Cheesy dance sequences and a plot !

Rating: Null/10 (7 November 1998)

'Saturday Night Fever' has acquired something of a reputation as a classic film. The first time I saw it I thought it was incredibly boring, the second incredibly bad and the third time quite good. Whilst undeniably a star vehicle for John Travolta, the film itself is an intelligent (at times) study of the emptiness of life. Most of the characters are unpleasant though at the same time arouse our sympathy. The ambigouity of the characters forces the audience to work to understand the characters rather than simply presenting them with one-dimensional characters. The lead had to be played by a star with the charisma of someone like John Travolta as he is the most unpleasant character in the whole film. This is perhaps the film's flaw, I really didn't care what happened to John Travolta, he could have plunged off Brooklyn Bridge for all I cared. A major problem in evaluating the film nowadays is that it's difficult to know how much was supposed to be funny when the film was made and how much is funny now. For instance, when John Travolta preens himself in front of the mirror would audiences in 1978 have laughed as they do nowadays ? Ultimately 'Saturday Night Fever' is far from being a great film (although it is one of the highlights of Travolta's career) but it is interesting and will appeal to any John Travolta fan or anyone into cheesy '70s music.