Saturday Night Fever/Staying Alive

Seeing how this is a summer month and people are trying to do things outdoors (do try to be careful because of the heat and humidity that we’ve been getting), I thought that maybe I would have the month of July be about movies that have dancing involved. Let’s get this month started with the 1977 classic, “Saturday Night Fever.”

How interesting can it be that a film that is the epitome of the time and place (late 70s Brooklyn, the peak of Disco) has held up perfectly for almost 50 years. Matt Barry admitted in his review, “It's one of those films that, I imagine, must have seemed hopelessly dated in one sense just a few years after its release. But perhaps now, separated by the distance of time, we can better appreciate its strengths and qualities that keep audiences coming back to it.”

The movie is about Tony Manero, a young Italian-American living in Brooklyn, working in a hardware store, living with his parents, played by Val Bisoglio and Julie Bovasso, and is having trouble finding himself through the only thing that he is passionate about…dance. He is a character so many people can relate to. With John Travolta portraying the titular role, John Badham directing this with so much liveliness, and the soundtrack having the hit songs of the Bee Gees really help this film being one that still tops with life. Norman Wexler wrote the script (Barry noted, “based on "Tribal Rites of the New Saturday Night", an article by Nik Cohn that appeared in New York Magazine the previous year”) which is so true, and you can relate to the difficulties that Tony is going through so he can make himself famous.

Barry admitted, “After seeing SATURDAY NIGHT FEVER on the big screen, I was struck by just what a nicely-photographed film it is. I think this gets lost when watching the film on TV, or even on DVD, where some of the definition and detail is lost, but there are some moments that are really quite stunning.” Ralf D Bode was the cinematographer and he really knew how to film Travolta and Karen Lynn Gorney together with that delicate look which makes you feel like you’re there with them, which is excellently different with how real the scenes are with Tony and his friends (Barry Miller, Joseph Cali, Paul Pape, and Bruce Ornstein). He brings the same amount of energy when he dances (like with Night Fever), which really stands out with the polychromatic flashing lights and fog on the dance floor. Barry said, “Looking over his filmography, I realize I have only seen a couple other films photographed by Bode, but I do not remember anything particularly unique about their cinematography.” Still, you got to give him credit with how memorable “Saturday Night Fever” was, which might have been a different feeling when seeing this in theaters than on TV.

I was already familiar with the famous shot on the poster and the famous Dancing Again scene, but when I saw the movie, I was thinking this was the epitome of the 70s. If you haven’t seen it, you should see it on Pluto TV, where it is currently streaming. You will love the way they made this film, especially the dancing.

Sadly, this was guilty of a terrible sequel called “Staying Alive,” released in 1983.

This was a big disappointment. Roger Ebert was right when he said in his review, “This sequel to the gutsy, electric “Saturday Night Fever” is a slick, commercial cinematic jukebox, a series of self-contained song-and-dance sequences that could be cut apart and played forever on MTV — which is probably what will happen. Like “Flashdance,” it isn’t really a movie at all, but an endless series of musical interludes between dramatic scenes that aren’t there. It’s not even as good as “Flashdance,” but it may appeal to the same audience; it’s a Walkman for the eyes.”

The movie’s plot is so simple to figure out. Six years have passed since Tony looked so much at the lights of Manhattan at the end of “Saturday Night Fever.” Now he lives in a bad Manhattan hotel, works as a waiter and a dance instructor and dates a young dancer, played by Cynthia Rhodes, with so much patience. He still chases women. However, he meets a British dancer, played by Finola Hughes, who’s his match. She’s the type of girl who takes him to bed and rejects him. Meanwhile, he gets a job as a dancer in her new show and when her lead dancer hesitates, Tony gets the role. Any of this sound familiar?

The movie was co-authored and directed by Sylvester Stallone, and it’s the first bad movie he’s made. He remembers everything from his Rocky stories, but he leaves out the heard. What’s worse, he leaves out the characters. Ebert mentioned, “Everybody in “Staying Alive” is Identikit.” The characters, their lives, and even the dialogue are all cliches. Ebert noted, “The big musical climaxes are interrupted only long enough for people to shout prepackaged emotional countercharges at each other. There is little attempt to approximate human speech.”

Like the Rocky movies, “Staying Alive” ends with a huge, visually impressive climax. It is so unbelievable it has to be seen to know. It’s opening night on Broadway: Tony Manero not only dances like the lead, he survives a production number of fire, ice, smoke, flashing lights and laser beams, throws in an ad-libbed solo – and ends majestically by holding Finola Hughes above his head with one arm, like a game he has hunted and killed. Ebert said, “The musical he is allegedly starring in is something called “Satan’s Alley,” but it’s so laughably gauche it should have been called “Springtime for Tony.”” Stallone does so little to convince us we’re watching a real stage production. There are camera effects the audience could never see, montages that create impossible physical moves and – most mysterious of all – a vocal track, despite nobody on stage is singing. This is a mess. Ebert noted, “Travolta’s big dance number looks like a high-tech TV auto commercial that, got sick to its stomach.”

Ebert admitted, “What I really missed in “Staying Alive” was the sense of reality in “Saturday Night Fever” — the sense that Tony came from someplace and was somebody particular.” There’s no old neighborhood, no verbal arguments with his family (he apologizes to his mother for his behavior), and no Brooklyn strangeness. Tony’s life has been made into a backstage musical, and not a good one.

The movie has one great moment. Near the end, Tony says, “I want to strut!” and struts across Times Square to the Bee Gees song Stayin’ Alive, no doubt a recreation to the beginning of the first movie. That could have been the first shot of a great movie. It’s the last shot of this one.

If you saw the first movie and loved it, avoid the sequel at all cost. There is nothing good in it at all. Travolta said everybody secretly says they love the sequel and remember all of Hughes lines and not his, but I don’t remember any line that was said in here. This was a perfectly good example of a great movie that didn’t need a sequel and was just horribly made, you could call it garbage. Never make the mistake of seeing this, like I did when I saw it on Netflix.

Look out next week when I review another classic film in “Dance Month.”