The only way you're gonna survive is to do what you think is right, not what they keep trying to jam you into

Rating: 8/10 (19 December 2016)

There are some movies that are referenced, parodied and talked about so much that when you finally get round to watching them, you go into them feeling like you've already seen them. Saturday Night Fever was one of those movies for me.
After watching all of the pop-culture defining musical movies of the late seventies and eighties (Grease, Fame, Flashdance, Footloose, Dirty Dancing etc.) I went into Saturday Night Fever thinking I knew exactly what I was going to get.
Imagine my surprise when far from being a lighthearted musical about the late seventies disco scene in the vein of 'Flashdance', it was a story about struggle, despair and desperation that was very dark and sometimes outright depressing - scenes of gang violence, a rape, an attempted rape, an accidental suicide and plenty of racist language - all set against a backdrop of disco music including the now iconic soundtrack by the BeeGees.
I think when I first watched Saturday Night Fever I felt I was in a similar dissatisfied place and situation in my life as the movie's main character, Tony Manero (played with just the right amount of swagger and charm by John Travolta), a Brooklynite in his late teens who plods along in his day job at a paint store and lives for the weekends when he can let loose with his friends on a Saturday night at the local nightclub, where thanks to his good looks and dance talent, he is something of a local celebrity.
Unlike his friends though, who seem to have no aspirations beyond going out, getting drunk and laid at the weekends, he knows that his lifestyle has a shelf-life and by his own admission dancing at the disco is one of only a few times and places he feels appreciated and worthy; even within his family he lives in the shadow of his older brother, Frank Jr., whom his family idolises due to his vocational choice to become a priest.
When the opportunity to enter a dance competition at the nightclub arises he is convinced to enter with his friend, Annette, even though he is reluctant because he knows Annette is in love with him and he doesn't feel the same way for her.
Then Tony meets Stephanie.
On the surface, Stephanie seems to have it all together with a good job in Manhattan and a nice apartment but Tony soon realises that not all is as it seems with her.
And unfortunately for Annette, Tony doesn't hesitate to trade Annette in for her as his dance partner, in the hopes of getting to know her better.
While Stephanie's aloof and haughty manner makes it hard for a true romance to blossom between them, there is a definite chemistry and connection between when they dance. The more they get to know one another they realise they have similar goals and aspirations to rise above their humble surroundings and move on to better things.
I watched this movie with a completely different set of eyes than the vast majority of IMDb it seems, as I don't see the relationships between the main characters the same way most view them at all. While most people seem to think that because Annette was objectively more attractive and adored Tony, that it was wrong of Tony to ditch her in favour of Stephanie, who acted like she was better than him, at least in the beginning.
It's fairly obvious to me why Tony doesn't like being around Annette; she represents everything he hates about his current life and Stephanie represents where he wants to go.
The relationship and friendship between Tony and Stephanie and especially the first scene of them dancing in the studio together, is one of the highlights of the movie for me. I think people take Stephanie's haughtiness too personally anyway.