Saturday Night Fever
1977 · Directed by John Badham
A Brooklyn paint-store clerk lives for Saturday nights at the disco. The Bee Gees soundtrack is the cultural memory. The actual movie is much darker than you remember.
Why It's Cult
Saturday Night Fever sold itself to the public as a disco musical and is actually a hard-edged drama about working-class Brooklyn dead ends. Travolta's Tony Manero is a star turn that defined a decade. The white-suit dance solo. The 2001 Odyssey club. The Bee Gees soundtrack went on to sell 40 million copies. But the film itself deals with sexual assault, suicide, and racism head-on — it's rated R for a reason and people who remember it as a feel-good musical are remembering the trailer. Watch it for the dance, stay for the bleakness.
The Plot, Officially
Nineteen-year-old Brooklyn native Tony Manero lives for Saturday nights at the local disco, where he's king of the club, thanks to his stylish moves on the dance floor. But outside of the club, things don't look so rosy. At home, Tony fights constantly with his father and has to compete with his family's starry-eyed view of his older brother, a priest. Nor can he find satisfaction at his dead-end job at a small paint store. However, things begin to change when he spies Stephanie Mangano in the disco and starts training with her for the club's dance competition. Stephanie dreams of the world beyond Brooklyn, and her plans to move to Manhattan just over the bridge soon change Tony's life forever.
Starring
John Travolta, Karen Lynn Gorney, Barry Miller
Where to Watch
via JustWatch →
