Saturday Night Fever [1977] (Directed by: John Badham)
Q1: How does the film relate to the chapter in Foner?
The chapter in Foner relates a lot to the hardships of this period, but Saturday Night Fever takes the lighter road in this time period. In a time where Foner states that in New Jersey "The poverty rate reached 20 percent, the city sold off public library buildings to raise cash..." (Foner 973), in New York, Tony Manero wants to leave his poverty stricken, dead end job of a paint shop worker and become a disco dancer, and this is the way he thinks he can make the big bucks, which is an important part of the chapter because they speak of the poverty very much.
Q2: What can we learn about American culture during the time period by interpreting the film as a primary historical source?
Besides the beginning of the film where Manero's poor unbringing and unfulfilling job relate to why Foner suggests this time period is a period of limits, the flashy fun of disco dancing didn't relate well to the chapter. The chapter described the time period as a time where people were poverty stricken and had to hold back on almost everything they wanted. However, the film, and with a little questioning to my parents who were young adults during the 70s, there was an undertone of limits, but in general the 70s was about finding out who you were and who you wanted to be, much like Tony Manero wanting to be a dancer. One song in particular seemed to give a little connection between Foner's chapter and the culture of the movie:
Feel the city breakin’ and ev’rybody shakin’
And we’re stayin’ alive, stayin’ alive.
Ah, ha, ha, ha, stayin’ alive
Q3: What does the film reveal about attitudes toward gender, class and race?
Little is said of class or race, other than the fact that every one of the dancers is a working class person. What was more important to me, maybe biasly, was that Stephanie was attempting to get out of her working class role and make herself into an intellectual, which is contradicting to the homemaker wife mentioned in Foner a few chapters previous.
Q4: What was the most important scene in the film?
I'm sure the most important film to me should be so disjointed from Foner's chapter on the popular culture in the 1970s, but it is so be it. The most important to me was Tony Manero's big solo dance scene. This showed what I thought was important to the 70s: discovering what you really wanted to do in life and going at it full force. Despite all his set backs, Manero spent all his time practicing for this dance competition, won, but had a great time doing it because that's what he wanted to do.
For fear that Danny Zucco from Grease will rough me up if I don't give him a good review, Saturday Night Fever receives my review of a 3.5 out of 5. The movie is obviously a cult classic, because seriously who doesn't know this movie, but I'm just not in with the cult I guess. The movie, to me, had it's moments but was pretty mediocre. However, I do have to note that the acting in this movie is really good, John Trovolta does a really good job with his gritty Brooklyn character. The music is groundbreaking, as it became popular immediately following the release of this movie, and I knew the music from this movie even before I knew what the movie was. I would watch it again for two reasons: Trovolta's accent and one dance scene. Overall, it was average but good for the Trovolta lover.
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