Movie review: Saturday Night Fever

Hello. So this will be a new thing. I will make movie reviews since I have watched many of them and I have a lot to say about some of them and, honestly, my friends don't want to listen to it all the time.

My first review will be Saturday Night Fever. I'm sure you've heard about it but here is some basic info. It is a 1977 American dance film starring John Travolta and Karen Lynn Gorney as leads. As the main plot is around dancing, the movie soundtrack Stayin' Alive by Bee Gees is well known.

And now on to the plot. I won't go too much into the describing plot, I'll focus on the impact it left on me. So, the movie is based on Tony Manero's life. Once he walks into the disco, he is the king. He is the guy everybody wants to be or everybody wants to date. He has his guys and one girl (Annette played by Donna Pescow) as his closest friends and they are seen as some kind of gang. The thing is, Tony has some family and job problems and everything is not as great as it may seems to other people. Luckily, there is a dance contest coming up and Tony knows he can win. He decides to dance with his ex-girlfriend Annette who is still madly in love with him and will use any opportunity to be around him. As they start rehearsing, he is quite rude to her although she is not taking no for an answer when it comes to dating him. After few dances, Tony decides to change partner and chooses older Stephanie Mangano. She refuses him few times and then decides to dance in the competition. Later we see that Annette is deeply hurt by Tony's move and gets drunk and possibly drugged. She decides to sleep with every member of their gang. Even though she said yes at the beginning, later it turns into raping her and Tony is just standing by. That's basically the plot in short.

Honestly, I didn't like the movie. It is known as iconic movie of the 70s but the story is stupid and disgusting if you ask me. He left one of his oldest friends for a girl he met two minutes ago. It wouldn't be such a big deal if he talked to her first. He just showed up and said they're done dancing. Fine! And then that raping scene... What the hell? OK, everybody was drunk but she was supposed to be their friend. A person would think that her crying would be a hint. But no. And he was supposed to be a good guy underneath that bad boy look, he was supposed to be a voice of common sense in that group and protect her but he just sat there in the car. And after it asked her if she was proud of herself. All in all, I kinda hated the movie.

There is a sequel to it called Staying Alive (1983) also starring John Travolta. This one was directed by Sylvester Stallone.

• ♥

Movie poster