Not what it's supposed to be - and that's a good thing

Rating: 9/10 (17 July 2014)

There are many, many people who watch this movie for the first time expecting what pop culture remembers of it - disco, a white suit, a fun family dinner scene.
There are many, many people who watch this movie and come away horrified, because of the frank depictions of racism, sexism, and sexual assault (depictions that likely would not be in a major film today - and even at the time got the director fired from another project).
This frankness leads to some objections to the film that I wholeheartedly disagree with, such as it being "sexist" or that it "slut shames" Annette for being raped. The whole point of the that scene is that it's wrong that Annette to be raped. That even if she agreed (while under the influence) to "run a train," it's still terrible and disgusting. Tony shaming her is also supposed to be terrible. We aren't supposed to watch this scene and think what happens to her is fine or that Tony's reaction is fine.
Tony and his friends live in a world where there is no such thing as racism or rape. It's all about them. It's all about getting what they can, and blaming others who in their minds take it from them. They have fun, they go out and dance, but they are dying inside.
Tony does not realize any of this about himself or his friends until he gets several system shocks (meeting Stephanie, his brother leaving the priesthood, beating a better couple in a dance contest solely because he's white, his friend's suicide). He slowly but surely sees that he is a racist, a misogynist, that he has an incredibly toxic relationship with his parents he has to escape from before he will never have an escape.
This aspect of the film is timeless - watching this in 2014 you will understand as much as you would have in 1977, if not more.
The performances are uniformly superb. Travolta gives a career best, and a great deal of the film's appeal is based not only on his charisma and acting, but on his refusal to allow Tony to be whitewashed as a character. Karen Lynn Gorney has the most difficult role in the film - a woman trapped between two worlds even as she takes Tony down the same path. She plays the soft moments but also plays the harsh, condescending moments too. The scene where we meet her ex-boyfriend and realize he was "educating" her just as she's trying to educate her is one of the most poignant in the film, because we see just how much of how she behaves with Tony is projection, is a shell. Joseph Cali is also superb, as he gives so many layers to a role that is ultimately only a symbol of Tony's breaking away, not a character. His work in small but ultimately pivotal moments like his attempt to counsel Bobby (initially treating him as something of a joke, then genuinely trying, yet still not getting it) is so surprisingly complex. And he and Travolta have wonderful chemistry together. Donna Pescow takes a character we could easily dismiss the way the men in the film do, and she breaks our hearts, especially those close-ups of her expressive eyes. Who else could make a scene with holding a bunch of condoms into such exquisite sorrow?
The worst mistake the film makes is not handling Tony's attempted rape of Stephanie with more care. Deleted scenes suggest that the last scene in the film (where he goes to her apartment to talk to her) was darker in tone, with Stephanie refusing to let him and his only getting into the building because someone opened the door to leave. The movie takes that out, and leaves a somewhat hesitant Stephanie pledging to help Tony ...as a friend. The problem with this is it undercuts the ugliness of what he did, especially as it had happened only a few hours before. It spoils what could have been a beautiful last scene and takes away from the other ambiguous moments in the film regarding sexism and rape that genuinely present this as bad and wrong.
I strongly recommend this movie, but please warn people not to just expect polyester and hip thrusts.