S10 Reviews: Saturday Night Fever (1977)

Rating: 7/10 (23 April 2005)

Tony Manero (John Travolta) is "Tres Cool" spending his days at the local Brooklyn paint shop slaving away and supporting his parents and siblings. But when the sun goes down he puts on his polyester leisure suit, throws on his chains and spruces up his platform shoes to head down to the local discothèque where every woman wants him and every man wants to be him. There he is the king of the night-time world. Manero and his hoodlum friends aren't all that nice but they ooze gutter cool when the mirror ball starts to spin.
I am not fond of disco music so I figured I would hate the film with a passion. But I was wrong. "Saturday Night Live" is now like a time-capsule of the late 70's music scene which is surprisingly interesting. Travolta does a great job of making his flawed and ultimately unlikable character, likable. The production is a flashy musical-hybrid at it's' roots but it has a surprising dramatic sophistication when you see Manero working his way through the mess of his life. Obviously a movie about disco can't be made without it. So I forgive them that fact. But I won't be getting the soundtrack. Can you dig it?