to their unpopularity in some circles.  In fact, even Barry Gibb commented that the popularity was a bit much! 

  When you get over the white, tight pants and the 70’s hair, you realize what a huge burst of energy disco brought to society.  The 70’s were a time where great rock and roll bands were hitting their prime.  But you can’t dance to rock and roll!  Disco was an outlet to ‘move & groove’, and it was this as much as anything that contributed to the success of “Saturday Night Fever”. 

    “Saturday Night Fever” was the late Gene Siskel’s all-time favourite movie.  While this doesn’t automatically make it a great movie, you do have to respect that! 

  John Travolta is Tony Manero, a lower to middle class teenager growing up in New York, the son of a VERY Catholic mother and an unemployed, hard-to-impress father.  Tony’s good at what he does.  The customers love him in the paint store he works at.  He gets a four dollar raise which is impressive to all but his father.  “You know what four dollars gets you?  It doesn’t even buy three dollars.”  Tony is also very good at something else:  dancing. 

  It’s difficult to watch this movie and not be caught up in the energy of the dance floor with Tony at full speed.  Travolta was reviled by many in the eighties.  Don’t forget, this was pre-Pulp Fiction and pre-Get Shorty.  His nickname in the 70’s and 80’s was “John Revolting”, mainly due to his performance in “Saturday Night Fever.”  And just when you think “typical 70’s story of kids fighting against the establishment and against the 60’s backlash”, along comes the kick in the face late in the movie, where tragedy throws teenaged lives into disarray.  Powerful stuff.   

9 out of 10