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We should be dancing, yeah
by CarlosC (movies profile)
Feb 15, 2007
7
of
10 people found this review helpful
Tony Manero (John Travolta) is going nowhere. Like a buzz of nervous static whizzing about him, a musical accompaniment follows him as he goes. Tony knows that he is wasting his life away, hanging out with low-lives, while another dynamo of pulsing energy -- New York City -- awaits across the Hudson River. The only time that Tony walks comfortably in his own shoes is when he struts across a dance floor, to the groove of disco music. SATURDAY NIGHT FEVER suffers Tony's problems all too well: The only times the movie comes to life is during the dance scenes.
The main conflict of the movie is that Tony must choose between two women: Both of them are local girls who frequent the neighborhood disco. Stephanie (Karen Lynn Gorney) is aloof, upwardly mobile; with an entry level corporate job in Manhattan. Annette (Donna Pescow) is usually tripping over herself to cozy-up to Tony, but she's definitely staying local. Problem: Stephanie -- the girl the filmmakers want us to root for -- is not that much better than Annette. In fact, one of the few differences between the two is that Stephanie is full of herself, while Annette is almost entirely selfless (too much so, as we later find out).
The secondary conflict is an extension of the primary conflict; that Tony must also choose between two lifestyles. He can either be a player on a dead-end street in Brooklyn, or a beginner in the broad avenues of the big city in Manhattan. Problem: The big city -- the option the filmmakers want us to root for -- is almost certainly out of Tony's league. Donald Trump made a famously successful transition across the river to Manhattan, but -- Tony, here, is no Donald Trump.
Well, never mind all that. SATURDAY NIGHT FEVER is not a certified American classic because of its impermeable dramatic construct. When the Bee Gees do their thing, and the camera whirls around the disco like an intoxicated skater, SATURDAY NIGHT FEVER gets up there with the all-time great dance-musicals. The best known scenes, featuring Travolta in his celebrated white suit, are part of the American psyche. A lesser-known sequence, in which Travolta and Gorney dance to the Bee Gees' "How Deep is Your Love" in a roomy studio, is on a par with Gene Kelly and Debbie Reynolds dancing to "You Were Meant For Me" in SINGIN' IN THE RAIN (1952).
Parts of the story focusing on the abandonement of the priesthood by Tony's goody-goody older brother (Martin Shakar) as a symbol of working-class fatalism, as well as a tragedy involving Tony's friends, don't even register. Very foul language (including numerous racial epithets) and various depictions of promiscuity add a gritty dissonance to the otherwise euphoric dance sequences.
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