You'll notice Travolta struts in sync with the music. So if the movie's signature songs didn't come until later, what were the cast members listening to when they shot the dance scenes? With 15 million copies sold in the U. It was the number one album on the Billboard charts for the entire first half of , and stayed on the charts until March , long after the supposed death of disco.
Disco had been popular enough in the mids to land multiple disco tunes on the Billboard charts, but by the end of , when Saturday Night Fever came out, the backlash had started and the trend was on its way out. But thanks to the movie and its soundtrack , not only did disco not die out, it achieved more widespread, mainstream, middle-America success than it ever had before.
First connection: It was supposed to be directed by John G. Avildsen, whose previous film was Rocky. Second connection: Tony has a Rocky poster on his bedroom wall. Sylvester Stallone. Saturday Night Fever made Travolta a movie star, but he was already a teen heartthrob because of the popular sitcom Welcome Back, Kotter , where he played a delinquent teenager with the hilarious and timeless catchphrase "Up your nose with a rubber hose.
As soon as the neighborhood found out Travolta was there, the sidewalks were swarmed by thousands of onlookers, many of them squealing teenage girls. Badham said there were also a lot of teenage boys holding signs expressing their hatred for Travolta for being more desirable than themselves. Co-star Donna Pescow said, "The fans—oh, my God, they were all over him. It was scary to watch. In the brief scene where Tony, his boys, and Stephanie are loudly eating at White Castle, those were the real burger-flippers, not actors.
Badham told them to just go about their business. He also told his actors to cut loose and surprise the White Castlers in whatever way they saw fit. The shot that's in the movie appears to be a reaction to Joey standing on the table and barking, but Badham said it was actually in response to something else: "Double J actor Paul Pape pulling his pants down and mooning the entire staff of the White Castle.
He has just been surpassed by people of color at what he supposedly does best—dancing. Unable to understand the changing world around him or to articulate his confusion, he exerts his dominance over a woman.
And the spics they gotta dump on us so we gotta dump on the spics, of course. Or is he just sexually frustrated? This would be the view put forward by Shorter. I remember my boyfriend at the time saying he believed there was romance in the future for Tony and Stephanie, and I argued that it was impossible. And during the montage of Tony, glumly riding the subway after Bobby C.
Deep enough to forgive Tony for trying to rape you? The end is downbeat. Tony may want to move up in the world, as Stephanie has, and leave his idiot friends behind, but he possesses, as she bluntly points out, absolutely no work skills.
And the disturbing subtext is that Stephanie is just tougher than Annette. On the night of the dance contest, Annette, consumed by jealousy, drinks heavily and pops pills. She makes out with Joey hoping Tony will notice. When Joey escorts Annette to the car, Tony half-heartedly tries to stop him. By the time Joey scrambles into the front seat so Double J can take his turn, she is in a full panic. Travolta registers the many ways Tony feels responsible.
His unrelenting shabby treatment of Annette demolished her self-esteem and signaled her worthlessness to Joey and Double J, and he realizes his assault on Stephanie, minutes earlier, was every bit as violent. Annette is drunk. She is in no shape to offer consent. And, mid-coitus, she changes her mind. But the next few minutes include a strange coda for Annette, who, distraught after Bobby C. We last see them leaving the fatal site together, in an embrace.
The message here seems to be that Bobby C. But we are asked to believe that as they take stock of their misbehavior they become better men, non-raping men.
In this Wolfgang-influenced world of aggressive working-class men, rape is a childish thing that grown men learn to set aside. And Saturday Night Fever remains a movie about men, and ultimately rape is something they must learn to endure. Every critic of Saturday Night Fever has pointed out the glaring weakness at the center of the movie, the casting of Karen Lynne Gorney in what should have been the career-making role of Stephanie.
On paper, Stephanie is the most complex character in the film: pretentious and smart, vulnerable and witty, selfish yet compassionate. Everyone remembers the picture of Tony alone on the dance floor, in his white polyester suit. We would remember a very different movie if instead we kept pictures of Stephanie and Tony, in the same frame: a story of two kids, one of whom had the moxie and smarts to make it out of Brooklyn.
Thank you for this essay. The rape of Annette is horrifying and will always be on my mind for this supposedly celebrated movie. I was 14 years-old when the movie came out, and practically every kid I knew went to see it. Or thought I did. My jaw dropped over the gang rape. I was absolutely flabbergasted that the picture could be as huge as it was, yet not a single person who spoke to me about it over years ever mentioned this scene!
Honestly, as a piece of narrative, the movie would work. No one says you have to love or agree with realistically-portrayed characters. But his behavior is absolutely repellent. Tony was an Italian first, and American second, in that part of town. He was also a target of racism and prejudice. Him and his gang were in an ongoing battle with other gangs, which were typically divided by race and ethnicity.
Stephanie was a white American character, and she looked down on him. She was privileged and lived in Manhattan in a nice apartment. Watch that scene again. His hesitation in the gang fight are because of his knowledge he could be a father.
I had the same impression as you about this movie before I watched it. Frankie Knuckles was not only an important disco DJ; he also helped to develop house music in the s.
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