Certain films become landmarks of the era that they were released in. They still are indicative of a certain type of place and time that has long since vanished. They come around at the right time and capture the look, the sound and the emotions of a decade.
They are so influential that they can affect fashion, music and inspire countless knock off films and parodies. In the 1950s there was Rebel Without a Cause. In the 1960s there was Easy Rider. In the 1980s there was Fast Times at Ridgemont High or your favorite John Hughes film. In the 1970s there was 1977’s Saturday Night Fever.
Released in a 30th Anniversary Edition, the film still holds up as not just THE 1970s film as far as fashion and music but a rough, tragic coming of age story that any generation can relate to and perhaps be inspired by.
Their opening dinner scene is a brilliant mixture of comedy and sadness as you see just how dysfunctional they really are. Whether it’s “One pork chop, one” or “He hits my hair”; it is one of the more unique family scenes you’ll ever witness. His father has been out of work for six months and isn’t too keen on complements. When Tony comes back one day and tells him that he got a $4 raise at the paint store his father replies, “You know what $4 buys, it don’t even buy $3.”
They all have menial jobs and screwed up lives. They have little education perhaps some high school and never even considered college.
There is one girl amongst the many that pursue Tony that stands out. She is a spunky girl named Annette (Donna Pescow) and is clearly in love with him. He dances with her because she’s a good dancer but he’s adamant about not sleeping with her.
Stephanie is a Bay Ridge girl that has been able to escape to Manhattan and works as a secretary at a publicity firm. She has a stuck up air about her as she talks of how much better things are across the bridge and of the celebrities she meets on a daily basis but Tony acutely spots her bullshit a mile away.
He knows she’s right and this leads to perhaps the most telling scene in the film where Tony and Stephanie sit on a bench overlooking the Verrazano Narrows Bridge where Tony recites to her by memory all the details that went into the building of that bridge.
With the exception of the feeling he gets when he dances, there is nothing in Tony’s life that is hopeful. He is frequently an asshole in the way he treats women, especially Annette, but to Travolta’s credit, he still makes him likeable to the point where we eventually root for him to succeed and escape Bay Ridge.
Travolta makes Tony Manero his signature role with his boyishness and longing. He puts off the vibe that he’s got everything together but inside he’s just like all of us at that age. His facial expressions are hilarious and some of his best moments are those when he’s alone. This was Travolta’s break out role after being known for his work on Welcome Back Kotter. The TV to movie transition was unique for its time and Travolta owns every scene. His Oscar nomination for Best Actor that year was richly deserved.
Whether it’s the iconic opening shot of Travolta strutting his stuff down the street to “Staying Alive” or the best scene of the movie where Travolta clears the dance floor at 2001 and does the most thrilling, adrenalizing dance solo every put on film set to “You Should Be Dancing” where he performs such infamous disco moves as the Dolphin Roll, the Scissors, the Bus Stop and the Freak; the Bee Gee’s music is as critical a character in the film as any human. Some of the disco moves are now comically dated and laughable but the fact that Travolta does his own dancing and does it so well makes it the money scene in the film.
What all those films, with the exception of Footloose, failed to do what Fever did so well was present us with characters that you gave a damn about. You may not always like them but they were fully realized and you had a good sense as to what made them who they were.
The new extras include the 52 minute retrospective documentary Catching the Fever that is broken into five segments that deal with all aspects of the Fever phenomenon including the music, disco craze, fashion and how the film still holds up after 30 years. It includes interviews with ALL the cast and crewmembers EXCEPT for Travolta. His absence is never explained.
Of course it’s not the same film with all the language, nudity and misogyny present but it was a genius marketing technique for its time and has only been available on VHS. Because of this omission along with Travolta´s absence from the featured documentary and the lack of extras from the previous version, this can’t be called the definitive version of this film.
That can only mean another dip in five years. Personally if you own the previous version of the film, I’d stick with that as there is little reason to upgrade here.Amazon . It is available for pre-order at AmazonUK for an Oct. 1st release. Visit the DVD database for more information.
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