"The man who gave you coolness and hotness and everything you want"

Rating: 7/10 (10 September 2000)

Saturday Night Fever is a hopelessly naive film that appears to have no discernible sense of irony. Such a self-aware approach could have fully vindicated this dated story of Travolta's Tony Manero  who now looks an idiot throughout with colossal collars  getting his highs through disco dancing. Filled with contemporary film and juvenile sex references, this is the sort of film a sixth former would write, falsely believing it to be "relevant" and "meaningful".
The film also has a bitter edge, centred on the obnoxious Tony and bad language. "What are you anyway, a nice girl or a c***?" is a typical chat-up line. The most harrowing scene comes when the rejected Annette (Donna Pescow) initiates a gang-bang with Manero's friends in order to make him jealous. Despite her changing her mind halfway through and crying for them to stop, the act continues in a quite repellent example of cinema. This snapshot of racist, homophobic, foul-mouthed Italian-Americans is more Scorcese-DeNiro territory than the cosy retro of Grease, and can be quite shocking for those that think of this as a film solely about disco-dancing.
An odd scene is Travolta and Karen Lynn Gorney sitting on a bench in front of Brooklyn Bridge, shot from the same angle as Woody Allen and Diane Keaton would be two years later in "Manhattan". The difference being Allen wouldn't have called her a c***. Well, at least not until Deconstructing Harry. On the unintentional laughter scale, look out for a gang brawl that involves much harsh editing, balsa wood chairs and overdubbed "punch" sound effects.
John Badham's direction is very good, combined with Bronx slum surroundings that give it the aspect of an art-house movie. Ultimately, though, this is a film famed more for cultural iconography than actual content. Aside from Travolta in a white suit dancing, I bet that very few people could tell you what the film is actually about. Just short of two hours long, the repetitive tale  it alternates constantly between disco and mundane everyday life  is surprisingly never dull. Like Travolta, it is personable and imminently watchable, if never actually any good. Abortions, crisis of faith, gang war, attempted rape and Travolta seeking redemption by leaving the slum - this is more than a film about dancing. And, no matter what anyone else says, the best song on the soundtrack is obviously Rick Dees and his "Disco Duck". 7/10